Getting Touchy? Who Me?

 

I was surprised to hear myself say, “The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act that was passed in 1990) isn’t worth the paper it is printed on anymore.”  The legislation that brought ramps and curb-cuts never used inclusive code that would allow the print impaired access to all of the information and options on a computer screen.  The cyber super highway with all of its social media and websites continues to be inaccessible for the blind and visually impaired who are seeking jobs, information, entertainment, and inclusion.  The current problem:  Some areas that contain links cannot be activated with the tab key or by moving the arrow key up and down and hitting the enter key.  The area on the screen can sometimes be located by a screen-reader, but it must be activated by a sighted assistant using the mouse to click enter. 

 

At the beginning of the 1990s, I transferred ALA (American Library Association) credit courses from The University of Michigan School of Library Science (now the school of Information that is no longer ALA accredited) to Central Michigan University for the Master of Arts in Library Media that didn’t include data base courses.  The word, “media,” meant something very different in those days.  I hoped that companies that claim to be working with the manufacturers of screen-reading software would have solved accessibility deficiencies by now.  Attempts to work with the design and profile areas on LinkedIn, Blogger, and Facebook show me that times are not getting better.  Tutorials on You tube commonly feature a person who talks while pointing his mouse and saying, “Do this….”  

 

Last week washers and dryers were replaced in the subsidized HUD housing that I call home.  This is a wonderful place where residents speak eight different languages.  Everyone says “hello” to me in the halls to let me know that they are there and know that I might not see them.  Several residents helped me find a seat when we were notified that there would be a training session about the new washers and dryers.  The technician told me that he would bring braille labels for people like me.  That seemed strange.  I’ve been doing my own laundry for as long as I can remember without braille labels.  Individual buttons to push were in logical locations and easy to remember.  The new washers and dryers, I learned on laundry day, have flat, touch screens.  I had to find a neighbor to help me do my laundry since it was on the weekend when the office was closed.

 

When the technician arrived with the braille labels almost two weeks later, I was summoned to read the dots on dymo tape so they would be placed on the flat, touch screens with the letters facing in the right direction.  After this was done, the screen was photographed to ensure the correct placements on all of the other machines on the property.  braille labels on the washers are not efficient.  Whole words such as “Temperature” and “Heavy duty Load” are used instead of abbreviations.  Labels run into each other.  The actual areas at serve as buttons are still difficult to locate.  Some areas that serve as buttons can be pushed three times to change the water temperature and other features.  If this area is touched accidently while reading the braille and activated, there is no way to know what choice was made.  This is one of those Let go and let God moments when the lid is locked and water begins to fill the machine.  I try to just find the Start function while leaving the machine on default settings.  (There are poorly sighted residents complaining about these replacement machines in eight different languages.)

 

I use bump dots on my microwave oven which has a touch screen.  Every store where I shop has a key pad with a dot on the number five that allows me to put in my phone number or pin.  They also have screens that can be swiped for credit card recognition.  Recently I learned that a flat, touch screen is also being used in some fast-food restaurants and outside doorways where buttons were once used for intercoms.  Mechanical engineers, like computer software engineers, have dropped the ADA ball.  Until a standard code for writing computer software is legislated and adopted, the blind and print impaired will continue to have the highest unemployment numbers.

 

Me touchy?  You bet.  This blog post is what I am doing about it because I am just a blind librarian.  If you are a consumer with poor vision, social worker, health care professional, parent of a disabled child, person with a disability, journalist, lawyer, or politician, what are YOU going to do about it?