[nfbmi-talk] goes to michigan too

[joe harcz Comcast]

Literally thousands of documents on the Michigan Gov web site are inaccessable. Moreover, I've documented over years failures even after citation of the effective communications requirements of the ADA/504 for remitting accessible information in a timely manner even from scofflaws in the Michigan Commission for the Blind!

This stuff will not end and the right of we who are blind to access governmental information will not be secured until these scofflaws are sued.

Joe Harcz

No agency should blame lack of transparency on the disabled

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | Letters

April 03, 2012

 

I WAS concerned, when I read the article “Once a model, state medical board lags badly’’ (Page A1, March 18), to see that one of the reasons the Board of

Registration in Medicine uses for its failure to post digital copies of its disciplinary orders is the state’s web accessibility requirements, and that

“if the visually impaired cannot access the information, then no one can.’’ It seems the board is placing its failure to be transparent on the back of

people with disabilities. Nothing should be further from the truth.

 

As the coordinator of the Americans with Disabilities Act for the executive branch of state government, I would like to reiterate the Patrick-Murray administration’s

commitment to transparency and equal access. The Mass.gov accessibility standards have been in place since 2008. PDFs can be created compatibly and simply

with screen-reader software used by people with disabilities. In the case of those PDFs that cannot, the Commonwealth’s web accessibility standards allow

for the use of inaccessible PDFs with a corresponding Word or HTML document. Therefore, no one should be unable to access Mass.gov.

 

The Commonwealth is committed to ensuring that all our citizens have an equal opportunity to participate in all aspects of life, including the information

that is placed on our websites. Equal opportunity should never be portrayed as the enemy of transparency.

 

Myra Berloff

 

 

Boston Globe

 

Source:

 

 

http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-03/letters/31281859_1_screen-reader-software-transparency-web-accessibility