Hello VICUG members, especially Tom Dekker,
I work for IBM in the area of accessibility. I wish to address some of the
concerns raised in Tom Dekker's note included below. However, what I write
hear should not be construed as representing an official position taken by
IBM. I am not speaking for IBM in this note but rather as one of you who
can help contribute to the solution of the below described problem. I may,
although, be able to help expedite obtaining official communications if
necessary.
First, I welcome input concerning accessibility issues on IBM.com sites. I
work in the Chief Information Officer's office at IBM headquarters, and one
of my areas of responsibility is coordinating corporate efforts to improve
and monitor the accessibility of IBM.com. In doing so, I work very closely
with the IBM Accessibility Center -- the core group of people in IBM who
are experts on accessibility. You can read about the IBM Accessibility
Center (formerly known as IBM Special Needs Systems) at
http://www.ibm.com/able.
In case you are wondering, I am blind and I do monitor this list.
It is important to note that this survey was not contracted by the IBM
Accessibility Center. And, I doubt, and I can check on this next week, that
anyone in the Accessibility Center reviewed it. Tom indicated that the
survey was targeted at people with disabilities. That part slipped by me; I
don't remember seeing anything at the survey site that indicated so. If it
was, it certainly would seem to be a major oversight for the survey
developers to not have there work double checked by someone in the
Accessibility Center.
On the other hand, were it a general market survey, I would not necessarily
expect either myself or the Accessibility Center to have reviewed it. Keep
in mind that ibm.com consists of literally millions of pages. Those of us
in IBM who are exclusively focussed on accessibility help lots of
developers review their work as we guide them in the process of accessible
web development, but we cannot evaluate every single page that gets
published. Of course, one of our goals is to have web development processes
and developer education that will lead to a 100% accessible IBM.com. You
can help by letting us know about problems you encounter while doing
business with IBM.
When I saw the original posting pointing people to the survey, I was very
intrigued. I had not heard of it before that. I did take some time to check
it out. I think I got through about 30 or more pages of it before I ran out
of time and had to cancel out. I was using JFW 3.5.37 and IE 5.0. Although
I noted several problems with compliance to IBM's own accessibility
guidelines, I had difficulty with only a few pages. I do agree with Tom's
statement about the radio button labels. Although, the pages I found most
difficult were those where you were asked to rank features or desires from
1 to 5. Those pages were completely accessible but really hard to complete,
especially if you made an error by giving two items the same ranking. As I
remember, there was one other type of page I found difficult due more to
useability concerns than problems with accessibility guidelines compliance.
Of course the useability and accessibility frustration only added to my
annoyance with the repetitiveness and excessive length. It went on and on
and gave no indication as to how much further you had to go.
I will be contacting the people responsible for the survey to help them
understand what IBM's accessibility policy is and how to comply with it.
Again, I welcome any other useful and constructive input on this issue.
Best regards,
Matt King
Accessibility End User Advocate
IBM Business Transformation/CIO
Phone: (719) 520-3006, Tie line: 8-656-3006
Internet: [log in to unmask]
Kelly Pierce <[log in to unmask]>@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> on 04/30/2000
06:18:09 AM
Please respond to Kelly Pierce <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: "VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List"
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
cc:
Subject: IBM's Inaccessible Survey for Disabled
Below is the response from IBM about what it is prepared to do or
specifically not do in making its survey on accessibility accessible to
people with disabilities. It is followed by the original message to IBM.
Tom Dekker is the founder and past-president of the New York City VICUG.
kelly
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 02:44:23 -0500
From: Tom Dekker <[log in to unmask]>
As mentioned before, the url for the survey doesn't seem to work any
more. But I think you'll agree that letters need to be written to this
person regarding his apparent uncertainty as to whether or not IBM and its
contractors can muster the resources necessary to put a speech-friendly
form on the web! Personally, I think the situation is disgusting,
especially when they proport to wanting input from our community. And no,
there's no excuse why they can't provide such a form. And no, providing a
form over the phone is a cop-out as far as I'm concerned. Who invented the
saying "second-class solutions make for second-class citizens".\?
Anyway, write to this guy and ask why the link to the form quit working. i
did and haven't got an answer to *that one* yet.
T.D.
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2000 2:56 PM
Subject: Fwd: Your remarkably un-speech-friendly survey form
Tom, first let me thank you very much for investing your personal time in
taking our survey. Second, I apologize that our survey is not "blind
friendly" -- I have low vision myself and can empathize although not
totally relate. Third, I really appreciate your very specific suggestions.
Please note that I'm copying this email to the president of the company who
does the survey programming and web hosting so that we may at lest consider
your request -- can't make any promises at this point but we'll certainly
look at it.
What would you think of a survey you could communicate from/to entirely by
voice???
Thanks,
Tomec Smith
Marketing Manager
IBM Voice Systems
t/l 258-6389
(561) 640-6389
[log in to unmask]
---------------------- Forwarded by Tomec C Smith/West Palm Beach/IBM on
04/29/2000 03:40 PM ---------------------------
"Tomec Smith" <[log in to unmask]> on 04/28/2000 03:07:45 AM
Please respond to Tomec C Smith/West Palm Beach/IBM@IBMUS
To: Tomec C Smith/West Palm Beach/IBM@IBMUS
cc:
Subject: Fwd: Your remarkably un-speech-friendly survey form
---- Begin Included Message ----
From: "Tom Dekker" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 07:55:43 -0500
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Your remarkably un-speech-friendly survey form
I posted this to all the blind lists on the net that I could think of!
Didn't notice until now, that there was an email address.
...
Hi folks,
I don't know about anybody else who has checked this out, but if you
haven't, please do. Believe me! I'd like to be proven wrong!
I thought it would be really cool to complete this survey. Well,
this is
just my opinion and maybe there's something I'm missing, but if this
is
IBM's idea of a speech-friendly form, it bites the big one! Each
radio
button or checkbox should be distinctly labelled as to what the
question is
and what the rating is. And at least, the way jaws reads it, there
seem to
be a lot more radio buttons than there are choices! I haven't been so
confused by a form on the net in a long time and I'm used to filling
them
out! I finally just gave up! So guess what the average to lower end
user's
going to do with it. And thus, guess how much input they're actually
going
to get, at least from the people it's supposedly designed for!
Anyway, If the people who designed this form are any example of what
IBM
means by "accessible to blind people", I don't hold out much
hope! Sorry,
but I found this whole thing to be very annoying and a complete waste
of
time. Too bad too, because I was really looking forward to having
input.
Oh well! What else is new! <Sigh!>
If people have a different opinion once they've tried it, please let
me
know. But if you find as I have, we need to let IBM know. Now, I
think
I'll go have a cup of tea and calm down. But it's just so
annoying! They
make a big deal about wanting your input and then, when you try to
give it,
the vehicle for providing it is essentially inaccessible. And it's
all that
much more annoying when the people who provide it are supposedly the
ones
dealing with accessibility issues! Gee! I wonder what my blood
pressure is
right now! <GGGRRR!>
Tom Dekker
Access Technology Consultant f/t Blind and Reading-Disabled
Houston, TX
Telephone (281) 988-8982
Fax: (281) 530-1740
Email:
[log in to unmask]
Web:
http://www.geocities.com/technability
Past President
Visually Impaired Computer Users Group of NYC (VICUG-NYC)
http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html#c:windowsfavoritesblind
stuff
-- Original message:
Subject: NET: Fw: IBM Survey for accessing the net via the telephone
and
cellular phone
> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2000 8:27 AM
> Subject: IBM Survey for accessing the net via the telephone and
cellular
> phone
>
>
> > If you want to be a part of IBM's development of telephone and
cellular
> access to the net, then read on and visit the survey site to
> > learn more.
> >
> > Please accept an invitation to contribute to a special market
research
> > study entitled, "End-user study for applications you could access
via
> > the phone". IBM is sponsoring this important study of current
usage
> > and future needs for speech enabled computer applications over the
> > telephone and cellphone.
> >
> > The study is designed to find out what products and services
you're
> > currently using, what your needs are, what features you'd like
and get
> > your opinions about how you might benefit from having speech
> > recognition in telephone applications
> >
> > Please note that, in addition to offering your opinions about new
products
> > and services, you will have the opportunity to rate a number of
very
> > interesting new products and services that IBM and its customers
are
> > considering.
> >
> > After the study is complete, a Results Summary will be
prepared. To be
> > eligible for the Results Summary you must complete the survey and
submit
> > your email address. The Results Summery will provide you with a
high-level
> > overview of the study's results and should make for very
interesting
> > reading.
> >
> > To participate in the study, please click the following link:
> >
> > ===>>>
http://www.freestation.com/ca/survey2/surv2101.html
> >
> > It will only take a short time for you to complete the
survey. It will
> > have a direct impact on the future of speech recognition
applications
> > on the telephone and cellphone.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Russ Guillemot
> > ListGuy Survey Services
> > 760-838-7023
> >
[log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *** This is a one-time mailing. You have NOT been added to a
list. ***
> > For local removal:
[log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE===================
> >
>
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
>
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In the body of the message, simply type
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>
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>
Tom Dekker
Access Technology Consultant f/t Blind and Reading-Disabled
Houston, TX
Telephone (281) 988-8982
Fax: (281) 530-1740
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.geocities.com/technability
Past President
Visually Impaired Computer Users Group of NYC (VICUG-NYC)
http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html#c:windowsfavoritesblind
stuff
---- End Included Message ----
Sent by Web.com free email.
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Was the salesman clueless? Productopia has the answers.
http://click.egroups.com/1/3019/5/_/535595/_/957080616/
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
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