[bscb-l] The Inaccessible Census

[Alison]

It wouldn't cost the Census Bureau much to put large print AND braille stickers on the outside of the envelopes that contain the census forms.  Outreach to blind groups is nice, but of course not every visually impaired person is going to hear about it that way--we deserve the same info as everyone else, in the same manner as everyone else (i.e., on the census form mailing itself).

--Alison


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Hachey" <bhachey at comcast.net>
To: "Bay state (Massachusetts) discussion list" <bscb-l at acb.org>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:51:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [bscb-l] The Inaccessible Census

Hi Alison,
Yes, the Census Bureau needs to do a better job of outreach. They did some 
of what needs to be done in that they put info on the MCB information 
system. But I didn't see anything in recent issues of the Braille Forum, and 
I bet it probably wasn't in the Monitor either.
I had this number a couple of weeks ago and probably should have posted it 
sooner. One of our speakers next weekend is the outreach coordinator for 
Cambridge and Boston, working with the Disability Policy Consortium.
Thanks for pointing out the tiny print, never a good thing, particularly for 
a customer service type number.
The DPC is doing outreach to se that folks are counted and that they get 
proper assistance filling out the form including over the phone. The April 1 
date is not a deadline and it is my understanding that folks have until at 
least the end of April to get this done.
IT is certainly frustrating that improved accessibility too often comes in 
incremental baby steps. This is the first time that the Census Bureau has 
offered to help folks over the phone.
Finally, thanks for the warning about the phishing scam. Census forms never 
ask for a social security number and if anyone asks you for one in relation 
to the census, that's definitely fraud.
I will be contacting the Census Bureau and, wile I thank them for 
improvements to the system, I'll point out what they could have done better 
such as large print on the envelopes, putting info in the ACB and NFB 
newsletters, and radio and tV spots featuring the customer service number.
Bob Hachey
----- 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
> _______________________________________________
> bscb-l mailing list
> bscb-l at acb.org
> http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/bscb-l 

_______________________________________________
bscb-l mailing list
bscb-l at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/bscb-l