A major technology access lawsuit has just been filed.  the statement
from Arkansas Human Services Department spokesman Joe Quinn is typical.
He says  technicians at the California computer company from which the
state purchased the system "are working
right now" to repair the incompatibility problem.
    "We're very aware of it," Quinn said. "We would have preferred that
it be compatible the day it was put in but it wasn't. ... No one on the
state side has any doubt that this will be fixed. It will be fixed and it
will be made accessible."

Obviously so, now that there is a lawsuit.  However, when will it be
fixed?  Without lawsuits such as these the later never arrives and the
someday never comes.  Meanwhile, people may be terminated or passed over
for promotions.

Kelly

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Thursday, July 19, 2001

Blind state workers sue, say computers won't let them do job
TRACI SHURLEY
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Two blind state employees who say Arkansas' new computerized accounting
system makes it impossible for them to do part of their jobs
independently are suing
Gov. Mike Huckabee and the state and asking a judge to order the system
fixed.
    Donna Hartzell and Larry Wayland filed the lawsuit Wednesday in
Pulaski County Circuit Court. They claim the Arkansas Administrative
Statewide Information
System, which began operation July 2, is incompatible with software
programs that allow blind employees to access information on a computer
screen.
    Hartzell, who supervises about 17 employees in the Services for the
Blind Division of the state Department of Human Services, said Wednesday
that she
can't access payroll records for her employees unless someone reads the
information on the screen to her. The software she had been using is
incompatible
with the new system, she said.
    "It's not something anyone wanted to do," Hartzell said of the
lawsuit filing. "We just keep waiting and hoping and they won't give us
any kind of timetable."
    State officials acknowledge the problem, but they say they're getting
it fixed as fast as possible.
    Besides Huckabee, the suit names Department of Finance and
Administration Director Dick Barclay and Human Services Department
Director Kurt Knickrehm
as defendants.
    Human Services Department spokesman Joe Quinn said technicians at the
California computer company from which the state purchased the system
"are working
right now" to repair the incompatibility problem.
    "We're very aware of it," Quinn said. "We would have preferred that
it be compatible the day it was put in but it wasn't. ... No one on the
state side
has any doubt that this will be fixed. It will be fixed and it will be
made accessible."
    In past months, Huckabee has clashed with some legislators who argue
that Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System is $10 million
over its
$30 million budget. Days before the system was implemented -- the first
business day of fiscal 2002 -- Huckabee predicted the system would work,
but added
that "glitches or hiccups" were to be expected.
    "I hate that a lot of money is being spent on lawyer fees, when we
have every intention of getting it right," Huckabee said Wednesday.
    In response to comments about the system being fixed, Hartzell said
part of the purpose of the lawsuit is to bring concerns about handicap
accessibility
to the front end of a state project like the new accounting system.
    "It should have been done [already]. That was our point. If you do it
in the initial stages it's not an additional expense. It's not a problem,
Hartzell
said.
    The lawsuit, filed on Hartzell and Wayland's behalf by Little Rock
attorney John Burnett, claims the state has violated the federal
Americans with Disabilities
Act and Arkansas Code 25-26-201. The Arkansas law was enacted in 1999 to
ensure all state entities made information technology available to the
blind,
the suit says.
    The plaintiffs also claim the state is violating the federal
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by failing to reasonably accommodate their
handicaps in the
workplace.
    Quinn said the state's contract with the computer company that
designed the new system requires that it comply with the Americans with
Disabilities
Act.
    "We're searching for a solution," said Quinn, who added that the
state is sensitive to issues addressed in the disabilities law.
    Wayland, who works as a technical resource specialist in the Services
of the Blind Division, has been a state employee for 23 years. Hartzell
has been
a state employee for 20 years.
    They are asking Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore, to whom the case was
assigned, to issue a permanent injunction ordering the new computer
system be made
accessible to the blind. Wayland and Hartzell are also asking the judge
to award them attorneys' fees and "such other and further relief as
justice may
require."

Information for this article was contributed by Seth Blomeley of the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

This article was published on Thursday, July 19, 2001


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