Hi Jeff,

I wish I could give you good news but this problem is happening with most government websites.  Despite the fact that Section 508 standards have been in place for a long time government agencies either seem to ignore, or when they do an audit they do it incorrectly or only once.  Some states like Illinois where I live have their own standards for accessibility of digital properties and the Illinois standards are pretty weak.

I'm running into the same issues.  I filed for unemployment over the phone which was a miracle since most of the time I got automated messages that agencies are not accepting phone calls.  I found the Illinois Department of Employment Security website pretty useless.  Even with sighted assistance the page crashed or gave me error messages for no reason when I tried to recertify, or set up direct deposit.  This week I tried to use the state's telephone system to recertify and the system was down for a day and I just got lucky and was able to recertify by phone a couple of days ago.  I will have to deal with this in two weeks to recertify again unless I have a job.  Right now I'm trying to deal with next steps in the unemployment process to get a career coach and training and the websites are horrible, and people don't respond to phone calls or e-mails.  We're in a situation where the old argument about getting sighted assistance over the phone instead of making things accessible isn't working anymore.  I'm afraid unless there is massive litigation, the situation won't get better.  People who work for government agencies either don't know about, care about, or comply with accessibility standards in an incorrect manner.  The situation is made worse by the fact that people who work for government agencies assume that testing websites for accessibility is something that's done only once.  Technology changes and government needs to commit to updating its digital infrastructure for everyone.

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Jeff Kennyon
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2020 5:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] New York State Department of Labor page and JAWS and IOS

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a good Wednesday.  I have been trying to follow up with the New York State Department of Labor with regard to a UI claim I made back in March when I had been layed off.  I understand that New York as well as the rest of the country may be far behind with claims because of Covid-19 and all.  However, I did manage to talk to someone at the contact center on June 19, and she said my claim was being reviewed that day, and since then I have been able to claim weekly on the phone, but haven’t received any updates.  Since I have not had any luck on the phone I tried to send them a message via the web and the page is a nightmare!  When it comes to selecting subjects JAWS doesn’t seem to know that there is even a form and dropdown there, and after talking to someone who helps out with the site itself I resolved to create my message in Word, and then paste over on the form.  When I clicked send there was no error message, but the subject and original message form were still there, so I have no idea if it was sent or not.  Are other people having any luck with the department of labor’s page for the state of New York?  I was able to set up my direct deposit information with no problem and have read messages after some fighting but haven’t been able to do much else.

Sent from my iPhone

    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]


    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]