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The Idea Place Posts

American Council of the Blind Seeking Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs

Published November 19, 2018 by Kelly Ford

The following is copied from email distributed to various American Council of the Blind email lists. The application deadline is December 19, 2018.

Vacancy Announcement: Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs

The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is seeking a Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs to work in its national office in Alexandria, VA.

The primary duties of this position will include:

  • Leads the promotion and development of ACB’s advocacy and legislative agendas (e.g., strategic goals, initiatives).
  • Recommends actions to be taken and policies to be adopted by ACB.
  • Oversees the implementation of resolutions adopted at ACB Conventions.
  • Represents ACB on advisory committees and consultative bodies seeking organizational input.
  • Monitors bills, speeches, and statements of government leaders, political influencers, regulators and legislative bodies.
  • Monitors media, research reports, and analytics on issues of interest to ACB.
  • Leads the drafting of proposed legislative and regulatory language for presentation to Congressional offices, administrative agencies, and other relevant stakeholders.
  • Prepares written comments on pending legislation and proposed regulations.
  • Presents oral comments on pending legislation at public sessions with regulatory bodies and Congressional committee hearings.
  • Develops and maintains ongoing working relationships with members of Congress, Congressional staff and agency administrators to promote ACB’s legislative and advocacy agendas.
  • Establishes and maintains cooperative relationships with other disability and civil and human rights organizations to expand ACB’s sphere of influence.
  • Creates and enhances collaborative relationships with corporations and private stakeholders in order to influence the usability and accessibility of their product and service offerings.
  • Plans for and executes annual legislative seminar and Congressional fly in, including securing policy influencers and other stakeholders to present to ACB members.
  • Serves as staff liaison to ACB committees, including ACB’s Resolutions Committee that meets at the annual conference and convention.
  • Provides technical assistance to ACB members and affiliates pursuing advocacy projects.
  • Oversees, and in complex situations responds to, requests for information and advice concerning the rights and/or obligations of individuals and organizations regarding blindness-related issues, and providing referral to other appropriate sources of assistance.
  • Prepares external communication on legislative, judicial, and administrative developments for ACB content channels (e.g., ACB Radio, social media) and external content channels.
  • Ensures that ACB members receive timely communications regarding ongoing legislative and advocacy initiatives.
  • Other duties as assigned by the Executive Director.

The Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs reports to the Executive Director.

The successful candidate must have:

  • Strong attention to detail.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, including public speaking.
  • Drive to take initiative with limited guidance.
  • Knowledge of service-delivery systems and government programs impacting people who are blind.
  • Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities simultaneously.
  • Ability to effectively direct and manage the performance of direct reports.
  • Ability to respond promptly and meet deadlines.
  • Ability to locate and quickly comprehend laws and regulations.
  • Knowledge of applicable laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, and executive orders.
  • Knowledge of the democratic political process.
  • General familiarity with assistive devices and technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired.
  • Ability to travel as circumstances require.
  • Ability to work evenings and weekends as needed, including participating in meetings and conference calls with ACB committees and affiliates.

Desirable skills or training include general familiarity with assistive devices used by people who are blind, and a degree in political science or law, or other specific disability-related advocacy training. Experience in the use of social media to communicate organizational messages is highly desired. Salary depends upon experience.

Applicants must send a resume, cover letter, and brief writing sample by e-mail to search-committee@acb.org.

Applications must be received in the ACB national office by no later than December 19, 2018.

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Three positions with the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative Available in Europe

Published October 29, 2018 by Kelly Ford

The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) project has three positions available based in Europe to work on various aspects of web accessibility.  All positions indicate they are for a period of three years starting on Jan 1, 2019.

The organization is looking for a Web Authoring Tools Accessibility Specialist, an Emerging Web Technologies Accessibility Specialist and a Web Accessibility Education and Training Specialist.  Full job descriptions and application requirements can be found at https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Recruitment/.

An email with the original announcement of these positions is also available.

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Quick Notes on Using a Virtual Machine Environment With A Screen Reader

Published October 21, 2018 by Kelly Ford

Over the years I’ve used a range of solutions for solving the basic challenge of wanting to experiment with new versions of operating systems, screen readers, applications and more without breaking a working system.  From using dedicated test computers, various hard drive imaging solutions, dual booting (running two operating systems on the same machine) and of course using what are known as virtual machines through the various virtual machine technologies available.

The majority of my experience has been running virtual machine technology on Windows to run other windows machines in a virtual environment.  Information in this post is therefore limited to that combination.  There are viable solutions on other platforms as well.

The goal of this post isn’t to provide a full tutorial on using virtual machines.  It is to share a few notes and things I’ve learned in case they are of assistance to others using similar technology in conjunction with a screen reader as a starting point.

For those unfamiliar with what a virtual machine is, think of it as a way to run a second or third computer on an existing computer through a software program.  There are many benefits to this including as mentioned the ability to try things out without breaking a working environment.

The three virtual environments I’ve used are Hyper-V, built directly into Windows; VM Player and VM Work Station from VMware and VirtualBox from Oracle.

There is no one perfect virtual machine solution and in my experience each of the three options I’ve explored has strengths and weaknesses.

I have had success using all three of the solutions I’ve mentioned.  Each requires you understand what’s necessary to get the virtual machine configured and how to access the machine of course.  I do routinely use virtual machines in my environment though and they can be a very helpful tool.

Aside from possibly having to enable the feature, Hyper-V being part of Windows can be very handy and the machine management user experience works well in my experience with screen readers.  In general screen reader-friendly tree-view and list-views are used for most controls.  Perhaps the biggest limitation is that Hyper-V does not support audio directly until you are able to establish a remote desktop connection to the machine.  This means that unless you are skilled at fully unattended operating system install and configuration, there’s a strong possibility you will need assistance in creating the initial virtual machines you want to use.

I have used both the consumer-oriented VM Player and the more enterprise-oriented VM work station over the years.  The machine management experience in VM Player works well with screen readers.  Again, most controls are screen reader-friendly tree-view and list-views.  However, VM Player is limited in some key areas such as the ability to run multiple virtual machines at once or take what are commonly known as snapshots of a virtual machine.  Think of a snapshot as a way to capture your virtual machine at a point in time so if something goes wrong or you want to get back to that point, it is as easy as applying that snapshot.

VM Work Station is a full-featured VM solution.  However in my experience the machine management part of the program did not work as well with screen readers.  Additionally, in my environment I have found more keyboard quirks when switching from a virtual machine back to the main operating system.  These are not insurmountable problems and at one point I used VM Work Station with success for several years.  In general VM Player is free for individual use while Work Station requires you purchase the software.

Both VM Player and VM Work Station have native support for audio.  This means that with the ability starting in Windows 10 to use Microsoft’s Narrator during operating system install, in most cases it is possible to create a virtual machine completely independently.

Whether you use VM Player or Work Station, two important keyboard commands to know are CTRL+g to put keyboard focus into a virtual machine and CTRL+Alt to put keyboard focus back to your host or main machine operating system.  In my experience, it has been helpful to press the Control key a couple times alone after using the CTRL+Alt combination to avoid modifier keys seemingly locked when switching back to your host machine.

Oracle’s Virtual Box has been an interesting experience. .  The machine management and settings areas of the program are very mixed when used with screen readers.  Some items work quite well, such as menus for working with individual machines, while others, such as the experience to modify hotkeys in the program and other machine settings, work poorly at best.  Additionally, I’ve found keyboard access when using up and down arrows in a list of virtual machines sometimes jumps out of this list.  I’ve taken to ensuring I give each virtual machine a name starting with a unique letter because I know once I am in the list of machines, I can press that letter and ensure I move focus to a specific machine.

As with the VMware products, VirtualBox has support for audio natively.  This means that again, fully independent creation and configuration of a virtual machine running Windows 10 is possible.

By default VirtualBox uses the right, and only the right, Control key as what it calls the Host key.  Use that key to toggle keyboard access between the virtual machine and your main computer.  Use CTRL+Home to access a menu of options related to the running virtual machine and use CTRL+t to take a snapshot of the virtual machine.

VirtualBox also has extensive command line support.  Chapter 8 of the user manual has all the details and I find myself largely using this option to work with my virtual machines when using VirtualBox.

VirtualBox has a licensing model that supports both personal use for free and business/enterprise use at a cost.  Oracle’s licensing pages have more information.

As mentioned earlier, details here are largely based on a Windows environment.  Similar solutions exist on other computing environments, often from the same companies mentioned here.  Even on Windows, you are not limited to running just a Windows virtual machine.  In fact that is one of the benefits of using virtualization technology.

Virtual machines can be a handy enhancement to a computing environment.  There is a bit of learning, especially for the first machine you create and use.  Once you’ve crossed that knowledge bridge, creating multiple machines becomes largely as easy as repeating what has been successful in the past.

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TuneIn Live on Alexa

Published October 14, 2018 by Kelly Ford

If you are a user of the TuneIn audio services and in particular a subscriber to their premium TuneIn Live service, TuneIn Live on Alexa might be worth exploring. The service is available at a discounted rate of $2.99 for Amazon Prime members or $3.99 without a Prime subscription.  This is lower than the standard $7.99 monthly subscription price.

One benefit I enjoy in TuneIn Live is the fact that audio for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NBA, which typically requires individual subscriptions, is part of the service.  Whether you use the Alexa option or the standard TuneIn Live, if you subscribe to multiple audio services, this is likely a cost savings.

TuneIn Live works on most Alexa-enabled devices. I was initially a bit hesitant to try this option because I didn’t want to be held to just the physical locations of any Echo devices I have.  Although it isn’t listed in the supported devices, I’ve found that TuneIn Live on Alexa  also works on an Amazon Fire tablet. This is great for portability.

I remember the good old days of internet streaming when audio from those radio stations that were online was available without by and large any limitations.  Those days have long gone, especially for things such as live professional sports, which now mostly require some sort of a subscription.

TuneIn in the free form offers a great deal of audio.  I find the Live subscription version adds enough value that it is worth the cost.  Adding the Alexa option for a discount, especially since it works on the portable Fire tablet and saves either $4 or $5 off the monthly subscription is worth considering.

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Users of WordPress Might Want to Try a New Editing Experience Titled Gutenberg

Published October 9, 2018 by Kelly Ford

I normally do not write blog posts directly online using WordPress. However in doing some updating today, I noticed text talking about a new editing experience coming to WordPress called Gutenberg.  Details on the project can be found at https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/.

If you are a screen reading user who writes content inside of WordPress, trying Gutenberg is something you may want to consider.  I’m just learning it as I write here but am noticing some issues between the new editing experience and screen readers.  Most notably, as you arrow around content you are creating, you are hearing details about the format, such as paragraph, heading and such.  This would be great but often you hear it for all the content, not just the item with focus and also, at times you do not hear the current line with focus at all.  This seems to happen most frequently when you transition between what Gutenberg considers blocks.  Blocks are basically different elements, such as paragraphs, headings and such.

There is a GitHub issues page for the project at https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues.

If trying new experiences and giving feedback is something you are inclined to do, this may be worth investing time in, especially if you are an author who uses WordPress.  The project page indicates the goal is for Gutenberg to become the default editing experience in WordPress over time.

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Interests Intersect: Reading and Accessibility

Published June 5, 2018 by Kelly Ford

This morning has been an opportunity to combine two of my interests–reading and accessibility.  Several years ago I read the first of the Jonathan Quinn series  from author Brett Battles and have come to enjoy each new book. The books are fast-paced action-packed adventures that have been set in a range of interesting destinations.
 
I’m also intrigued by how authors make it in the new world of publishing, Amazon and just the full range of how the book world has evolved. Brett Battles has been interesting to follow on that front also.
In full transparency, I received an advanced copy of the most recent book in the Quinn series with only the ask that if possible I post a review once the book came out and that I help spread the word about the book. Well, the book came out today so I was going to share a post from the author someplace in social media.
Now we get to accessibility.  Before going there though, I’ll say that if you enjoy thrillers, give The Fractured a read.
I went to Facebook to copy a link to the author page for Brett Battles and for whatever reason this is the first text I ended up reading:
Icon of invite friends to like the lage
This is alt text on a graphic on the page.  Part of the HTML as you would expect reads:
alt=Icon of invite friends to like the lage
Please, if you are creating alternative text, proofread it just as closely as you do other text or give it the same attention you do to images.  This sort of experience happens more than you would think.  I’m by no means perfect and I’m sure I myself can find many issues in my own writing, not to mention what others could point out.  But this means every page on Facebook that uses this like the page icon, is giving users who rely on alt text this “like the lage” text.
Typically I’d probably not mention the alt text issue publicly but instead find the Facebook accessibility contacts and send them a note.  I just found it ironic that I went to share details on a book and this was the first text I ended up reading.  Now I’m off to join Jonathan Quinn and the rest of the gang and finish The Fractured.  Join me in the adventure.
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Big Ten Academic Alliance on Library E-Resources Accessibility

Published May 1, 2018 by Kelly Ford

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.

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Northwest Access Fund Seeking Executive Director

Published August 28, 2017 by Kelly Ford

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.

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Nominations Open for the 2017 Northwest Access Fund Awards

Published August 21, 2017 by Kelly Ford

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.

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