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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2016 - 12 - 15 - ID#5ikfyo
7
Who here has written to websites about accessibility problems? What was the result? (self.Blind)
submitted by Prefect316
I'm involved in a project that could help bring added accessibility to the web. But first, I want to get a sense of how website admins react to queries about accessibility.
Has anyone here sent emails or made phone calls about an accessibility issue? If so, what website, and what was the issue? What was the end result? Did any admins get back to you, and did any ignore you entirely?
The more examples you are willing to share, the more helpful it will be.
Thanks very much.
Marconius 3 points 6y ago
I primarily send people feedback about their mobile applications, but I've dealt with my fair share of website feedback as well.

Most notably is the San Francisco federal credit union website. They updated their mobile app and website last year and the developer who built it had absolutely no idea about accessibility at all, and subsequently locked me out of banking because of their ignorance. The credit union themselves brought me in to show them exactly what was wrong when accessing the website and the app, and we ended up having to go to mediation with disability rights advocate lawyers to get them to start remediating everything. It will be fixed in 2.5 years :-(

Due to my disability, I ended up going on Medicare last year. Getting dental insurance through Medicare was an absolute pain in the ass, as the broker I had to go through had a terrible website. Calling them and complaining resulted in nothing happening whatsoever, and they showed no sympathy when I explain the situation. Definitely a "well that's just the way it is" attitude from everyone.

Smaller websites like Zeel and BloomThat had websites that worked relatively OK before making really stupid visual updates that once again broke everything in terms of accessibility. After quite a lot of back-and-forth, nothing has come of any fixes and it's been over a year now even after all the follow-ups. They seem sympathetic, but definitely they do not have the understanding of how to properly billed an accessible website. Just have to keep making enough noise to get noticed and show people that all of us are trying to enjoy their services and not just people without disabilities. I have found that mobile applications seem to update and move faster with accessibility feedback rather than websites; hell, complaining about Lyft on Twitter got me my current job. :-)

Edit: wanted to add my experience with cards against humanity. I used to have no trouble ordering new updates from them through their website, but something happened recently where the shipment option was unable to be activated using voiceover either on mobile or with a computer. I was trying to order the geek pack, and when I was unable to complete my request, I sent them constructive feedback about the issue and asked if they could just send me one and use my currently existing payment information to buy it. They were extraordinarily apologetic and went absolutely above and beyond and ended up sending me every single expansion, the bigger blacker box, and the base set along with the pack I originally wanted. It was a tremendous care package that was unexpected. I put braille on all of those cards since I already owned them all and donated the set to the lighthouse here in San Francisco. I haven't had the need to order anything recently, so I am unsure if they have fixed this problem yet.
Prefect316 [OP] 2 points 6y ago
Hi, I might message you about this because it's off topic from what I originally posted about, but how do you go about putting braille on your cards? :)
Marconius 1 points 6y ago
It's a bit of a process, but I streamlined it and can get through quite a lot of cards in a short amount of time. I use KNFB reader on my phone to figure out the text on the card, and then I use a Perkins brailler to put the physical braille on each card. I only have space to fit nine sells across and about 6-7 lines down the card, so sometimes I have to creatively edit the text of really really long cards, and I use a mixture of grade 2 contractions and UEB.

For my own personal set, I don't do anything with the black cards because I always play it with people who are cited. My girlfriend prints out QR codes and puts them on the back of the black cards for the set at the lighthouse, so fully blind players can enjoy the entire game without sighted assistance as long as they have a smartphone with a QR code reader/digitEyes.
Prefect316 [OP] 1 points 6y ago
Very cool. Cards Against Humanity is one game I'd really like to make into braille. I know there's an online version through RS or one of those services but the fun of that game is playing it at parties and stuff like that.
Thanks for the reply.
Marconius 1 points 6y ago
64-Oz. games has the base set and I think most of the expansions brailled on card sleeves. The only issue with that is you absolutely need someone with vision to help put the correct cards into the correct sleeves and that just sounds like it would take an annoyingly long amount of time and frustration, which is why I opted for the OCR and self brailling route.
Nighthawk321 1 points 6y ago
I've heard many great things about Cards Against Humanity. Glad to hear they are living up to the praise.
fastfinge 1 points 6y ago
Part of it, I think, is that mobile platforms have better documented accessibility guidelines and developer resources. Plus, the screen-reader is generally built directly into the device, making testing easier. Oh, and at least on IOS, VoiceOver is the only screen-reader. So if it works with Voiceover, it works for all screen-reader users. On the web, there's NVDA/JFW/Voiceover/etc, and they all work just slightly differently.
Prefect316 [OP] 2 points 6y ago
You bring up a good point. I'm not a developer by any stretch, more of an advocate, but it seems to me there needs to be some kind of universal set of fixes that can make sites compatible with screen readers regardless of the platform. I don't know if that is possible or if anyone is working on it, but I would hope so.
fastfinge 3 points 6y ago
> some kind of universal set of fixes that can make sites compatible

I doubt this is even possible. At the moment, it's difficult just to make sites that look good in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. Never mind accessibility; making sites that work the same in all browsers is difficult. Plus, NVDA in Chrome, NVDA in Firefox, NVDA in Internet Explorer, Jaws in Chrome, Jaws in Firefox, and Jaws in Internet Explorer, all behave differently in some circumstances. The best that can really be done is to test with the most popular screen-reader and browser combinations.
Blindmouseottawa 2 points 6y ago
There are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Send a message like

Dear Admins,

I found the following issues on your website. (INSERT ISSUES HERE). Would you resolve these issues. For future reference to reduce the number complaints and make your website open to more users to increase the popularity. Please visit
https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag. This would make it easier and efficent for users and increase the experience.

Thank You for your understanding.
Nighthawk321 1 points 6y ago
I have a couple times. Usually when I try to report accessibility issues, the contact link is either nonexistent or extremely difficult to find. However, I was able to email the famous Khan Academy to inform them that I was unable to navigate the website, and all I got was some automated email saying that they are doing everything they can to make the website better.
Unuhi 1 points 6y ago
I've sent feedback about accessibility and how to improve it on some sites.
Also good feedback on surveys from sites that work well.

Usually for feedback of some site nit working I don't expect feedback.
The usual format i use is just telling them why I didn't buy from their site, explaining the problem.
Eg. The site does not work with voiceover, it's impossible to navigate, or there is no description of items or colors. For a clothing site that might be having 5 dots showing a dark color but no description of the color so no clue what kind of color it is. Even something as simple as an item being black or white: describe it! Tell me boutnthe design and size for that particular item.
Or missing buttons (how i do search? What is that button, button, button?). So many little annoyances.
Prefect316 [OP] 1 points 6y ago
Can you give any specific examples of particular clothes websites or anything that didn't work for you or you've heard don't work? Want to put as many sites in a report I'm putting together for my organization.
Thanks for responding :)
Unuhi 1 points 6y ago
L'occitane's site would be in the unusable category for me.
Cant think of many other good examples right now. :-/
PuzzledPieces 1 points 6y ago
I wrote to Amazon about their method of viewing comic books on their Kindle Fire "7. I asked if there was any way they would be making if more accessible ( such as zooming in on panels more then the user was able to ). They wrote me back and told me they didn't have plans to add accessibility to that function .

I now use the kindle app, and apple'a accessibility features to read comics on my IPad Air .
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