[nfbcs] Accessibility (was: BMC Remedy web-based client)

[John Heim]

Right -- the biggest problem is ignorance.  I talked about a way to attack 
that problem yesterday. Its to put some teeth into the 508 regulations and 
the Rehab Act. Things like what the NFB did with the Kindle and Penn State 
lawsuits.   If you work in a hospital, it probably is technically in 
violation of the law because the hospital probably gets funding from the 
federal government. I doubt there is a hospital in the USA that doesn't. Of 
course, you
will never be able to do anything about it yourself. But i think there is 
hope in that someday, we may be able to get developers of hospital software 
to address accessibility by keeping just a few hospitals from buying 
inaccessible software.

That NFB lawsuit against Penn State had an effect on the University of 
Wisconsin. People here know about it and don't want it happening here.  So 
that, in turn, puts pressure on everybody trying to sell software to the 
University of Wisconsin and to universities anywhere in the USA. For 
example, Oracle knows about that lawsuit. Whether they'll do anything about 
accessibility is an open question but at the very least, accessibility is 
now on their radar.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Accessibility (was: BMC Remedy web-based client)


>I think a lot of developers don't consider accessibility at all.  They
> think everyone else is just the same as they are.  In their world, blind
> people don't even exist.  If they think of us at all, which is very
> unlikely, then they think of us as street beggars or elderly invalids,
> certainly not as people working for a living.
> The hospital I work for makes a big deal about diversity and inclusion,
> and the developers who are in the same office as I am try to build in
> accessibility.  But, if the hospital outsources a project, forget it.  The
> whole mandated training system is not accessible to me.  It sings; it
> dances; it even talks Spanish.  What it doesn't do is allow me to even
> click "next".  I have pointed it out several times to Human Resources, and
> my bosses, but nothing is done about it.  And I would bet, when they get
> around to redoing the system some day, accessibility will be forgotten
> again.
>
> Big companies like Microsoft and Apple are making some efforts, but there
> are way more for whom blind people don't even exist.
>
> I remember that IBM commercial John mentions.  I thought it was good.
> Tracy
>
>
>
>
>
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