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October 27, 2007
Handling Inaccessible Blogs in the Workplace
Anna Dresner, telecommuter for National Braille Press, Boston, MA, writes and compiles volumes for blind and visually impaired users of adaptive technology as well as pamphlets of shortcut commands for various computer programs or operating systems. One book I have read and enjoyed is entitled, “Blog On!”
This book can be obtained at http://www.nbp.org
This book defines a blog, saying that, “The word 'blog' is short for 'web log,' meaning an online journal." The author discusses various sites where you can search for blogs and then walks you step-by-step through the process of finding, creating and maintaining your own blog.
Her book gives clear and beneficial keyboard commands for users of JAWS and Window-Eyes and shows you how to search for topics within a blog by tags, lists, links and headings. For example, if you go to a favorite search engine such as Google, you can search for a blog by entering a keyword and putting the word “blog” after it to find a host of information about blogging and blogs you can explore.
Also visit http://www.wordpress.com, a blog-hosting site which Anna uses and discusses at length in this book.
She mentions another site for creating a blog: http://www.blogger.com.
She writes that registration is more complicated on blogger.com and that a blogger must use visual verification (CAPTCHA) in order to create or even post to a blog using that site. Screen readers cannot read these characters so the user needs a workaround to be able to access the site.
Sometimes, there’s a link you can click on to hear letters or numbers which can be placed in the editbox. There may also be a checkbox to check, allowing you to enter your e-mail address so that an e-mail notification can be sent stating that it’s understood that you are a real person and not a spam program. You can’t use the blog site until you receive the e-mail notification, which could take a few days.
As a discussion question for this week, please post your thoughts about this scenario:
You’ve gotten a job, and you’re in the orientation session offered by the company. You’re told that “blogging” is an important part of your position, since it allows you to network with your co-workers and offer suggestions for improvements in the company’s overall growth and efficiency. You find that the blog site is not accessible to you as a user of a screen reader or other adaptive technology device.
How would you, as a newly hired employee who needs to blog, handle this situation?
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jo Taliaferro at October 27, 2007 06:00 PM
Comments
If blogging really were an important part of the duties of my job with the company in question, I would certainly request reasonable accomodations. At a minimum, that would take the form of an audio CAPTCHA to enable full participation in interactive functions such as posting comments. There really is no excuse for an inaccessible, visual only CAPTCHA at this technological stage. There are even services like recaptcha.net that provide audio and visual CAPTCHA.
Posted by: Darrell Shandrow at October 28, 2007 01:47 AM
Hi,
I am a trustee at National Braille Press and one of the things that I like most about their website is that it's so accessible, with all pictures being identified by text.
If in fact a key part of a job is blogging, it's crucial that the blog be accessible for a variety of handicaps.
I admit to not knowing necessarily how to make something accessible for visual impairments (and that's bad given that I do have Retinitis Pigmentosa), but I have been working with someone from Mass Commission for the Blind who guides me through some of them.
Blogger is a system I've used and I have actually found that overall it's very user friendly. My understanding is that the text boxes are available in sound. I often have trouble reading them. The other side of that is I have a couple of blogger accounts (on blogger.com) for various entities I work for - and I've never had to wait more than an hour for registration to be complete.
Posted by: Doreen at October 28, 2007 03:03 PM
Greetings,
Doreen and Darrell, you make good points in your response to the discussion question raised. Thank you for helping all of us to remember that reasonable accommodation can take different forms for each individual. Also, the book to which I refer was written in 2006 so the author very aptly notes that some of the workarounds may already have been replaced by accommodations, making them unnecessary. Look at
nbpupdates.wordpress.com to see what has evolved since the writing of Anna Dresner's book.
Posted by: Jo Taliaferro at October 28, 2007 03:58 PM
I would explain the problem to my employer and ask for an accommodation. I would probably suggest moving the blog to one of the sites mentioned in the scenario or another site that a blind friend of mine uses regularly. This small change would be a major improvement in the company because it would allow all of its employees to participate equally.
Posted by: Jessica Barr at October 29, 2007 03:00 PM
If blogging were a key component of my daily tasks I would seek an accomodation so that the blog would be accessible not just to me but to others who may need to use it. It would be important that the blog be available and if possible consider doing something that includes an audio blog. My main concern would be my accessibility and capability to use tools upon which my career ratings and employee ratings will be based as well as insuring accessibility to others who may be using the blog.
Posted by: bmayse at October 29, 2007 04:32 PM
Jessica, You mention a blog site that a friend of yours uses. Can you share that site with us as a resource? Yes, it is requesting a reasonable accommodation accessible to people with diverse disabilities and hoping you get something you as an employee can use. How do we know when a "reasonable" accommodation will be seen as a hardship?
Posted by: Jo Taliaferro at October 29, 2007 04:45 PM
One of my blind friends has a blog on LiveJournal. I know another blind friend who blogs, but I am not sure which site he uses. If I get a chance to talk to him in the near future, I will definitely share it.
Posted by: Jessica Barr at October 31, 2007 10:29 AM