[NFBMO] Question about making computer technology 100% accessible

[Michael Walker]

Hi Garry,

Thank you for your advice. I think really the advice you provided is about the only way you could actually follow, because all you can really do is write to the web developer, take some to court, get a friend, or use Ira like you said. I can’t imagine what else you could do anyway. I don’t know that I’d want to spend all my time taking every business to court though. I would think that would be a lot of work. Luckily, I do have friends and family. When I was at work, there was web based training that was in accessible. I didn’t feel like going through the red tape of trying to make it accessible. We only had a week to get it done, so not much time to wait for reasonable accommodations. I simply emailed my coworker, and used Skype for business to let her have control of my laptop. She performed the mouse clicks for me, while I listened to the training. I thanked her very much for it.

Mike

> On Oct 10, 2020, at 1:40 PM, Gary Wunder via NFBMO <nfbmo at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello, Michael. I'll give you my two cents worth, but two sense is far short
> of a dollar. This means I may be 98% wrong, and that is why posting to this
> list is a good idea. Others can set me straight.
> 
> I have great dreams for accessibility, but I am not really hopeful that we
> will make the world 100% accessible. I think that working on accessibility
> is much like tree trimming. We work on the problem, fix it, but eventually
> have to come back and do it again.
> 
> To the extent that computers reflect the real world, we shouldn't be
> surprised that a lot of what happens on them is visual. I am old enough to
> remember when computers did not produce pictures and when using them meant
> memorizing commands. If you didn't remember the command to see what was in
> your file folders, you were stopped. There was no point and click. There was
> no real menuing system. Almost everything was textual. I worked in the
> computer field quite a while before I came to understand the meaning of a
> graphical user interface.
> 
> So what can you do? You can write to the people who are working with the
> websites you want to use. Some of them will be receptive, and some of them
> will not. Some of them we can take to court, but mostly they are
> proliferating so quickly that that will not work to bring about widespread
> accessibility. We are trying to work with the people who make web
> development software so that they generate code that is accessible. We
> haven't followed this strategy long enough to know whether it will be
> effective.
> 
> Last but not least, I suggest that you figure out a way to work around
> inaccessible websites when you must. Try not to let others deprive you of
> things that you want. Find a friend or someone who needs a small job, and
> use them to read web screens in the same way that you would use them to read
> printed material from a paper. If you can afford it, consider a small
> monthly subscription to the Aira service. Twenty dollars a month gets you
> thirty minutes of service, and you can allow them to sign into your
> computer, read what is on the screen, and even click what is necessary with
> the mouse. If you use either of these alternatives, don't forget to write to
> the people who have the websites you can't use independently. Using a
> friend, a paid reader, or the Aira service shouldn't mean letting the
> offenders off the hook, and if you have alternatives to that site, use them
> and let the offending site know why they didn't get your business. 
> 
> I don't know if this is good advice, but I know that I have given you my
> coping strategy. Maybe your inquiry on this list will bring about other
> strategies that are better. If so, you will not only have helped yourself,
> but you'll have helped people like me who are not completely comfortable
> with the strategies we now employ. 
> 
> Warmly,
> 
> Gary
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBMO <nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Michael Walker via NFBMO
> Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 10:42 AM
> To: NFBMO at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Michael Walker <michael.walker199014 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NFBMO] Question about making computer technology 100% accessible
> 
> Dear national Federation of the blind of Missouri,
> 
> What can I do, to contribute to making software and websites 100%
> accessible? I am sure many of you have faced the frustrations I have with
> not being able to access certain websites. Some people tell me that I should
> accept that somethings just will not be accessible. I find I struggle with
> that. I feel like those issues need to be fixed.  Sometimes, accessibility
> feels like a cat and mouse game. A website or program might be accessible,
> but then an upgrade breaks the accessibility. Can the world ever be 100%
> accessible? What do you think?
> 
> Thank you,
> Mike
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