(EDITOR’S NOTE: We wanted to share an important post from the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), who is collecting valuable stories to assist in a national coalition to make the internet fully accessible. Your story can help make a real difference. Please take time to read and share widely.)
As many website and application users with disabilities know, far too many websites are inaccessible for users with disabilities. This reality is disastrous for Americans with disabilities. We live in a world where so much is done online or through our smartphones. When these applications are inaccessible, people with disabilities are suddenly prevented from completing essential tasks such as banking or completing employment tasks. A group of national disability advocacy organizations are collecting personal anecdotes and stories to illustrate this ongoing and growing problem.
How You Can Help
We are asking that you please provide examples of when a website or application was inaccessible to a person with a disability, either you or a friend or family member. For instance, a voting website may be incompatible with screen reading software, or you cannot access a credit card or health care providers mobile app because of a disability. If you are comfortable, when submitting your story please be as specific as to company/business or government entity responsible for the website or application, and the city and state where the access issues occurred. For congressional advocacy purposes, if you are willing to provide the state, city, and zip code of where you live, this will be extremely helpful in targeting congressional offices to reach out to. If you are comfortable, please also provide your name and contact information. Your name and contact information will only be used if we have follow-up questions or if a Congressional office wishes to contact you directly.
How We’ll Use Your Story
The story you submit may be published on social media, posted on websites, and provided to the press and Congressional offices. By voluntarily sending stories to us using the e-mail address provided in this request, you fully agree to allow the national organizations to share your stories in public, including posting on social media and websites, providing to the press, and sending to Congressional offices. We will not include your city or name in any post to social media or to the press unless you specifically tell us we can share. We will, however, make public the state where the accessibility problem occurred, and share your city, state and zip code with Congressional offices unless you specifically tell us not to share. You understand that you are submitting your story voluntarily and solely for the purpose to help us highlight a national problem, and that the national organizations will not provide you any legal advice and will not represent you in any legal matter because you are submitting a story to us.
Please make the narrative as short or as long as you would like. By submitting a story, however, you agree and understand that the national organizations may edit and condense your story for use in social media posts. Additionally, the national organizations also reserve the right to edit the post for clarity purposes. These narratives will help to paint a picture of the nation-wide problem of access barriers faced by persons who use assistive technology on websites and applications.
Please email your narratives to webstories@ndrn.org.
Sample Narrative:
((NOTE: AFB provides the following fictional sample as a guide).)
My name is Jean Jane, and I tried to recently purchase groceries using my favorite grocery shopping app on my mobile phone, Yummy-Food-Now (FICTIONAL). I lost my sight five years ago, and the only way I’ve been able to get groceries is using the Yummy-Food-Now app. But when I updated it last week, I can no longer check out when using my screen reading software. Something has broken, and it’s become a major challenge to order groceries. They are the only service who delivers to my home. My only other option is to pay someone $30 to drive me to the store and back every week. My city and zip code are:s CITY, STATE, ZIP.
