[bscb-l] The Inaccessible Census

[Annmarie Strazzullo]

I called a few days ago about seeing if the census could be filled out online 
and the person offered to send me a braille copy of the questions.  I told him I 
could get those online but that I specifically wanted to know if I could fill 
out the information myself online.  He sent me to a link that basically told me 
it's not possible.  I spent a good ten minutes on the phone with this person 
because he didn't know the answers to anything I asked.


Annmarie
***
Music is a healing force all living spirits sing.--Joanna Shenandoah, Oneida 
composer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alison" <alison2911 at comcast.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:26 PM
Subject: [bscb-l] The Inaccessible Census


What will ACB and BSCB do to complain about the fact that once again the census 
form was printed in tiny print on a blue background (not good contrast)--and 
even the telephone number you can call for assistance, which was explained in 
multiple languages, was not printed in large print (much less braille!).

There is no excuse for this!  We must not let the US Census Bureau continue 
these practices that cause visually impaired people to be consistently 
under-represented in our nation's statistics!

PS:  There's apparently a phishing scam going around pretending to be a US 
Census form, but the phony census form asks for your Social Security number and 
other sensitive info--the real census form does NOT ask for anything like that, 
of course.  So this makes me think, if the real US Census Bureau would put 
large-print and braille stickers on the outside of the envelope with the real 
census forms (the stickers could say "US Census Form" and give the phone number 
you can call for help filling it out), then not only would visually impaired 
people have better access to the census, but these special stickers would also 
help us distinguish the real census forms from the phony ones!  So, just like 
with accessible currency, accessible census envelopes would help the government 
prevent fraud!  Why don't they listen?  We need to keep after them until they do 
it right!

--Alison
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