[NFBMI-Talk] Accessible Sites For COVID-19 Statistics?

Kane Brolin kbrolin65 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 25 15:39:10 UTC 2020


Good morning.  I hope all in reach of this message are healthy and
well provisioned.

I suspect that you may feel inundated with coronavirus information
every time you turn around.  But how much of this is worthwhile or
even accurate?  And how much good data can blind people even access?

The primary JAWS For Windows discussion list featured an active thread
on that subject over this past weekend.  The members' conclusion:  If
you want accessible health guidelines and official stats regarding
COVID-19, especially pertaining to the United States, start with the
Centers for Disease Control.  I did not find it possible to drill down
to my particular county with this, but did ascertain that Indiana had
259 official COVID-19 cases as of this morning; Michigan had 1,328
cases; and Illinois had 1,285.

The New York Times has a running total of COVID-19 case numbers and
death casualties that seems to be updated more frequently for the
public than the CDC's Website.  As of 11:35 AM this morning
[Wednesday, 25 March, 2020], 53,138 COVID-19 cases were enumerated by
The New York Times for the United States, resuoting so far in 728
deaths.  The NYT coronavirus map is located at
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storyline_menu.
An old computer and text-to-speech screen reader will access at least
the most high-level data.

Statista has charts on COVID-19 and other diseases.  One thing handy
for us who are blind is that the COVID-19 chart is downloadable, so
may be imported as a spreadsheet.
https://www.statista.com/chart/20634/confirmed-coronavirus-cases-timeline/

Finally, Johns Hopkins University is recognized as a preeminent
authority in tracking this globally.  This morning I have read that
19,000 deaths around the world have been linked to the coronavirus.
Data direct from Johns Hopkins are accessible, but not with older
browsers or slower systems.  if blind and if you have access to these,
I recommend you use JAWS 2020 or the latest edition of NVDA, with an
up-to-date browser such as Firefox or Chrome, to look at the charted
breakdown from Johns Hopkins:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Stay healthy.  Please keep in touch.

Warm regards,

Kane Brolin
President, Michiana Chapter
National Federation of the Blind of Indiana
(574)386-8868 (mobile)




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