Category: Accessibility

As a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and someone who has a longtime interest in library accessibility, the Big Ten Academic Alliance on library E-Resources accessibility caught my attention. I’m sure some in the accessibility arena are already familiar with this effort as it has been around for a couple of years. It was new to me, so I thought I’d share information about the effort.

According to the group’s web page, acting on concerns over the inaccessibility of many electronic resources in libraries, the group has a pilot project to fund third-party evaluations of various resources member libraries use or are considering purchasing. The organization also offers standardized accessibility license language that can be used in contracts.

Testing results currently contain evaluations of 17 different resources. Vendor responses to six of the evaluations are also provided. Having this level of detail made available publicly is excellent.

The standardized accessibility licensing language is about what you would expect. It calls for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA criteria. It further stipulates that product upgrades and maintenance should not break accessibility. Vendors are also asked to provide an accurate voluntary product accessibility template to indicate how they comply with key accessibility standards including Section 508, from the United States Government; EN 301 549, European Union standards; and WCAG 2.0, international guidelines on web accessibility. Last, where products do not currently meet accessibility standards, vendors are expected to do so in a timely fashion and at no additional cost to the organizations licensing the products. Again, the contract language itself is about what you’d expect and what’s more important is getting this level of detail into contractual arrangements.

Having this sort of collective action from organizations who must meet legal requirements to serve their audiences is great. This is an effort to continue to monitor as the group will continue to post updates and evaluations on their web site.

The following post is copied from an email distributed to a public email list with a request to circulate. I am sharing the full content here because I have not found this posted online at a web address I can share.

Executive Director – Northwest Access Fund

The Northwest Access Fund is seeking an Executive Director with excellent nonprofit management, outreach, and fundraising skills. The Access Fund is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) established to promote access to technology and economic opportunity for people with disabilities in Washington and Oregon.

The Access Fund provides low interest loans, matched savings accounts, financial counseling, and other financing services. It helps people of all ages with disabilities of all types to acquire the technologies needed to live independently, to succeed at school, at work, at play and in the community, to build assets, and otherwise improve their socio-economic circumstances. The Fund has a small highly dedicated staff (6+ total FTE) and a committed 15-member Board of Directors—a majority of them are individuals with disabilities–with a range of skills in community development, assistive technology, banking, and disability policy.

This position is hired by and under the general supervision of the Board of Directors.

We are committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and applicants for employment will be considered without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Job Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership and program direction and development within the context of organizational vision, mission, and core values under the general discretion and authority of the Board of Directors.
• Implement organization’s priorities and objectives as established by the Board.
• Work closely with and seek counsel from the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. Provide regular reports to the Board of Directors. Support the Board of Directors with regards to meetings, board development, and planning.
  
• Work closely with the Development Director and other staff to conduct public relations and outreach activities. Oversee an annual Development Plan in collaboration with the Development Director.
• Spearhead the research of and response to grant opportunities, and solicit corporate and grant funding in conjunction with Development Director and program staff. Contribute significantly to the writing and submission of grant and other funding applications.
• Responsible for overall financial management of the organization. In collaboration with the Finance Manager and Board Treasurer, manage total current assets of approximately $2 million and an operating budget of $700,000. Draft annual budget in collaboration with the Finance Manager and Board Financial Committee for full Board approval.
  
• Responsible for management and supervision of all staff, including hiring of new staff, providing for an annual evaluation, and maintaining high level of staff retention. Delegate and assign administrative, program, and development tasks as needed. Provide effective communication and cultivate an office environment that allows for professional development.
• Ensure compliance with all grant requirements and supervise preparation of grant and other program status reports to Board, grant sponsors, and other funders.
  

Considerations:

• Minimum of 3 years relevant nonprofit management experience
• Experience with community development lending and/or asset building strategies for low-income populations
• Established experience in fundraising, grant writing and submission
• Strong fiscal management skills and adequate understanding of non-profit accounting
• Knowledge of disability community and disability/assistive technology policy issues
• Strong background in program development, management, and outcomes evaluation
• Excellent people skills and ability to work with diverse populations
• Strong public speaking skills
• Ability and availability to travel within the states of Washington and Oregon.

Additional Desired Considerations

• Advanced degree, or equivalent experience, in public administration, community development, business administration or related field
• Experience with and/or knowledge of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
• Experience with and/or knowledge of the Assistive Technology Act Programs

Salary:

Starting salary between $75,000 and $90,000 dependent upon qualifications and experience. Benefits will include annual and sick leave, health, dental & vision coverage, and a simple IRA.

Expected start date:

The beginning of October and is negotiable.

Application Procedures:

Please email a resume and cover letter by September 8, 2017 to Alan Knue, Board President, at
aknue@uw.edu. Please specifically address your relevant experience and reasons why you are interested in this position.

All questions regarding this position may also be directed to Alan Knue at the above email address.

The Northwest Access Fund is seeking nominations for their 2017 awards. Awards recognize individuals, organizations and businesses that have made a positive impact for people with disabilities in five different categories. The categories include:

• Innovation Award
  
• Best Practices Award
  
• Recreational Engagement Award
  
• Frances Pennell Economic Opportunity Award
  
• Ron Adams Outstanding Advocate Award
  

Nominations are due by September 15, 2017. You can submit nominations via an online form.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Northwest Access Fund’s award dinner for the past two years and have walked away deeply touched bye the range of talent, passion and energy exhibited by everyone involved with this organization. Previous award winners run the full range from individuals who make amazing contributions to corporations that devote resources toward accessibility and making a positive impact.

The 2017 Awards will be presented at the organization’s fourth annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, November 2, 2017 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, Washington. If you are in the area, it is an event well worth attending.

As I’m sure most in the web accessibility arena have heard by now, a Florida judge ruled that the regional grocer Winn-Dixie must make the company’s web site accessible. As usual Lainey Feingold has an excellent summary of the details. The full legal ruling is also available.

Reading through the full document, a few interesting tidbits of information jumped out at me. I’m always interested in the dollars and cents of accessibility costs.

Prior to this ruling, Winn-Dixie indicates it had set aside $250,000 to make the web site accessible.

Since launching the web site, Winn-Dixie has spent at least $7million for updates, without addressing accessibility.

The accessibility expert in the case estimates all accessibility issues could be fixed for around $37,000 and certainly not the $250,000 given by Winn-Dixie.

Interestingly, the plaintiff in the case testified that he expected to be able to use ctrl+s to jump to search fields on web sites. This one is particularly interesting to me because this is rarely the case and in fact it is generally on Windows alt+s that would be used, if such a shortcut were provided in my experience. Further, the Winn-Dixie web site does use alt+s as of now to jump to the search box. This may not have been the case earlier.

While I haven’t done a full review of the web site since reading this legal settlement, I will say it is still baffling to me at one level how many basic accessibility issues that are easily corrected get shipped. In less than five minutes I can quickly identify multiple issues that the most basic accessibility review would find.

Last, the full list of requirements placed on Winn-Dixie are an interesting read. Here they are as taken from the legal ruling. All seem reasonable to me but I’m particularly pleased to see the call to include vendors on the web site, the call for training and the repeated auditing to ensure continued compliance.

1. Shall not, no later than __(date)__________, deny individuals with disabilities, including the Plaintiff, the opportunity to participate and benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations provided through its website www.winndixie.com. The website must be accessible by individuals with disabilities who use computers, laptops, tablets, and smart phones.
2. Shall not, no later than __(date)__________, provide individuals with disabilities, including the Plaintiff, an unequal opportunity to participate and benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations provided through its website www.winndixie.com. The website must be accessible by individuals with disabilities who use computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones.
3. No later than ________(date)_______, shall adopt and implement a Web Accessibility Policy which ensures that its website conforms with the WCAG 2.0 criteria.
4. No later than __(date)__________, shall require any third party vendors who participate on its website to be fully accessible to the disabled by conforming with WCAG 2.0 criteria
5. No later than __(date)__________, shall make publicly available and directly link from the www.winndixie.com homepage, a statement of WinnDixie’s Accessibility Policy to ensure the persons with disabilities have full and equal enjoyment of its website and shall accompany the public policy statement with an accessible means of submitting accessibility questions and problems.
6. No later than __(date)__________, and at least once yearly thereafter, shall provide mandatory web accessibility training to all employees who write or develop programs or code for, or who publish final content to, www.winndixie.com on how to conform all web content and services with WCAG 2.0 criteria.
7. No later than __(date)__________, and at least once every three months thereafter, shall conduct automated accessibility tests of its website to identify any instances where the website is no longer in conformance with WCAG 2.0.
8. If the Plaintiff believes the Injunction has been violated, he shall give notice (including reasonable particulars) to the Defendant of such violation. The Defendant shall have 30 days from the notice to investigate and correct any alleged violations. If the Defendant fails to correct the violation, the Plaintiff may then seek relief from the Court.
9. In light of what the Court has already found to be the Defendant’s sincere and serious intent to make its website accessible to all, this Injunction will expire in three years.

I spend a significant part of my professional and personal life working in the area of software accessibility. I’m pretty familiar with all the positives and negatives of various operating systems, strategies for accessibility on those environments and the various tricks and techniques one can sometimes try to work around challenges when they come up. Then too, unfortunately, there are times I’m reminded of the consequences when a solution does not exist.

I’ve been a long time user of Quicken for personal financial management. Entries in my current use of the program go back more than 15 years. And yet every three years or so there’s been this race I play against the current level of accessibility of whatever version of Quicken I’m forced to update to and my ability to resolve issues to the point of continuing to be able to use the program. If you want to use the automatic transaction download features of the software, most, if not all, financial institutions cut off support for older versions of Quicken at versions older than three years from the current year. Looking back through my software archives, I find copies of Quicken I purchased in 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and most recently 2015.

It has been quite some time in my experience that Quicken has worked with ease for me and I suspect others who use screen reading software. But I’m pretty comfortable with all the advanced features of screen readers so have managed to keep things working throughout the years to the point that I felt the trouble in using the software was offset by the benefits. The automatic download of financial transactions, categorization, reporting and investment tracking all combined into a single app have made the program worth continuing to try to keep using for me. I know I can do much of this myself in programs such as Excel and I do some of this today. Still Quicken has, until now, been at the cornerstone of what I’ve used, even if more and more of my analysis and such has moved to Excel.

Earlier this year I knew the clock was ticking on the version of Quicken 2012 I had been using to support automatic transaction download. I took the plunge and purchased Quicken 2015 a few months ago. My luck with the program wasn’t good when I first tried to use it. But the deadline hadn’t quite hit for the older version to stop working so I kept trying different techniques without any luck.

But after several hours invested over the last few days really trying to make things work and the fact that automatic transaction downloads stopped working about 85 days ago for me, I’m now faced with the reality that my time with Quicken is about to come to an abrupt end. Manual transaction entry hasn’t worked right for several years with all of the screen readers I use which is why the automatic download has become so critical and most financial sites only allow 90 days of data download. To be clear this is only one of the challenges and for what I need to do not nearly enough of Quicken 2015 works right with the screen readers I use and I use pretty much all that exist.

In the grand scheme of challenges, I recognize whether I can use Quicken or not is not high on the list. I write about it here mostly I suspect as a bit of catharsis because at an emotional level there is some level of frustration when an environment you’ve been using stops working. And with so much of my time spent in the accessibility space, I have no illusions about some magic behind the curtain. I understand about development priorities from all the players involved. It is just not fun to be on the wrong side of where the line gets drawn and this still happens far too often when it comes to accessibility.