Thursday, May 28
By Katherine Schneider, for the CVPost
For those of us with access issues, it’s a daily struggle and sometimes a messy one.
Sometimes half a loaf is enough. For example, platforms like Zoom and Webex aren’t fully accessible, but one can participate by phone. No screen shots, no Power Points, no knowing what your friends are wearing, but you can hear the discussion.
On the other hand, the required data security course I had to take by June 1 in order to keep my UW-Eau Claire email account stopped me cold.
‘Accessible’ button was no help
There was a button to push on the first screen for an accessible version, so I thought I was home free. But in the second of the five required units, there was a paragraph to read and then a question with six blanks to fill in by dragging and dropping words from a list of eight words.
Screen reader users – like me – don’t use the mouse, so we can’t drag and drop.
You can’t skip the question, so I was stuck. I contacted six people at the university who might logically be part of the solution. One never responded, three assured me they cared and suggested I talk to someone else, one assured me I wouldn’t lose my email privileges and one set out to help.
He contacted the company that made the course and they escalated it to the second level and said it “might be” an accessibility problem. Then he spent over two hours reading me the rest of the course and marking my answers to the questions by remoting into my computer using Team Viewer. Class finished!
Whether the company making the course follows up on improving it remains to be seen.
Difficulties with pay stub
That same day, I received my paycheck stub (for my County Board service) electronically from the County, and it was encrypted in such a way that the screen reader couldn’t read it. I’ve suggested to the payroll gal that I phone her and she read it to me, but I haven’t heard back on that one yet.
In my many emails the same day was one from the New York Public Library about the birthdays of their iconic stone lions Patience and Fortitude, erected in 1911. The email suggested you send them stories and pics of you with the lions, for their website.
I’ve got a better idea: How about if they send me patience and fortitude to fight for access on a daily basis!
Note: the home page image is a representation of a coronavirus cell