In early June, I
needed to print some documents for my work. I teach a Continuing Ed class at
Tacoma Community College and they needed my contract for the quarter. My
printer is out of ink as usual, so I needed to go to the South Tacoma Public
Library to print the documents. In the couple times I've done this, I've
brought one of my kids with me to help me use the inaccessible computer. My kids, being teens or near teen, find trips
with ol’ dad less and less palatable over the years. And, I don't blame them. I
should be able to go over to the library and print a document without dragging
them off whatever video game they're playing at the time. So, this day I
decided I was going to get the print job done on my own. I tapped my way over
to the South Tacoma branch of the Tacoma Library system, which is about a block
from my house.
"Hi", a friendly voice said as I walked up to the
counter. "Can I help you?"
"Yes", I said. "I need to get some documents
printed for work, but I can't use your computers. They aren't accessible."
"Oh, ok, I'm sorry, is there no one who can help you
print it?"
I knew this was
going to happen! I knew this question would come up. I believe this canned response to people with
disabilities asking for help is based in the belief that most activities a
disabled person does requires help from an able-bodied person. This is far from
the case. "Yes", we get help from able-bodied people.
"Yes", we need help from able bodied people, but most people I know
with a disability want to do things for themselves. There are a variety of
reasons, I believe.
First, we want
to be independent. We want to feel like we can come and go as we please, do
what we want: print a document, read a menu, go to a movie, make it up to the
second floor, take our partners out on a date, see a show, follow a ball game
with closed captioning, whatever it is.
People with disabilities want to participate in all the amazing
experiences this world has to offer just like everyone else. Second, we don't
want to burden other people. Any disabled person who is lucky enough to have
able bodied allies will tell you, those allies can get tired of helping. And,
that's OK. It's human nature to feel this way. We understand, and are
independent every chance we get. And, thank you btw. Finally, whatever we do,
we want to be low key. I don't want to have to walk into the library and
announce "Hey, the blind guy is here. Can you help me?" Accessibility
should be seamless. We should get to do our everyday activities incognito just
like able bodied individuals.
The librarian
then explained she couldn't help me because she couldn't use my USB due to
privacy concerns. I explained there wasn't' any sensitive information on the
USB, and it wouldn't be a problem to open it. She still refused. So, I turned
up the heat a little.
"You mean to tell me a sighted person can come and
print something here, and I can't? This is for my work. I'm a teacher at TCC
and need to print this for a meeting tomorrow. What do you mean, you can't
print it?" I expounded. "You have to be kidding me. I really need to
get this done."
Here she turned
to the other librarian who had been in a discussion with someone else and asked
if she could help. Before she spoke, the man she was talking to offered me a
handy dandy magnifying glass he had in his pocket. "Sorry" I said, "Magnifiers
won't work for me." As I held up my blind cane. Low key, see what I
mean. After I explained the situation
again, the second librarian then said she would help me. She walked with me
over to the row of computers nearby and we printed the three pages.
As I paid for the
pages I said, "Hey thanks, but if you could, tell your superiors that the
library needs to have accessible computers, tell them there is a free program
called NVDA you can use. So, maybe look into it."
I went home and immediately sent an email to
the library’s "Contact" email. I also posted on Facebook asking any
blind friends or otherwise to send the library an email asking them why they didn't
have accessible computers. Within about
a week, to their credit, someone at the library contacted me to say they were
looking into the problem. They would be
installing NVDA on all their ADA computers. She said that they even committed
to installing NVDA on all the computers throughout the library system later
this year when system wide updates occurred.
To date they have followed up and are going forward with
their plan. I received this email last week confirming the installations were
complete. Here is their letter:
"Lukas,
My name is Zack Matthews, and I’m the IT Manager at the
Tacoma Public Library.
I would like to echo Amita’s thanks to you for reaching out
to us with your suggestion as well as offer my sincere apologies for the
experience you had with us.
I am writing you today to provide an update on our progress,
as we have finished the installation of NVDA on all of the ADA computer
stations at each of the Library’s 8 locations. In addition to making the
software available, Amita and I worked with the Library’s Branch Managers to
make sure that the Library can supply ear buds (free of charge) to anyone
wishing using NVDA at our ADA computer stations. All of the Library’s public
computers are due to be replaced within the next 18 months, and we plan to make
accessibility software and features available on all of the computers when they
are configured for use.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me in the future with any
comments, suggestions, or concerns regarding Library technology and
accessibility!"
I,
and all the other blind people in the Tacoma area, would like to thank the
Tacoma Public Library system for taking care of this problem so quickly. I
could go on about how it's 2019 and they should have done this already, but I
won't. Sometimes businesses don't know they are in error until you tell them.
Some companies like Microsoft are trying with their embedded accessibility
software, but these fall short at times. More State and Federal regulations are
needed to avoid these problems in the future. Starting with a law to make all
computers and websites disability accessible right out of the box.
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