The company that installed the software, SAP, sponsored the SAP/Stevie
Wonder Vision Awards in 1998.  I cannot find documentation that they have
been held since.  It seems that SAP prefers to spend resources on lavish
dinners at the Plaza Hotel in New York capped by a Stevie Wonder concert
and awards ceremony *about* information access for the blind rather than
do the real work of creating blind accessibility in its products.  Two
blind State of Arkansas workers are not accepting SAP's public relations
or the hollow promises of software accessibility sometime, someday later.
They filed a lawsuit demanding effective communication as required under
the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and a judge last week
blocked the state from installing the portions of the SAP software that
are inaccessible.

Kelly

    The Associated Press State & Local Wire

Friday, July 11, 2003

    Computer system's software held up pending lawsuit

    LITTLE ROCK A judge has barred the state from installing parts of a
computer system that cannot be accessed by blind employees.

    Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore issued a temporary
injunction Thursday, saying "the state won't install any ... software
that doesn't comply with Act 1227 of 1999."

    Kilgore said technology purchased with state money for employee or
public use must be accessible to the disabled.

    In July 2001, Donna Hartzell and Larry Wayland sued Gov. Mike
Huckabee and other state officials. The two blind employees contend the
Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System lacks a synthesized
speech or Braille program. Without the programs, they say they cannot do
their jobs.

    "Mr. Wayland and Ms. Hartzell are injured by the state's illegal
usage of a computer system that is inaccessible to them," attorney
Joseph Espo said during Thursday's hearing.

    Assistant Attorney General Anthony Black argued that because the
system's performance-based budgeting component has not yet been
installed, the employees have not been harmed.

    He said the state's contract with SAP, the company that provides the
software, requires the system to comply with the federal Americans With
Disabilities Act.

    "The state fully expects that SAP will fully comply with the
contract," Black told the judge. "The issue is best resolved as a
contract matter between the parties."

    A trial date for the lawsuit has not been set.


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