[nabs] FW: [acb-l] Blog post by Google on partnership with ACB

[chris nusbaum]

Hi all,

I read the  blog post, and found, in my opinion, that Google is
relatively sincere about their commitment to accessibility. They are
currently working with both the Federation and the Council to better
their products for the blind. Now, I understand many of your
frustrations which were expressed here. However, let me point out the
fact that the blind are a minority. Therefore, there aren't a lot of
people representing our interests, besides the organizations of the
blind (mainly the Federation, or NFB, and the Council, or ACB) which
are relatively unknown outside of the blind community. I know that
both organizations have influenced the laws and regulations that
effect us as blind people, and have reached many court settlements
which have helped us, especially in the area of technology. For
example, the Quiet Car bill and the accessible currency initiative.
The Council has also done a lot in the area of audio description, and
is currently working to pass some sort of FCC regulation making audio
description required for all TV stations. Yes, I've been following
that Washington Connection! * Smiles! * These are just a few examples
of what the two consumer groups have done for the blind. However, none
of that has been possible without the members of those consumer
groups, the blind themselves speaking for themselves, sharing their
personal experiences, and suggesting solutions to the very companies
whose technology hasn't been accessible to us. If you think that all
Google would say of Gmail's omissions in Basic HTML mode is "Screen
reader users use basic HTML, and they don't really need those
features," then why would their knowledge department waste their time
working with the Council to write and conduct this survey? If they
didn't want to listen to you, why would they conduct this long survey
in the first place? Maybe it's because they *do* want to listen to you
and better their products for the blind! How do those of you who don't
think this survey would do any good expect your inaccessibility
frustrations to be fixed if we, the blind, don't share our experiences
and ideas with the company? They don't know all that much about
accessibility as of now... their staff's probably full of sighted
people! Then, I ask all of you, who better for Google to get their
information from on making their products more accessible to the blind
than the blind themselves?

Chris

On 8/19/11, Michael Malver <mmalver at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: acb-l-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of
> Pratik Patel
> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 5:38 PM
> To: leadership at acb.org; acb-l at acb.org
> Subject: [acb-l] Blog post by Google on partnership with ACB
>
> Dear all,
>
> Google has developed a blog post on the partnership between Google and ACB.
> It was put up earlier this afternoon at the following address.
>
> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/accessibility-survey-for-blind-users.
> html
>
> Regards,
>
> Pratik
>
>
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-- 
Chris Nusbaum

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The real
problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists. If
a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can
be reduced to a mere physical nuissence." -- Kenneth Jernigan

Visit the I C.A.N. Foundation online at: www.icanfoundation.info for
information on our foundation and how it helps blind and visually
impaired children in MD say "I can!"