Why Does Wayne Allard Shut Out Blind People in Violation of Federal Law?
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| Also listed in: Disability Rights Colorado |
(Click for a larger image)Given the large numbers of e-mails that legislators receive, it's understandable that they would want to weed out spammers by using some sort of challenge-response system on their contact forms. Personally I think it's counterproductive, as they can install software like the rest of us that will simply blacklist spammers or shunt their messages into junk mail folders.
But Allard's web staff has gone to the extreme, by forcing people to interpret a skewed set of letters and numbers presented in the form of a graphic, and then type them back in. This completely shuts out the blind, because screen reading software will not interpret those letters. This is in direct violation of Section 508, which mandates that government web sites be accessible to those using assistive technology.
Specificaly, it mandates that "individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal department or agency to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data by such members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities."
Just because Allard was one of only 7 Senators to vote against the law in 1998 doesn't mean that he gets to flout it at will.
BTW
Wny the f*** don't you.