Hi,

A fellow blind ham apparently spoke to someone at HQ recently to ask about the upcoming digital edition of QST. The person he spoke to seemed to indicate, according to Scott, that not only was the digital edition of QST not going to be accessible, but there were no plans to make it accessible. 

Needless to say, this is disappointing, if true. 

However, it's possible that there is a misunderstanding of the issues involved here. We of course don't want a special edition, or something like that. However, it seems to me that an online edition of QST could be inherently usable by blind members. There are, of course, formats that just don't work well (or at all) with screen access technology. The system that CQ Communications has chosen to implement, for instance, can't be used by screen readers. Your standard garden variety PDF, however, will read with most screen readers, assuming that the PDF isn't solely an image scan of a paper document. 

I would be interested to know what digital format the ARRL will be using for its electronic distribution. Knowing this will help determine whether or not I will be able to read it when it becomes available. 

While I wasn't on the call that I mentioned, I can tell you that my friend felt as though he was not valued as a member in good standing, that his membership was somehow less important because of his disability, perhaps that he was asking for something unreasonable. Bear in mind that, while we do get QST on tape from the Library of Congress, the issue comes about two months after the general public gets it. I, for one, would be willing to pay full freight for a membership that included a timely and accessible version of QST. However, if my membership as a blind ham is of no value to the League, perhaps i should rethink that. Note that I have no reason yet to believe that this is the case, but one of the staff's members has certainly left at least one member with this impression, not by the possible inaccessibility of the digital edition, but rather by the way the issue was handled. Or, rather, blown off. 

I would love to discuss this further. We can start with what format the digital edition will take and go from there. 

While I must admit to some disappointment that accessibility wasn't even considered when the decision was made to go digital, and, to my knowledge, no blind members were contacted to get any input on the issue, I would like to believe that this is something that can be considered now. Better late than never.

Vy 73,
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Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY