You Fail At Accessibility

Intent may be OKish, but execution positively sucks.

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 22:27:44 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

With northern hemisphere summer come sidewalk repairs in northern hemisphere cities. The temporary installations for this one completely fenced off a 30m long section of a sidewalk 2m to 2.5m wide, and further fenced off a section of the street surface about 1m wide. Then, presumably so people in wheelchairs could use the temporary path, they installed ramps. And by "installed ramps", I mean put (on the end I checked) a laminated wood board, resting on the sidewalk edge on one side and with the other edge resting on the street surface. I stepped onto it experimentally, and it perceptibly flexed under my 91kg. I don't know what would happen if someone in a power chair tried to. As it is, I doubt anyone will find out, because the road surface edge of the board is about 40 cm from the fence, leaving (to my untrained eye) way too little clearance to turn and get to the other "ramp" (which I haven't looked at yet). That 40cm clearance also looks too much too narrow to me for someone using a wheelchair to get past the board if they got onto the street surface at the nearby pedestrian crossing, if there's a curb cut there. (There should be, but I can't swear to it.)

I intend to go back there in 2 to 3 hours, take pics, and report it to City Hall as a street hazard. Besides what I mentioned above and the same at the other end, is there anything I missed that should or could usefully go in my report?

ETA: picture of one "ramp" and the nearby street surface, with a 30cm shoe for scale, shows clearance between board edge on street surface and fence support base is under 50cm.

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Anatomy of an ableism

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 12:18:37 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

2022-05-10: entry is now public.

( Summary )

( Personal background )

( Involvement in the FreeBSD contributor community )

( Code of Conduct, violation reporting procedure, and process for dealing with reports )

( Detailed timeline of events )

( My next steps )

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Mailinblack's mail-blocking captcha thingy

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 22:38:51 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

I had to yell to several of our senators earlier for unrelated reasons, and one has an email address hosted by an outside provider. Turns out the first time you email it, you get an autoreply using the Mailinblack service inviting you to type, in an image with several words, the one that's written in color. So in case you wondered whether someone would make captchas less accessible than they already were, the answer is yes.

(No advice needed - I'm not colorblind myself, it just infuriates me on behalf of any of their constituents who may be.)

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More on ADA Paratransit

Fri, 16 Feb 2018 03:20:38 GMT

Posted by: jazzyjj

Hi folks. I'm back with some more questions regarding ADA paratransit. First off, does anyone happen to know if the powers-that-be keep records of any kind regarding disabilities of paratransit riders in a given locale? This question may seem on the surface to be a bit confidential, but here's why I'm asking. Several weeks ago I was told that my requests for door-to-door assistance are not that common. I took that to mean nobody or hardly anyone in my area needs the drivers to actually get out of their vehicles and assist people to said vehicles, provided passengers aren't standing outside specifically waiting for their ride. A few weeks ago when I booked a round trip, I didn't let the reservationist know that I needed door-to-door assistance until she was about to give me the estimated pick-up time, and she informed me that she was going to have to reschedule my trip. Just for needing door-to-door assistance but not specifying that at the correct time. On a related note, do any of you paratransit riders have the option of scheduling online and creating a profile? This would be so much easier. I'd rather not have to specify my exact needs every single time. I used to not mind doing this, but now I'd really prefer not to repeat myself if at all possible. I'm wondering if this may somehow be confusing the dispatchers? A lot of the paratransit vehicles here nowadays seem to be hybrids, which inandof itself is not a problem with me. However, I have difficulty hearing these hybrids with all the other traffic. This can present quite the dilemma when one only has light perception. Update: The local bus company rolled out an online portal about a year ago. The good news is that it is accessible at least with the 2 screen readers I'm currently using. But the bad news--or perhaps somewhat bad--is that it is not currently possible to book trips online. I read that trips can be cancelled online, but I haven't found a way to do that yet.

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Request For Accessibility Testing of a Website

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:10:21 GMT

Posted by: jazzyjj

Hi everybody. Subject line pretty much sums it up. I'm wondering if anyone could test out the following website for accessibility: http://www.afb.org . I realize that this is probably a loaded request, especially given that accessibility means different things to different people. However, I've been having some issues with some parts of the website and am wondering if other people also experience these issues. I have been trying to purchase a free course from the AFB eLearning Center with no luck. It seems that this site is logging me out constantly, unless I tick the box that says "Remember My Username and Password." Even then, I am sometimes automatically logged out. Please see a prior entry of mine in this comm. I realize this is probably a security measure to protect against spammers and so forth, but the frequency with which it happens seems to be much greater than on other sites. The other issue I'm having is with the online store. It seems that, with VoiceOver at least, the navigation is somewhat off. It wraps around in a loop, but just a few days ago I was able to read a bit of information that was not accessible to me before. For the most part this website with its accompanying portals seems to work pretty well with VoiceOver and the latest version of Chromevox Classic, but I've not had good luck contacting the admins. Thanks in advance for anybody's assistance with this.

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What Does Everyone Think of This Guy's Proposal?

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 16:32:02 GMT

Posted by: jazzyjj

Good morning/afternoon/evening all! I came across the following post just yesterday on another website and I'm wondering what y'all think? I don't know about anyone else here, but to me what this guy is proposing needs to be given some more thought. Judging from past works of his I believe he is a hard-core member of the National Federation of the Blind, which split with the American Council of the Blind back in the early 1960's. If memory serves, the ACB's historical account of the split into 2 separate organizations is still available from their website http://www.acb.org . I actually read that book several years ago in audio format, and it presented some truly harsh facts about the situation. I'm pasting a link to the forum topic. http://applevis.com/forum/accessibility-advocacy/proposal-applevis-accessibility-advocacy-assistant .

For whatever reason I can't get a shortened URL to this, so if it doesn't work just try copying and pasting. I've been strongly convinced for years that this type of thinking is exactly what is hindering a lot of our nation's disability advocacy.

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My Christian Record Services Experience

Tue, 23 Sep 2014 20:06:53 GMT

Posted by: jazzyjj

Hello everyone. I thought I'd post about a great experience I just had a few minutes ago with a representative of Christian Record Services for the Blind. This is a nonprofit organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. They have representatives in several parts of the country, and the one with whom I spoke is in Wisconsin. I had left him a voicemail awhile back concerning a problem I was having with their online registration form to use the lending library. He just called me back after being on vacation, and patiently registered me. I am now going to start receiving materials from them again, including some digital material that I can listen to on my digital talking book machine. I attended 2 of their summer camps several years ago and had a lot of fun at both. We remembered each other from camp. So three cheers for Christian Record Services for the Blind! But please, please fix the registration form on the page for your lending library! The actual form itself was very easy to navigate using VoiceOver, but I think you should check out the "submit" button. When I clicked it I was merely taken back home with no confirmation of my form submission. Not only that, but I never received an email confirmation either.

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That is a special kind of... something.

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:33:35 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

Mafiaoza’s is Icky, and it’s Not the Pizza

Update, 2013-05-12 11:24am UTC: The owner claims they weren't in town that night. So either the owner is lying, or the cops' statements were incorrect. I can't say which it is, or whether (if the latter) the cops were lying or mistaken.

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Fri, 03 Aug 2012 05:20:40 GMT

Posted by: alexseanchai

Thing I am not: a Walmart employee.

Thing I should therefore have to do only when I have just finished moving my shit from my cart to my car, and not under any other circumstance: push carts around a Walmart parking lot.

Thing I did tonight anyway: push carts around a Walmart parking lot.

I don't know about the handicapped spaces at the left end of the building; the doors at that end aren't open at half past midnight. But every single handicapped space near the doors that are open at half past midnight contained either a car or at least one cart.

There were ten carts taking up handicapped spaces. Ten of them. And not one single fucking unoccupied handicapped space anywhere near the open fucking doors.

(I have just left an angry but polite complaint on walmart.com. Customer service desk isn't open at half past midnight either, or I'd have done it in person.)

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Deaf dancer auditions for SYTYCD

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:27:02 GMT

Posted by: garden_hoe21

I thought people here might get a kick out of how Nigel (the white male judge with an English accent) "talks to" the auditioner. (Bonus points for "so inspiring! So brave!")

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So close, and yet...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:25:14 GMT

Posted by: pauamma

Bathroom in train from Stratford to London. Can you tell what's missing?

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FUCK YOU, GOOGLE!

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:56:49 GMT

Posted by: mathsnerd

So I am wishful of obtaining a second Gmail account, since my mail email is used for communicating with family, and for a myriad of reasons, I am forced to be permanently invisible on chat, and that makes me sad. Also, I'd like an email address that doesn't use my legal name in the handle for my internet stuff. So, I go to the sign-up page and try my usual options (mathsnerd, mathsie), only to find that they're both taken. Okay, no problem. I start trying logical workarounds to see which ones are available.

Oh, wait, what's that, Google? After trying more than three names, I have to go through CAPTCHA to prove I'm a real person? Okay, that's kind of soon, but whatever. Gee, you sure scrunch those letters together and make them all wavy so that I have a real hard time figuring out what the hell you want me to enter...

Huh, okay, I've tried eight times, Google, and I can't seem to read it well enough that you're satisfied that I'm a real person. And while you offer a "read-aloud" accessibility option for the CAPTCHA down below for submitting the form (which, incidentally, doesn't work in Chrome, yeah, you know, YOUR BROWSER!), for the CAPTCHA to keep trying different handles you conveniently don't offer any alternate options.

So, in conclusion, FUCK YOU, GOOGLE, AND FUCK YOUR UTTER LACK OF ACCESSIBILITY ON THIS PAGE. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Right now you're not living up to your usual standards. And I'm seriously wondering why I bother with Gmail accounts.

No love and a fuck-load of frustration,
mathsnerd

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I'm supposed to reach the loo roll how?

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:43:06 GMT

Posted by: lisy_babe

I'm supposed to reach the toilet paper how?, originally uploaded by Lisy Babe.

The photo is of a toilet that looks fairly accessible at first glance: By which I mean there are several colour-contrasted handrails visible. Then you notice the toilet roll dispenser several feet higher. Where the toilet roll holder should be is a hand dryer. I did wonder if I was supposed to blow dry my ladybits.

I had to stand up to reach the toilet paper (and that was a struggle, but then when standing I'm still only 4'10") and, of course, a lot of wheelchair users can't stand up.

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