---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 12:24:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kelly Ford <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Senate Guide Dog Story and Web Sites

Hi All,

As a followup to this, the e-mail address given will yield only an
automated response from the Senator.  Faxes can be sent to his Washington
Office at (202) 228-2717.

I was further disturbed by a conversation I had with a staffer in Senator
Wyden's Portland office this morning.  When I asked about the Senator's
ability to communicate in an accessible fashion other than print the
staffer asked me why I didn't have a friend read me any print the Senator
might send.  This is unacceptable.  Why didn't the person who is blind
accept sighted assistance to walk onto the Senate floor.  Because in
neither case that's an acceptable solution.  On to what I really wanted to
say.



Senate Guide Dog Story Represents A Classic Case of Do As I Say, Not As I Do

By Kelly Ford

Contact: [log in to unmask]
Gresham, Oregon--On Monday of this week Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., stood up
for the rights of people with disabilities when he expressed his
dissatisfaction with the refusal of other senators to allow a congressional
aid who uses a guide dog in the Senate chamber.  It is unfortunate that the
Senator’s belief in accessibility does not extend to his internet web page
which can be found at http://www.senate.gov/~wyden.

HTML, the language of web pages, has a facility known as alt-text.  The
purpose of this feature is to allow web page designers to specify a word or
phrase to be displayed when the web browsing software isn’t displaying the
increasingly-popular graphics found on web pages.  Failure to include this
alt-text leaves a site virtually useless to web browsers who are blind or
choose not to view images for a variety of reasons.

At best a person who is blind visiting the Senator’s web page will hear
little more than the word “link” repeated by his or her screen reading
software.  At worst the individual will be greeted by little more than
silence as some web browsing software does not replace unlabeled hypertext
links with the word “link”.  In either case the result is a web site closed
to people who are blind.

Wyden, when confronted with close-minded and outmoded thinking about people
with disabilities earlier this week, took swift action to address the
situation.  I urge the Senator to be equally prompt in making his internet
resources accessible to people with disabilities.

To express your opinion to the Senator you can direct e-mail to
[log in to unmask]  I urge others to join me in letting Senator
Wyden know accessibility matters 100 percent of the time.

To learn more about the accessibility  of internet resources you can visit
the following web sites.

Designing An Accessible World: http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web, for a
collection of guidelines, examples and other links on web accessibility.

WGBH Television: http://www.boston.com/wgbh, for the web site of a pioneer
and continued leader in accessible media.

Webwatch: http://www.teleport.com/~kford/webwatch.htm, for a web site that
is devoted to internet accessibility.