IT Accessibility Committee June 2007 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

Thursday, June 14
Forum Office, 411 State Street
2:30pm - 4:00pm

Note: No meeting is scheduled in July or August. The meetings will resume in September.

VALIDATION TOOL UPDATE

The Validation Tool RFP solicited five respondents. The Technical Requirements review committee is presently evaluating the proposals. Finalists will be invited for presentations the week of June 25.

UPCOMING EVENTS

MAGpie Training in Albany

Tuesday, August 14
2 Half-Day Sessions
OFT Technology Academy

Those of you who have been wrestling with the implementation of Governor Spitzer's Executive Order 3 on webcasting public meetings are aware of the additional cost that captioning can add to each webcast. We have arranged to bring staff from the National Center for Accessible Media in for two half-day training sessions in the use of MAGpie, a free tool for captioning post-production video content.

Training will take place in the OFT Training Academy, and because of the limited availability of this training, we are giving first choice for reservations to those individuals who are willing to (with supervisory approval) act as a support resource for other State employees using the product (by answering questions or providing training) OR those individuals (again, with supervisory approval) who are willing to provide captioning services for other agencies.

If you are interested in attending this training, please contact Debi Orton at dorton@goer.state.ny.us.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Programmed Timed Response - Issue and Comments on Standards 6.1 and 6.2

The Issue: People relying on assistive technology to traverse a page may require more time to interact with a page. Pages that refresh in a short period of time, or pages that require tasks to be completed in a limited amount of time may pose problems for those who cannot see the page, or those with motion disorders that make manipulating a page difficult. At the very least, visitors to such a page should be warned about any time limits they may face.

Standard 6.1

When a programmed timed response is used on a web site, a notification will be provided on that web page, identifying the time limits and providing the option to extend or remove the limit.

Comment: Pages that time out rapidly may not give the users of assistive technology enough time to complete the task. With warning, these people may be able to make other arrangements, perhaps preparing responses in advance in a text editor for copy and paste. It is even better though, when the developer provides a mechanism for extending or removing the time limit.

This is particularly a problem for people with motion disorders. Lack of motor control makes typing difficult, and a mouse virtually useless. Some people need to use wands that are attached to their head or held in their mouth to touch the keys. Others use a switch with a scrolling cursor.

First the cursor scrolls from top to bottom. When the scan line reaches the proper distance from the top of the screen, the switch is depressed.

A scroll line them moves from left to right. When the line reaches the correct distance from the left of the screen, the switch is depressed again. The device then sends the X,Y coordinates to the computer as a mouse click. It does not take a lot of imagination to see how time consuming this can be.

Standard 6.2

Client-side auto-refresh or client-side auto-redirect will not be used without a mechanism in place to first alert the user.

Comment: When a page refreshes in the "seeing world," it takes very little time to find the point where the visitor had been reading. When a page refreshes in the "non-seeing" world, the user must listen to a screen reader work its way through all the text again to return to the point where the user left off ... at which point the page refreshes again, and the process starts over.

At the very least, this standard requires the developer to alert visitors that the page will refresh. Even better is a mechanism to turn off the refresh. This gives the visitor the opportunity to read the entire page without being forced to start over.

Upping the Accessibility Ante

by Joel Obuchowski
June 2007

For a long time, disabled persons were thought of and treated as second-class citizens, discriminated against for the assistance and accommodations they required to be part of 'normal' society. In recent decades, efforts were made with the goal to eventually eliminate this stigma.

In recent decades efforts have been made -- in large part through technology -- to eliminate the perception that people with disabilities cannot function independently. Advocacy groups have also made inroads with legislation repudiating such discrimination.

The American Disabilities Act (ADA), adopted in 1990, prohibits discrimination based on disability in the areas of Employment and Public Services.

Enforcement is still a challenge, however, more than a decade after the ADA became law.

Among the concerns are abuse, but another problem has been a lack of awareness about the problems faced by people with disabilities. A general misconception exists that the law could be abused by anyone who claims they were being discriminated against because of a perceived disability, and file suit for redress.

However, there are valid discrimination complaints. In these cases, when the ADA and other related laws are challenged, disabled citizens and their advocate groups are not just sitting still. The ADA protections helped open the door for them to fight back against discrimination, and they are.

  1. On October 23, 1996, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans affirmed a jury verdict that the Louisiana Board of Trustees for Colleges and Universities and administrators at Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) discriminated against Nadelle Grantham when they expelled her from the SLU lower elementary education degree program because she is deaf. The appeals court also affirmed the jury's $181,000 damage award to Ms. Grantham in "the first jury trial in history under the [Americans with Disabilities Act]."

    Marc Charmatz, an NAD attorney who represented Ms. Grantham at trial and argued this case in the appeals court was quoted as saying, "A jury heard the evidence that Ms. Grantham is qualified to teach in elementary schools, and the appeals court affirmed the fundamental principle that people should be judged on their abilities, not their disabilities." "As the first ADA jury trial, this case demonstrates the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act to eliminate discrimination."

    Beyond the educational environment, the World Wide Web opened up a whole new realm of information technology since it was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990. In many instances, it has become a valuable tool for people who could not access information via other avenues. Use of assistive technology to traverse the World Wide Web has further expanded the possibilities for people with disabilities. As assistive technology advanced, a need arose for standards and guidelines so the information on the Web could reach the widest potential audience, disabled and otherwise.

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), founded by Berners-Lee in 1994, has been the nexus of Web standards and guidelines for designers, developers and engineers to follow. A lot of valuable information is available on the W3C's web site, including specifications for writing web documents, methodology for building browsers, multimedia players and Web pages.

    In 1997, it was recognized that poorly designed web content was erecting new barriers for people with disabilities. This was the impetus behind the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which came into being in 1997, and in 1999, the workgroup issued the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

    Unfortunately, some entities did not recognize the importance of the issue and did not avail themselves of these resources until faced with legal action. One of the major advocate groups to support such action is The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and they have been quite active in these efforts dating back to 2000.

  2. America Online forestalled a court battle by agreeing to make its client software more accessible to the vision impaired. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) agreed to postpone a case filed under the ADA based on AOL's promise to make changes in version 6.0 if its Internet access program.

    "This is a victory for the blind," said Curtis Chong, director of technology for the National Federation of the Blind. "It's the first major step down the long road of getting full access to electronic information."

    The NFB alleged in its suit that AOL's proprietary client software and content was not screen reader compliant.

    In 2002, Automatic Teller Machines were the focus of another lawsuit filed by the NFB.

  3. Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), will work together to develop a cost-effective, voice-guided ATM that can be readily accessed by the blind without assistance from sighted persons.

    The announcement marked the end of a lawsuit the NFB filed against Diebold last May, in which it contended Diebold was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because it installed ATMs that were inaccessible to the blind in Rite Aid stores. The ADA requires that "instructions and all information for use (in ATMs) be made accessible to, and independently usable by, persons with visual impairments." While some of the Rite Aid ATM have Braille keypads and labels, the suit charged that Braille is "an ineffective accommodation under the ADA."

    A recent result similar to the DieBold event involved Amazon.com. In March 2007, Amazon.com and the NFB entered into a cooperation agreement to make the Amazon.com web site and e-commerce platform fully accessible to the blind. Time will tell if this will become reality, and whether more pressure may need to be applied to Amazon.com, but the intentions are on the right track.

    Within the past decade, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been the nexus of Web standards and guidelines for designers, developers and engineers to follow. A lot of valuable information is available there, including methodology for building browsers, multimedia players and Web pages with disabled users in mind. Unfortunately, some entities did not recognize or apply these resources until served with a lawsuit. Back in 2004, Priceline.com and Ramada.com settled an Accessibility lawsuit.

  4. Priceline.com and Ramada.com agreed to make their Web pages easier to navigate for the blind and visually impaired as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

    The companies will ensure that their sites accommodate assistive technologies, such as screen reader software, which converts Web page text into speech, they said. They've also agreed to clearly label graphics and images and comply with a range of other accessibility standards outlined by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an Internet standards body.

    Cendant, which own Ramada.com, and Priceline agreed to pay the state of New York for the cost of its investigation--$40,000 and $37,500, respectively, Spitzer's office said.

    Section 508 followed the ADA's lead in requiring that Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, so Federal employees and the public-at-large who possess disabilities can generally access and use information in methods comparable to employees and the public without disabilities. Generally, state governments have adapted Section 508 guidelines for their own related mandates, some even combining W3C guidelines. However, there is still room for improvement.

    In early 2007, The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed a lawsuit against Oracle Corp. and the state of Texas seeking to ensure that all applications used by the state government are accessible to blind state employees. The items of dispute were the human resource applications in the Oracle PeopleSoft software used by the state Health and Human Services and Workforce Commissions. The NFB's goal was to force Oracle to make the HR software in its ERP software accessible, and for the state to stop purchasing any inaccessible software. This lawsuit is still pending.

    It's a shame when organizations do not work towards compliance in their available technologies and services. It affects a significant percentage of the population. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) had noted the disabled percentage of the world population at 10%. When the ADA was passed in 1990, the approximate disabled population of the United States was noted at around 43 million persons. Per the U.S. Census Web site, the number of disabled persons had risen to 48.9 million in ten years, which was 19.2 percent of the total U.S. population - approximately 255 million people. The current population of the United States is over 300 million. Even with variances, this puts the percentage of disabled persons living in the United States at over 15% or 45 million people. That is a lot of potential lawsuits.

    With the ADA, advocates like the NFB and the National Organization for the Deaf, disabled persons are "Upping the Accessibility Ante". In less than twenty years, significant legal and technological resources have become available to them, and more opportunities are opening up. A critical ruling in 2006 resulted from such a lawsuit involving blind student Bruce Sexton Jr. at University of California, which increased the liability faced by private entities.

    In February 2006, Bruce Sexton Jr., president of the California Association of Blind Students, in conjunction with the NFB, filed a class action lawsuit against the Target retail company, claiming their Web site is inaccessible to the blind, in violation of federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities. In September of 2006, a federal district court judge ruled that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind.

  5. For the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote that "the 'ordinary meaning' of the ADA's prohibition against discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or privileges, is that whatever goods or services the place provides, it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability in providing enjoyment of those goods and services."

    In an end note, the judge said, "The Web site is a means to gain access to the store and it is ironic that Target, through its merchandising efforts on the one hand, seeks to reach greater numbers of customers and enlarge its consumer-base, while on the other hand it seeks to escape the requirements of the ADA. A broader application of the ADA to the Web site may be appropriate if upon further discovery it is disclosed that the store and Web site are part of an integrated effort."

    Why won't companies "bend over backwards" to accommodate as many people as possible. Is it not good business to try to satisfy as many people as possible? In one relevant scene from "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947) the owner agreed to a strategy to send customers to other stores furthering its claim to being the "store with a heart". He then subtlely slipped in "...we'll make even more profit than before". Larger entities should take a hint. Money is best spent improving versus avoiding. Profits look good on paper. Happy customers look better period - disabled or otherwise.

    Locally, WMHT caused a backlash within their audience, including the deaf community and their advocates by presenting re-run programs as part of a fund raiser in place of the PBS national broadcast "Through Deaf Eyes" back in March 2007. The station did respond and programmed the documentary into its schedule. However, the broadcast that was shown on WMHT and another PBS network either occurred at odd hours, required Digital Cable, or even a High-Definition (HD) Cable receiver. Not everyone has Digital Cable receiver, let alone an HD model. WMHT re-broadcasted the documentary on May 20, 2007. Albeit not a lawsuit and a smaller scale example, it's another recent display of disabled persons, their friends, family and advocates, refusing to acquiesce. In addition, such stations need donations from their viewing audience to help ensure their survival. It does not help to alienate your potential viewers, especially those who do contribute or are considering it.

    Hopefully, WMHT will remember to accommodate their audience better in the future. Will more business entities follow suit? We can hope so. If not, it's a sure bet another lawsuit will make the news, unless these entities ante in themselves.

  1. An article posted November 12, 1996 on the National Association of the Deaf Web site, http://www.nad.org/site/pp.asp?c=foINKQMBF&b=164850 (External Link)

  2. An article by Oscar S. Cisneros, posted to Wired.com, "AOL Settles Accessibility Suit" http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2000/07/37845 (External Link)

  3. An article posted to ATMmarketplace.com, "NFB drops ADA lawsuit against Diebold" - March 8, 2002 No author listed http://www.atmmarketplace.com/article.php?id=1688 (External Link)

  4. An article by Alorie Gilbert, posted to CNET News.com on August 20, 2004, 2:03 PM PDT http://news.com.com/Travel+sites+agree+to+changes+for+the+blind/2100-1038_3-5318568.html (External Link)

  5. An article by Carol Sliwa and Linda Rosencrance, posted to Computerworld.com, http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9003129 (External Link)

*** Note: The following items were originally included in the "DBTAC - Northeast ADA Technical Bulletin: June 2007" distributed by the Northeast ADA Center at Cornell University in New York State. ***

Please Join us for the June Distance Learning Program - Performance vs Disability: What is the difference?

Date; June 19, 2007
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Eastern Time

As the workforce ages, employers will experience more and more issues associated with employees who experience difficulty doing their job. One of the major questions facing employers is whether or not the performance issues experienced by their employees is due to a disability which may require reasonable accommodation. Join our speaker as she addresses the issue of performance versus disability and the steps that an employer should take to ensure that they do not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities while ensuring that they have a productive workforce.

Speaker:

Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney, EEOC ADA Division
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/extension/ped/northeastADA/Speakers/Default.asp?speakerID=sharon_rennert&referrer=fy2007session9

CEU Credits: CRC, SHRM

To learn more or to register for the ADA Audio Conference please visit www.ada-audio.org (External Link).

Save the Date - ADA Celebration with the Federal Agencies - July 24, 2007 in Syracuse, NY

DBTAC Northeast and ARISE, Independent Living Center (www.ariseinc.org (External Link)) will be sponsoring an ADA Celebration by inviting four federal agencies to Central NY; US Department of Justice, Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Federal Access Board, and the US Department of Transportation. There will be an 90 presentation in the morning on the topic of Employment and Disability presented by DBTAC Northeast.

The event will be in Syracuse, NY at the Renaissance Hotel on July 24, 2007 from 11:00 am till 4:00 pm. The fee to attend this event is $30 which includes lunch, a cake reception and all materials for the program. Please be advised that we will have seating for only 120 people, so registration will be on a first come, first serve basis. If people would like more information about the Syracuse area in regard to hotel accommodations, you can check out this website, http://www.travel-library.com/hotels/north_america/usa/new_york/syracuse/ (External Link).

Mark your calendars, more info to come via our website including how to register (www.dbtacnortheast.org (External Link)).

US Census Bureau (USCB) Fact Sheet for Americans with Disabilities Act 17th Anniversary

Just in time to celebrate the ADA, the USCB has produced their fact sheet on disability in America. There are stats on a variety of topic including how many people disabilities live in America and live in institutions, how many have graduated from college, have access to internet and more. This is a great document to add to any ADA disability awareness training, outreach or publications.

Please to go to the following website to access the document,
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-29-2007/0004597318&EDATE (External Link)