A2013-03: Regarding Accessibility of MNSure

Adopted In : 2013

Topics : Medical

WHEREAS, MNSure is the state-operated Insurance Exchange portal used by Minnesotans to obtain health insurance coverage under the affordable health care act; and

WHEREAS, both state law and federal regulations require that websites such as MNSure be useable by blind persons with the proper equipment; and

WHEREAS, the website as implemented in October has characteristics that make it unnecessarily difficult or impossible for blind persons to use, such as an audio CAPTCHA that cannot be accessed in some cases; and

WHEREAS, at least some of the difficulties seem as though they should have been easily detected with adequate testing and do not appear that difficult to correct; and

WHEREAS, although alternatives exist to using the MNSure website and revisions to the web site are said to be pending, additional attention must be focused on MNSure accessibility in order to be sure that all Minnesotans who need to do so can obtain or update their health coverage by January 1, 2014: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota in convention assembled this Twenty-Seventh day of October 2013 in the city of Bloomington, Minnesota that this organization call upon MN.IT, the agency responsible for information technology within state government, to expedite the promised corrections to this site so it can be efficiently used by blind persons; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that MN.IT refine their processes to insure that accessibility to websites such as MNSure be developed and tested as early as possible in the development cycle.

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