[vicsireland] Re: Accessible Local Authority forms
- From: "Cearbhall O'Meadhra" <cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx>
- To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:34:42 -0000
The latest on this thread is that I have exhausted all the possibilities of
making the application forms accessible in MS Word. Firstly, the best we can
do is to develop a protected document with a work-around of having the field
labels appear in the status bar at the bottom of the screen so that JAWS can
speak them rather than in the real location beside the edit box to be filled
in. This means that the VI user cannot get a clear overview of the document
such as that which the sighted user can. Then the concept of Styles in MS
Word is crucial to making the Word document navigable by a Screen Reader and
this is a total mystery to most admin staff. Even if the officer does use
styles, there is no guarantee that what she creates will appear the same on
my computer if I chance to have the style modified in a different way from
that on her machine.
The officer in the current County Council is very keen to work through this
issue and get hold of a procedure that works. She pointed out that it's all
very well to be talking about HTML but she has no access to Dreamweaver or
any other web authoring software that would enable her to use HTML.
What do VICS members think we might do about getting the Local Authorities
to use HTML for all its documents?
All the best,
Cearbhall
T: +353 (0)1 2864623 m: 08333 23487 E: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barry McMullin
Sent: 28 January 2011 21:56
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Accessible Local Authority forms
Hi Cearbhall -
Some comments below interspersed with your message:
> Agencies seem to prefer PDF for all documents. I suppose it
> guarantees that the layout is unchanged when it leaves them and
> appears on the target OS.
Yes. This is especially common where they have an existing paper
form, and an existing process for handling that paper form. Then
they like the idea that the electronically distributed form (in
PDF or Word) will either be returned on paper, or, if returned
electronically, can be printed on paper, and just amalgamated
with the paper forms that their existing process already handles.
In other words, they can introduce an "electronic form" but
without having to re-design their handling process in any
way. Sometimes this is justified by the claim that they have to
have a handwritten signature on the form "for legal reasons" -
but I'd generally ge skeptical as to whether that argument has
any genuine force in the vast majority of cases.
> I wonder how we might change the Local Auths to see it our way?
> Any ideas?
It's slow going: but generally speaking, both the authority and
the users will get additional benefits by switching to a full
electronic process. Of course, they may need to retain the
option for paper submissions, but that can be turned into just a
"re-keying" function where whatever information was put on the
paper is now entered into the same electronic back office system,
by the local authority, "as if" the client had submitted it that
way in the first place. So we choose to converge on an
electronic process rather than a paper process. But that is
(typically) more convenient for many clients, not just those with
disabilities; and the local authority should typically find that
an electronic process, where all the forms (and the resulting
actions) are stored in a database, is more reliable, flexible,
and efficient to operate than the previous paper process. But,
of course, now we are talking about a significantly bigger job -
re-engineering a whole "process" - compared to just sticking the
MS-word or PDF version of a paper form (which they already have
anyway) onto a web site. But still - everybody is going to be
looking for efficiencies, so that would be the argument to use
these days - accessibility and equality then come along "for
free"!
Keep up the good fight!
Cheers - Barry.
===========================================================
The vicsireland mailing list
To unsubscribe at any time send a mail to:
vicsireland-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe", without the quotes in the subject of the
message.
To contact the moderator send mail to:
tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx
For mor information on the Visually Impaired Computer Society visit:
http://www.vicsireland.org
===========================================================
The vicsireland mailing list
To unsubscribe at any time send a mail to:
vicsireland-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe", without the quotes in the subject of the message.
To contact the moderator send mail to:
tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx
For mor information on the Visually Impaired Computer Society visit:
http://www.vicsireland.org
Other related posts: