By Steve Jacobson, Vice President

One of the trademarks of the work we do in the Federation is that we try to take the long view of the issues with which we deal. This has certainly been true of our ability to use computers, software, and access documents that are important to us. While the road behind us and ahead of us is long, occasionally it is well worth taking our eyes off the long road and observe the scenery along the way.

In 1998, we worked to pass a law that took the first significant steps toward requiring that the state of Minnesota would make accessibility a part of the purchasing requirements for new software and hardware. It established the notion that data presented on the State of Minnesota's websites would be displayed in a manner that all of its citizens, including those of us who are blind, can utilize.

Within the past few years, we worked with the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to expand these efforts and to secure funding to train web designers to create sites that we all can use. Minnesota State Services for the blind also played an on-going significant role as a recognized source of expertise on accessibility matters within state government, and in particular, our own Dave Andrews has been active in that arena. Still, we have occasionally seen documents, usually Portable Document Format (PDF), which screen-reading software could not process. This problem became particularly apparent when we found that our screen readers could not read the nine statements issued by Governor Dayton when he vetoed the budget bills in May. In all fairness, we observed occasional similar documents coming from Governor Pawlenty's office and understand that neither of them intended this to be the case. On the other hand, the legislative branch has consistently put accessible PDF documents on its site, so we know that it can be done.

These were high-profile documents, so it seemed to present a great opportunity to resolve the problem at the source. Since the department designated to enforce accessibility is the Office of Enterprise Technology, President Dunnam wrote the following letter to the newly appointed commissioner of that department:

***

May 27, 2011

Carolyn Parnell

State Chief Information Officer

Office of Enterprise Technology

658 Cedar Street

Centennial Bldg

St Paul, MN 55155

Commissioner Parnell:

I am writing on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota (a consumer advocacy organization with hundreds of members around the state) to request your action to enforce the standards promulgated by the Office of Enterprise Technology under Minnesota Statutes 16E.03 Subd. 9 which became effective September 1, 2010. Specifically, we are concerned that PDF documents on the Governor's and other state Web sites are not being created in a manner that enables non-visual access to these documents. The policy directive is enclosed with this letter for your convenience.

Individuals who are blind access the information on a computer screen through the use of assistive technology; that is software and hardware that renders the information in speech and/or braille output. If electronic content is not designed according to standards, the assistive technology cannot convert the information to these nonvisual formats. Lack of access to information from state government can impact our ability to utilize government services as well as obtain and retain employment. In response to continuing problems with inaccessible software and documents, our organization worked with the Office of Enterprise Technology and others over the past several years to see these standards put in place.

The current problem came to our attention when our members attempted to read the online PDF versions of the veto messages issued by the Governor this week. These specific PDF files are "image-based", and therefore inscrutable to assistive technology. Some current state-issued PDF files are being created in an accessible "text-based" format; that is PDF files that have the same visual appearance as an image-based PDF, but with underlying text that can be highlighted, copied, or, most importantly for our purposes, utilized by assistive technology. We have, over the years, seen other documents issued by state government in the inaccessible image-based format, so it is unlikely that the veto messages are the only problematic documents in circulation at this time.

High-quality software exists to allow the creation of accessible text-based PDFs. Since this software is usually low-cost or even no-cost and therefore would not impose an undue burden, we are requesting that an effort be made to find out how the inaccessible PDF documents are being created and that an alternative process be implemented, resulting in the consistent posting of accessible PDF files on state Web sites.  

Please contact me if you have any questions or if the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota can be of assistance.

 Sincerely,

Jennifer Dunnam, President

cc: The Honorable Governor Mark Dayton

***

Commissioner Parnell quickly responded with the following e-mail:

***

From: Parnell, Carolyn (OET)

To: jennifer.dunnam@earthlink.net

Cc: Smith, Tina (GOV) ; Mokros, Andrea (GOV) ; Dayton (1), Mark (GOV)

Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 11:28 AM

Subject: Response to letter from National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota

Dear Ms Dunnam:

Thank you for your recent letter informing me about the inaccessible PDFs posted to the Governor's website. I know the Governor is committed to meeting state accessibility standards and is taking immediate measures to remedy current issues and ensure that future PDFs and forms are accessible from the time they are posted. The good news is that the website content management system itself is completely accessible so, as you noted, the problem lies with the documents that are posted as attachments. I am happy to report that OET has assisted the Governor's office in converting all of the PDFs on the Governor's website (save for the two that are in process of being converted into web forms — the internship application and the proclamation form) to OCR and they have been published to the live site. In addition, proper communication, training and software are now in place to assure that future documents will be posted on the website as accessible.

Since the technology accessibility legislation was passed two years ago, the State has sought to build in accessibility wherever possible, in areas like state procurement processes and standards-based purchasing. We understand the impact of inaccessible content and are attacking it on these fronts. However, we acknowledge that this is a process that takes time, persistence, and resources. We indeed, count on organizations such as yours to help us identify where we fall short.

Responsibility for the creation of content, including PDF files, is distributed throughout state agencies and requires awareness, training, and culture change. The Office of Enterprise Technology will continue to meet with web-content providers at the Governor's office to help them address your concerns.

Please contact me if you have any further questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Parnell

Minnesota State CIO

Office of Enterprise Technology

651.556.8007

www.oet.state.mn.us

***

She has been true to her word. The nine documents that were originally not readable were all converted. In addition, we have seen new PDF documents since this exchange posted to the Governor's web page that are also accessible. Unfortunately, there have still been a few created that are not accessible, probably due to the challenge of culture change that was mentioned in her note. Still, this is a significant step in the right direction.

We need to do our part and help identify areas of difficulty. If you find problems with documents or web pages on web sites within state government, you should communicate this information through a special web site for that purpose. You can go to

www.positivelyminnesota.com/apps/survey/MN_EGovt_Access.shtml as I did to explain the problem. As you can see from the letters above, the responsible people are hearing us and making progress, but we all can play a role in making sure that progress continues.