Hi All,


I just participated in the 2020 Census by filling out the online form. 
I'll lay out the process here in this post.


This week (mid March), I received a mailing from the U.S. Census. The 
envelope is roughly the size of a half sheet of letter writing paper, 
similar to an AT&T phone bill. It contains two sheets of paper. One is a 
letter for the residents of your street address. The other is 
information about participating if you speak another language. The 
letter, though very generic, is important. Your census ID number is 
printed on it to the right of your mailing address. The ID number is 
made up of twelve characters (both letters and numbers) and is printed 
in large type below the fold in the page. You need this number to log 
into the online form. I haven't found any information about other (more 
accessible) ways to get it though the census literature does say you can 
respond to the questionnaire over the phone. The back of the letter 
(i.e., what's inside the fold) has basic instructions, which you can 
read online.


As directed by the letter, I visited the census website at

https://my2020census.gov


At the beginning of the page is a link telling screen reader users that 
the best experience comes from the latest Jaws and Internet Explorer. A 
little further down is another link to help screen reader users figure 
out what they're running. I used Chrome with Jaws, and that worked just 
fine. I also tried Chrome with Narrator, and as long as I started after 
the link for checking the screen reader and browser combination, things 
seemed to work well, so I'm guessing NVDA would work too.


Logging in and responding to the questionnaire was pretty 
straightforward. To log in, you enter 4 characters into three edit 
fields; as you type, focus moves automatically from field to field, so 
you don't have to worry about tabbing to the right place. The first 
screen asks you to verify your street address, which is linked to your 
census ID number. Then you activate a Get Started button, and you're 
off. Most screens have only one question. Controls are clearly labeled, 
and the screen reader correctly announces which option is marked and 
what text you've entered into edit boxes. When you're done, you can 
activate a Print/Save button to download a PDF of the confirmation screen.


So ... if you can access your Census ID number by using OCR, a visual 
assistance service, or sighted help from someone you know, participating 
in the census is very accessible.


Ciao


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