[Travelandtourism] Operator Listing Now Accessible

[Peter Donahue]

Good morning everyone,

        As a little background socialflights.com is a service which helps 
groups of individuals flying between the same destinations to do so on 
private air charter services. This is a concept I'm sure we'll be hearing 
more about in the future as this concept catch on and more air charter 
operators participate. Who knows. Perhaps in the not too distant future 
whole chapters or even state affiliates could be traveling too and from 
local, state, and national events on private jets rather than the airlines.

    They have a number of air charter operators around the country 
participating in this program. Recently a list of these operators was posted 
to their blog in .png format. These files are graphic files unreadable with 
screen readers. I contacted them concerning this situation and suggested 
that they post a listing of their operators as a standard Web page rather 
than as a graphics file. I also told then about the NFB and our Non-Visual 
Web Accessibility Initiative and gave them contact information for the 
International Braille and Technology Center. Last night I was pleased to 
discover that their operator list is now accessible to screen readers as are 
the Web sites of the operators listed.

    So far as I know it took only one of us to raise this concern with them 
and they took prompt action to correct this situation to insure that this 
part of their Web site is accessible to the blind and other passengers with 
disabilities. Now if only the airlines would be as intelligent and work with 
us to insure that their Web sites and airport kiosks are fully accessible to 
blind passengers. Madam President I believe this is what this division and 
the NFB are all about. Here is some of the correspondence between myself and 
the COO of www.socialflights.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt" <matt.slosky at socialflights.com>
To: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
Cc: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:28 AM
Subject: Re: Operator Listing Now Accessible


We are  happy to hear that you are able to access the information and
have always taken the approach that this development is always to
benefit the customer/public, so any way we can do that we are happy to
implement.


All the best,
-- 
sf_emailsignature
Matt Slosky
Chief Operating Officer
Office: 615-534-4590
Cell: 615-752-6357
socialflights.com <http://www.socialflights.com>



On 8/31/11 11:24 AM, Peter Donahue wrote:
> Hello again Matt,
>
>      I'm copying Cheryl Echevarria on this message. She is the President 
> of
> the National Federation of the Blind Travel and Tourism Division. One of
> many affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind. Last month I 
> wrote
> to you concerning the inaccessibility of your list of Social Flights
> operators. I was excited to discover that they're now listed in the
> "Operators" section of the Web site and the listing is fully accessible to
> screen reading systems used by the blind. I and many other blind persons 
> who
> may choose to use Social Flights in the future appreciate your prompt 
> action
> to fix this situation. I've visitted many air charter Web sites and have
> found the vast majorrity of them to be very screen reader-friendly. I'll
> consider this one way in which using private air charter services can be a
> far superior flying experience than travel on the airlines. Many scheduled
> airline Web sites have serious accessibility issues for the blind and 
> other
> passengers with disabilities. Airline kiosks are no better.
> Seeking legal remedies to address this situation have proven difficult. 
> It's
> refreshing to know that in the private air travel sector there are those
> willing to take Web accessibility seriously and give it the priority it
> deserves to insure that blind passengers can access all areas of their
Web sites independently. Take care, and keep up the great
> work.
>
> Peter Donahue
>




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


We are  happy to hear that you are able to access the information and have 
always taken the approach that this development is always to benefit the 
customer/public, so any way we can do that we are happy to implement.


All the best,
-- 

Matt Slosky
Chief Operating Officer
Office: 615-534-4590
Cell: 615-752-6357
socialflights.com



On 8/31/11 11:24 AM, Peter Donahue wrote:
Hello again Matt,

    I'm copying Cheryl Echevarria on this message. She is the President of
the National Federation of the Blind Travel and Tourism Division. One of
many affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind. Last month I wrote
to you concerning the inaccessibility of your list of Social Flights
operators. I was excited to discover that they're now listed in the
"Operators" section of the Web site and the listing is fully accessible to
screen reading systems used by the blind. I and many other blind persons who
may choose to use Social Flights in the future appreciate your prompt action
to fix this situation. I've visitted many air charter Web sites and have
found the vast majorrity of them to be very screen reader-friendly. I'll
consider this one way in which using private air charter services can be a
far superior flying experience than travel on the airlines. Many scheduled
airline Web sites have serious accessibility issues for the blind and other
passengers with disabilities. Airline kiosks are no better.
Seeking legal remedies to address this situation have proven difficult. It's
refreshing to know that in the private air travel sector there are those
willing to take Web accessibility seriously and give it the priority it
deserves to insure that blind passengers can access all areas of the
socialflights.com Web site independently. Take care, and keep up the great
work.

Peter Donahue