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I do not want to wade into the "should these vaccination websites be made accessible" argument. I think they should be, full stop. But, it isn't clear to me fr

I do not want to wade into the "should these vaccination websites be made accessible" argument. I think they should be, full stop. But, it isn't clear to me from this article the extent of the difficulty people are having, how many people are having issues, what those issues are, etc., and the overall tone of the piece seems light on information and heavy on righteous outrage. It's in that class of badly written articles that just wants people to be angry but not necessarily better informed.

faeriechangling 5y ago
Yeah what exact issues are being talked about? Also were any ADA laws broken, because that GREATLY impacts how I read into this story and where any problem (if any) may lie.
pseudalopex 5y ago
"In at least seven states, blind residents said they were unable to register for the vaccine through their state or local governments without help. Phone alternatives, when available, have been beset with their own issues, such as long hold times and not being available at all hours like websites." "Common programming failures that make sites hard to use for the visually impaired included text without enough contrast to distinguish words from the page’s background and images without alternative text explaining what they showed, the WebAIM survey showed. Even worse, portions of the forms on 19 states’ pages were built so that screen readers couldn’t decipher what information a user should enter on search bars or vaccine registration forms."
jareds 5y ago
I'm a totally blind software developer. I used two sites to sign up for a vaccine. The first site was a covid vaccine specific website. I was unable to use it with my screen reader. I can't remember the exact issue but it was something to do with a popup my screen reader could not interact with to select a date. Luckily I had family who were able to fill out the form for me with in a couple hours of opening availability. I was fortunate that my family were not in frontline jobs and could be at a computer when I needed them to be. The second site was a mobile health clinic that was targeting disabled and at risk individuals. That worked fine because there goal was to get vaccines in arms and not worry about the technology. They used signup genius which had no accessibility issues for me. I understand that accessibility is not always easy. I don't expect Xbox Live cloud to somehow magically make first person shooter games accessible. There's no reason in 2021 that a site that does nothing but have you fill out a basic form with the ability to select a date and time should be unusable with screen readers.
- pabs3 5y ago
  Are there accessible games for consoles? or in general?
  - duskwuff 5y ago
    Very few, and only to a limited degree. Right now, a lot of games provide partial accessibility for deaf players by including on-screen captions -- although many of them have insufficient captions for sound effects -- and some games provide accessibility for the colorblind with alternate color schemes or filters. That's about the full extent of accessibility support, AFAIK. Accessibility for the blind is basically not even on the roadmap. Some games are barely playable by blind gamers (e.g. https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/4/10707692/blind-gamer-beats-ocarina-of-time-video-legend-of-zelda https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/4/10707692/blind-gamer-beats-...), but that's much more by accident than design.

faeriechangling 5y ago

Yeah what exact issues are being talked about? Also were any ADA laws broken, because that GREATLY impacts how I read into this story and where any problem (if any) may lie.

pseudalopex 5y ago

"In at least seven states, blind residents said they were unable to register for the vaccine through their state or local governments without help. Phone alternatives, when available, have been beset with their own issues, such as long hold times and not being available at all hours like websites." "Common programming failures that make sites hard to use for the visually impaired included text without enough contrast to distinguish words from the page’s background and images without alternative text explaining what they showed, the WebAIM survey showed. Even worse, portions of the forms on 19 states’ pages were built so that screen readers couldn’t decipher what information a user should enter on search bars or vaccine registration forms."

jareds 5y ago

I'm a totally blind software developer. I used two sites to sign up for a vaccine. The first site was a covid vaccine specific website. I was unable to use it with my screen reader. I can't remember the exact issue but it was something to do with a popup my screen reader could not interact with to select a date. Luckily I had family who were able to fill out the form for me with in a couple hours of opening availability. I was fortunate that my family were not in frontline jobs and could be at a computer when I needed them to be. The second site was a mobile health clinic that was targeting disabled and at risk individuals. That worked fine because there goal was to get vaccines in arms and not worry about the technology. They used signup genius which had no accessibility issues for me. I understand that accessibility is not always easy. I don't expect Xbox Live cloud to somehow magically make first person shooter games accessible. There's no reason in 2021 that a site that does nothing but have you fill out a basic form with the ability to select a date and time should be unusable with screen readers.

pabs3 5y ago
Are there accessible games for consoles? or in general?
- duskwuff 5y ago
  Very few, and only to a limited degree. Right now, a lot of games provide partial accessibility for deaf players by including on-screen captions -- although many of them have insufficient captions for sound effects -- and some games provide accessibility for the colorblind with alternate color schemes or filters. That's about the full extent of accessibility support, AFAIK. Accessibility for the blind is basically not even on the roadmap. Some games are barely playable by blind gamers (e.g. https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/4/10707692/blind-gamer-beats-ocarina-of-time-video-legend-of-zelda https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/4/10707692/blind-gamer-beats-...), but that's much more by accident than design.