[Travelandtourism] Regulation Room

[cheryl echevarria]

Dear Ms. Newhart:

Thank you for getting back to me on this issue.

As you have mentioned, it will deter others from posting to the website, and 
yourself mentioning that you are aware of the NFB Nonvisual Accessibility 
Web Certification because this effects us the blind and visually impaired; 
and any other disability that would prevent them from using these kiosks at 
the airport, or purchasing air travel on there websites.

Not only am I a consumer of air travel, but I own my own business, where I 
can even off assistance to my clients, when it comes to these matters.

Being the newly elected President of the Travel and Tourism Division, I can 
give my advice to my division, plus the NFB as a whole, direction on where 
to go on for the help in reference to the travel industry, but at the same 
time; we have these issues stopping us for being more and more independent.

I would suggest that you first contact the NFB Home Office in Baltimore at 
Phone: 410-659-9314 and ask for help with getting your website accessible. 
There may only be some issues there  to help run it in time for the 60 day 
cut off period.

Once you get in touch with them, then maybe we can have a conference call 
with all involved.

Thank you for getting back to me.

Sincerely,


Cheryl Echevarria, President
Travel and Tourism Division
National Federation of the Blind
631-236-5138

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!


http://www.echevarriatravel.com
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary Newhart" <mary-newhart at lawschool.cornell.edu>
To: <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:45 PM
Subject: Regulation Room


Dear Ms. Echevarria:

I was dismayed to learn from Rebecca Younes that you are having difficulties 
using the Regulation Room site; problems that may result in you warning 
others not to post their own comments. This is distressing, as you and other 
users with disabilities are exactly the people we need to participate in the 
discussion.

We made a very difficult decision to open the rule on our site when DOT 
officially opened the comment period, despite knowing we hadn't met the A 
and AA level compliance. We were afraid of missing an opportunity for 
members of the public to comment on this important rule. It's not an excuse, 
but because of a non-disclosure agreement we have with DOT we weren't able 
to have thorough testing by users of accessible technology that was needed 
before the rule was made public.

Rebecca has told me that the NFB provides techniques for developers who want 
to ensure their web pages are accessible to and usable by the blind.  We 
would like to add to our current goal of meeting the WCAG A & AA levels, 
the goal of meeting the NFB Nonvisual Accessibility Web Certification.

Regulation Room is a University research project. We believe it is an 
extremely important part of the project to achieve accessibility, it is our 
highest priority. We hope that people like yourself will work with us toward 
achieving that goal.

Cynthia Farina, the faculty director of the program, and I are available 
tomorrow morning for a phone conversation with you. We very much hope that 
you are willing to work with us and will forgive the difficulties you've had 
thus far, with the goal of making the site accessible to all users.

I hope to talk with you soon. Warm regards,

Mary


Mary J. Newhart
Executive Director, Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative and Law and Public 
Policy Program
Adjunct Professor
Cornell University Law School
158A Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-3660