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<p class="MsoNormal">Tracy sent the link for this article to our mailing list. I thought I would send the text to the chapter list.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind | Kaiser Health News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kaiser Health News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind
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<p class="MsoNormal">Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lauren Weber<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hannah Recht<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">FEBRUARY 25, 2021 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">REPUBLISH THIS STORY<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN) figure<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bryan Bashin who is blind holds walking aid<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN) figure end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Los Angeles Times logo<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This story also ran on <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Los Angeles Times.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It can be <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">republished for free.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many covid vaccination registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels violate disability rights laws, hindering the ability<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">of blind people to sign up for a potentially lifesaving vaccine, a KHN investigation has found.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Across the country, people who use special software to make the web accessible have been unable to sign up for the vaccines or obtain vital information<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">about covid-19 because many government websites lack required accessibility features. At least 7.6 million people in the U.S. over age 16 have a
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">visual disability.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WebAIM,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a nonprofit web accessibility organization, checked covid vaccine websites gathered by KHN from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. On Jan. 27,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">it found accessibility issues on nearly all of 94 webpages, which included general vaccine information, lists of vaccine providers and registration forms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In at least seven states, blind residents said they were unable to register for the vaccine through their state or local governments without help. Phone<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">alternatives, when available, have been beset with their own issues, such as long hold times and not being available at all hours like websites.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Vaccine Administration Management System,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">which a small number of states and counties opted to use after its
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">rocky rollout,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">has been inaccessible for blind users.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those problems violate the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which established the right to communications in an accessible format, multiple legal experts and<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">disability advocates said. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law that prohibits governments and private businesses from discriminating<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">based on disability, further enshrined this protection in 1990.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Doris Ray, 72, who is blind and has a significant hearing impairment, ran into such issues when she tried to sign up for a vaccine last month with the<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CDC’s system, used by Arlington County in Virginia. As the outreach director for the
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">an advocacy center run by and for people with disabilities, she had qualified for the vaccine because of her in-person work with clients.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When she used screen-reading technology, which reads a website’s text aloud, the drop-down field to identify her county did not work. She was unable to<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">register for over two weeks, until a colleague helped her.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“This is outrageous in the time of a public health emergency, that blind people aren’t able to access something to get vaccinated,” Ray said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mark Riccobono,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">president of the National Federation of the Blind, wrote to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department in early December, laying out his concerns on<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">vaccine accessibility.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“A national emergency does not exempt federal, state, and local governments from providing equal access,”
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">he wrote.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dr. Robert Redfield, who was then leading the CDC, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">responded<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">that the interim vaccine playbook for health departments included a reminder of the legal requirements for accessible information.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed said in an email that VAMS is compliant with federal accessibility laws and that the agency requires testing of its services.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But more than two months into a national vaccine campaign, those on the ground report problems at all levels.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some local officials who use VAMS are aware of the ongoing problems and blame the federal government. Arlington Assistant County Manager Bryna Helfer said<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">that because VAMS is run by the federal government the county cannot access the internal workings to troubleshoot the system for blind residents.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Connecticut Department of Public Health spokesperson Maura Fitzgerald said the state was aware of “many accessibility issues” with VAMS. She said it had<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">staffed up its call center to handle the problems and was working with the federal government “to improve VAMS and enable the functionality that was promised.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Deanna O’Brien, president of the National Federation of the Blind of New Hampshire, said she had heard from blind people unable to use the system. New<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hampshire’s health department did not answer KHN questions about the problems.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Blind people are particularly vulnerable to contracting the covid virus because they often cannot physically distance themselves from others.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“When I go to the grocery store, I do not have the option of walking around and not being near a person,” said
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Albert Elia,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a blind attorney who works with the San Francisco-based TRE Legal Practice on accessibility cases. “I need a person at the store to assist me in shopping.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is no standardized way to register for a covid vaccine nationwide — or fix the online accessibility problems. Some states use VAMS; some states have<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">centralized online vaccination registration sites; others have a mix of state-run and locally run websites, or leave it all to local health departments<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">or hospitals. Ultimately, state and local governments are responsible for making their vaccination systems accessible, whether they use the VAMS system<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">or not.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Once those portals open, it’s a race to see who can click the fastest,” Riccobono said. “We don’t have time to do things like file a lawsuit, because,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">at the end of the day, we need to fix it today.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Common programming failures that make sites hard to use for the visually impaired included text without enough contrast to distinguish words from the page’s<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">background and images without alternative text explaining what they showed, the WebAIM survey showed. Even worse, portions of the forms on 19 states’ pages<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">were built so that screen readers couldn’t decipher what information a user should enter on search bars or vaccine registration forms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The new vaccine pages had more errors than states’ <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">main coronavirus pages<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">but slightly fewer than state government websites in general, said WebAIM Associate Director Jared Smith.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN) figure<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">close up of senior man with grey hair and beard<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Bryan Bashin of Alameda County, California, tried on Feb. 9 to sign up for his vaccine appointment, he found the website was inaccessible. Bashin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">is blind and the CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. (SHELBY KNOWLES FOR KHN) figure end<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In Alameda County, California, when Bryan Bashin, 65, who is blind and CEO of the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, tried<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to sign up on Feb. 9 for his vaccine appointment, he encountered multiple hurdles. The appointments slipped away. That night he received an email from<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">the city of Berkeley offering vaccinations. But after two hours struggling with its inaccessible website, all the slots were again taken, he said in an<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">email.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He was only able to get an appointment after his sighted sister signed him up and has since received his first shot.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s an awful bit of discrimination, one as stinging as anything I’ve experienced,” Bashin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Susan Jones, a blind 69-year-old in Indianapolis, had to rely on the Aira app, which allows a sighted person to operate her computer remotely, when she<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">tried to register for her vaccine appointment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I resent that the assumption is that a sighted fairy godmother ought to be there at all times,” said Sheela Gunn-Cushman, a 49-year-old also in Alameda<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">County, who also had to rely on Aira to complete preregistration for a vaccine.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Emily Creasy, 23, a visually impaired woman in Polk County, Oregon, said she tried unsuccessfully for a month to make the scheduling apparatus work with<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">her screen reader. She finally received her first shot after her mother and roommate helped her.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sachin Dev Pavithran,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">43, who is blind and executive director of the U.S. Access Board, an independent agency of the federal government that works to increase accessibility,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">said he struggled to access vaccine registration information in Logan, Utah.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Indiana Health Department, Public Health Division of Berkeley and Oregon’s Polk County Public Health did not respond to requests for comment. Utah’s<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bear River Health Department did not answer questions on the issue.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After Alameda County received complaints from users that its site was not compatible with screen readers, officials decided to move away from its preregistration<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">technology, Health Department spokesperson Neetu Balram said in mid-February. The county has since switched to a new form.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If vaccine accessibility issues are not fixed across the country, though, lawsuits could come next, Elia said. Members of the blind community recently<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">won landmark lawsuits against <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Domino’s Pizza<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and the <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Winn-Dixie<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">grocery chain after being unable to order online.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And, Elia said, “this is not ordering a pizza — this is being able to get a potentially lifesaving vaccine.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lauren Weber: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:LaurenW@kff.org">LaurenW@kff.org</a>,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">@LaurenWeberHP<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hannah Recht: <o:p></o:p></p>
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