You Fail At Accessibility

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.

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.

Hi everyone. I've been a member of this comm for a couple days and have just been skimming through the entries. However, today I thought I'd post a question. I've been in a rather difficult situation, and I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced being told that they can't have any formal O&M training unless they have a full-time paying job. I think at least some people know what O&M is, but for those who don't it stands for orientation&mobility. Please allow me to explain a bit. It has been several years since I've had a formal O&M evaluation, or any high-quality O&M instruction. In the summer of 2004 I moved out of my parents' house and into an apartment building which is part of an LLC, a limited liability corporation. Since then people have taken me out on walks and briefly shown me around the area. Everybody here is extremely friendly and helpful. I was told rather curtly several years ago by a job coach, that none of these people should be showing me this stuff, unless they are certified O&M instructors. This so-called job coach further told me that any non-qualified O&M person would get in "serious" trouble if they showed me around. The thing is though, I haven't been able to convince my state voc/rehab agency that I'm important enough or that this situation is important enough to merit any formal O&M instruction. A few years ago I attended part of a conference with someone else, and we went up to the Client Assistance Program representatives in attendance and I explained my dilemma. They opened up a case for me, and finally an O&M specialist was sent out here to work with me. But we only worked together for a few short lessons, and then she abruptly stopped coming. What she did do though, was ask me what one thing I needed to work on. My response was street crossings. I specifically remember her telling me that aside from advocating like crazy hell for accessible traffic signals in this area, the only other solution to crossing the street independently was a card that basically said: "I'm blind, please help me cross the street." I think I still have this card tucked away in one of my drawers. So she and I practiced a bit with the card. In fact I remember surprising my former roommate, who at the time lived in a building near mine. He was legally blind, and unfortunately he passed away at the beginning of last year. But the building he lived in has a Starbucks in it. So anyway, this instructor and I actually paged him one morning when we had just gotten to his building. He came down in his underwear. I guess he thought the instructor was visually impaired too, which she wasn't. So that was funny. Btw, she never even showed me the way up to his unit, or to the Starbucks. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I happen to be a fan of the other things that Starbucks serves. So my question is what to do here. Should I lodge another formal complaint with the Client Assistance Program, or what? I'd definitely classify this as a means of accessibility fail. Rant over!