Below is an article tht appeared in the Wall STreet Journal. Thought many would
be interested in seeing it.
Chris
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 16:30:49 +0000
From: Kim Charlson via leadership <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [leadership] Article in Sunday's Wall Street Journal on the ADA and
web accessibility
Hello All,
Just received this article and wanted to share it with all of you. It is great to see
web accessibility highlighted in a national publication. My friend DeAnn Elliott is
the author and she quotes Brian too <smile>
Kim
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, please see the opinion
piece below from the BSCB's very own DeAnn Elliott which appeared in this
morning's edition of the Wall Street Journal. At the bottom of the article is
included the URL to the website where you can also check out reader comments.
***********
The Challenges of Surfing While Blind. My seeing-eye dog can't help me with your website. Please code it for accessibility..
By DeAnn Elliott . The other day while going about my business on the Internet, I hit a brick wall: a map of the United
States. I was diagnosed at 28 with retinitis pigmentosa and declared legally blind at 41. I no longer see the screen well
enough to use my mouse to point and click. But with a standard laptop and some software that reads the screen to me in a
voice that sounds like Stephen Hawking's, I can accomplish nearly everything that I once did with a mouse using memorized
key commands. But to make a purchase on this particular website, I was asked to choose my home state not from an
alphabetical list, but by clicking on a map. For a blind person, that's akin to being in a wheelchair and encountering a
flight of stairs. A well-designed website that conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) permits use
by people of all abilities. In my case, text labels that identify the buttons and graphical features allow me to
"see" what's on the screen. The code is hidden and need not interfere with the way the website works for sighted
customers. But without these features, a site that works beautifully with a mouse is useless to me. Technology has removed
many of the barriers that people with disabilities face in the physical world, making life in the mainstream tantalizingly
close. Can't drive to the mall? There's Amazon! Can't read the electric bill? Bank online! As my guide dog and I contemplate
the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the landmark civil-rights law signed July 26, 1990, the
gap between sight and blindness has never been narrower. The ADA requires government websites to be accessible. Sadly, the
law provides little guidance to the private sector on this point, since it was passed before the Internet became ubiquitous.
It applies to a "place" of public accommodation-but is the Internet a place? That question has been wending its
way through the courts. Disability advocates have worked to broaden the law's applicability, with some success. In April,
Harvard University and M.I.T. announced plans to voluntarily make their edX website for online courses compliant with the
WCAG after deaf advocates filed federal lawsuits alleging discrimination. In 2010 the Justice Department announced it would
consider issuing Web-accessibility regulations under the ADA, though the rule-making process lumbers on. With the number of
websites growing rapidly, change isn't coming fast enough. "More than 50 percent of the websites on the Internet are
either inaccessible or unusable for people who use adaptive technology," Brian Charlson, director of technology at the
Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., told me in his office a few months back. The consequences range from
inconvenient to significant. When I can't place an online order at my favorite Vietnamese noodle shop, I get Chinese
instead. If a task is urgent, I pester family and friends for "favors. When they hover over my screen to help me
navigate around a virtual barrier, I'm keenly aware that my charge-card number and the details of my transaction are on
display. At work, unequal access in an increasingly networked economy contributes to an unemployment rate that's more than
twice as high for people with disabilities-and that's not counting many who have given up looking for work. Recently I met a
Web programmer who confessed that she omitted accessibility features because they weren't explicitly required. Deadlines
were tight. Budgets were tighter. Most customers liked the graphics. I appreciated her candor. I explained that making a
site accessible shouldn't be seen as a bother. Rather, compliance helps a company reach the largest number of customers. As
techno-savvy baby boomers age into vision and hearing loss, many more people will need accommodation. Companies that fail to
adjust risk squandering years of accumulated goodwill. Further, accessible websites often perform better in search results,
since images are tagged with descriptive text. These features benefit people who have limited English proficiency or are
using technology in places where they have difficulty reading the screen. Several organizations, including the nonprofit
Carroll Center, offer accessibility consulting to help businesses. "The changes are often cheaper and easier than
people think," Mr. Charlson says. There are three levels of WCAG conformance, and though the highest level might look
intimidating, settlements to accessibility lawsuits usually recommend the middle one. In the 25 years since the passage of
the ADA, businesses have removed brick-and-mortar barriers to their facilities, erecting ramps and installing elevators. Now
it's time to finish the job and tear down the virtual barriers. Besides, I'd rather shop than sue. Ms. Elliott is a
Boston-based disability advocate who blogs for the Carroll Center for the Blind. .
Article URL:
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-challenges-of-surfing-while-blind-1437950347-lMyQjAxMTA1NDI5NzMyNDc2Wj<http://cp.mcafee.com/d/5fHCMUSyMOZuWpEVsd79KVJ6Waqr33z0USzt5ddxwsqemjqdQkQS6767zqdQkPhOUMCYYr4paYxY2uGwFrUBpgFM04SJYiIEkU02rshtjs8fLZvAnSnC1OvnKnjjuuVdUQsECzBMQsYJteOaaJQT-l3PWApmU6CQjq9K_9I9ILc8TsKrKr016a2fbVIpOIvUHUDAOvBX4Zff-17W5WKBWdNtB0ync4V7-n87Owwnhop76zB-Xb0UKudBw74h0f6Mi88wMe3nMoa3po61RAM54jp2By1vogGT2TBO5mUm-wafBiteSN2HGKY01dFT79L6PiScz0AcBN24aJMJVFtd40x6sH7-q89gd44WEqmd4Z3h00KDDCy0oD7_Cq808GT66DCy2I3h1cDVEw40Ugd46Mgd400zh1JHviAy4zVjb6TxNKqxH_Eto>
_______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
