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‘Choose Life’ plates would fund Right to Life through the Secretary of StateLiberal Lucy is doing a nice job on her series, A New Year, A New Michigan, A New You, but she just hit a road block with the State Senate website.
Unfortunately, the way that the Senate website is set up is not user-friendly. Navigating in and around the website is difficult. The way that the Senate website is set up, you cannot click on the different features and have a separate address (link) for each feature. Most of the features that are provided by the website are featured on the top, and include info about the Senate, committee information, Senate rules, employment, legislative links, Senate TV, and the kids page.
It wouldn’t be noticeable to most people, because it all looks the same as you navigate within the site. Because linking directly to specific pages within the website is impossible for people like you and I, it’s even more difficult for those with disabilities. According to a source within the Commission for the Blind, a blind person using a text reader would definitely not be able to link directly to a page within the Senate website. (emphasis mine)
Having worked with technology for many years, this kind of thing really irks me. Technology is important to people with disabilities; it often makes the difference between ‘abled’ and ‘disabled’.
| A text reader (aka ‘screen reader’) is an assistive technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. It attempts to interpret text on a computer screen and convert it to either speech or braille. According to Susan Turney of the Michigan Commission for the Blind, there are no accurate statistics as to how many Michigan residents are blind or visually impaired, but best estimates put the number between 45,000 and 55,000. Because the State Senate website is not accessible via text reader, many of these residents cannot use the site without the assistance of another person. |  |
In her article, Liberal Lucy mentions that the State Senate is aware of the problem and hopes to have it fixed by June. As someone who has worked with websites, I know that it is not a difficult task to fix this problem. By putting it off for a few months, the Michigan Senate is negligent in its responsibility to people with disabilities. At best, the State Senate web developers are unsympathetic and lack understanding of the unique problems of the blind and visually impaired. At worst, they are deliberately discriminating against a group of people by making it difficult for them to get public information. I suspect they wouldn’t be so insensitive to any other disability; if someone in a wheelchair wanted to enter the building, would they tell him to come back in June?
Participation in our government should not be prevented by bad coding. Call State Senator Valde Garcia, and ask him to put some pressure on the people responsible for the State Senate web site. Senator Garcia can be reached at 517-373-2420 (or toll free 1-800-516-0026). If you are not in Senator Garcia’s district, you can reach the Secretary of the Senate by calling 517-373-2400. If you are unsure of what to say, here’s a suggestion:
I am concerned about the State Senate website, located at senate.mi.gov. The site is not accessible to text readers, and therefore is not accessible to thousands of Michigan residents. The site contains information valuable to the residents of Michigan and it should be accessible regardless of physical disability. I would like the Senator and his colleagues to make this site accessible as soon as possible. Accessibility should be a priority.
If you think that this is not a big deal, I ask you to consider this … many of you use electronic calendars, e-mail, instant messaging, and word processors. All of you reading this article online are using the Internet right now. Do you get irritated when you can’t get online? Does your work get interrupted if your computer crashes or you lose your cell phone signal? Do you get frustrated when you can’t find the remote?
You think technology is important to you? Imagine how important it is to people who cannot participate in the world without it. Please call your State Senator and ask him to address the accessibility of State Senate website. It will only take a few minutes.
If you would like information on the Michigan Commission for the Blind, visit them on the web at http://www.michigan.gov/mcb, or call their Lansing office at 517-373-2062 (voice). You can also reach the toll free voice lines at 800-292-4200 (Lower Peninsula) or 800-323-2535 (Upper Peninsula)
note: The State of Michigan website is completely accessible to screen readers. The State Senate site is a different URL and is not directly affiliated with http://michigan.gov.
The comments in this article are my own and do not represent the views of The Arc Shiawassee
You are such rockstar. Thanks for bringing more attention to it and putting out an action alert of your own.
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As a parent who has a daughter who is mute, yes she is unable to speak. Technology has been vastly important to her quality of life. She now has a very light-weight laptop with a text-to-speech software program on it to speak for her. Otherwise, she uses sign language, which very few people in the ‘hearing’ world know. She is not deaf, so she uses her cordless handset with a speaker phone in it to talk on the telephone. But that doesn’t deter ignorant or rude people on the phone. She just called me a little while ago and said that a woman called our home and because she wasn’t very patient, became impatient and hung up twice on my daughter. Then left a message on the answering machine. I’ll be interested to see who called when I get home. Hopefully, it is just a misunderstanding, not blatant rudeness and zero compassion.
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@Tina, people often assume ability … I think your caller thought “this person is being a jerk” rather than “this person is having trouble” simply because being a jerk is more common and more visible.
Sigh … I was hoping by the time I got to the end of this comment, I would have come up with something wise to say.
Sadly, no.
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It was an elderly woman who had a grandfather clock and a grand piano that needs to be repaired, so she called our home instead of the business.
So, as I had hoped, it was a misunderstanding. I am just entirely sensitive to it, especially since my daughter tries so hard.
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