Hi, It is dollars and cents!  The amount of money raised in advertising 
might be enough to cover the printing?  Gary KB22YAA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:33 PM
Subject: Digital QST And Accessibility


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.=20

Needless to say, this is disappointing, if true.=20

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.=20

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.=20

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.=20

I would love to discuss this further. We can start with what format the =
digital edition will take and go from there.=20

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