MATA tweets are not accessible

Much of MATA information sent with pictures of text

 

By Christina Clift, MCIL Advocate

People use social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat to stay connected.  We use them to send shout-outs to friends, to promote events, and to follow trending news topics. Twitter is even used by President Trump to communicate his thoughts to the entire world.  

Some people use Twitter to follow the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to find out about route changes and other information that might impact their daily bus commute.  But their tweets aren’t always accessible to everyone.

A tweet is typically composed of up to 140 characters including punctuation marks.  So using proper English is not always easy and abbreviations and hashtags are more common.  However the one thing that can make the best tweet inaccessible for someone who is blind are photos.

Many people rely on assistive technology software to read what’s on the screen. Technology allows people with visual impairments to keep up with Twitter just like everyone else. To make photos accessible over the web, developers use an “alt tag” that describes the photo.

MATA however, is tweeting images of flyers that are not described by the alt tag. To a blind patron, it is an image that does not have a description. The technique allows MATA to far exceed the 140 character limit in one tweet, but it is not accessible to a screen reader. 

For example, MATA has tweeted information on the 2017 December Service Changes Proposed back on October 17, 2017 that would take at least 3 text tweets. Because they used an image, all the information is in the picture, but it cannot be read by the computer as a typical tweet. The computer sees the tweet as an image and does not have a related “alt tag” to describe the picture.

• Example of inaccessible tweet by MATA: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMVcEnfUQAAE6n8.jpg:large
• Example of an inaccessible retweet: https://twitter.com/APTA_Transit/status/923662933338607623

MATA sometimes uses photos to convey messages to its followers, but they are not communicating effectively to everyone.  MATA also has a federal responsibility to provide effective communication. The irony is that Twitter has a very simple method to provide the information in an accessible format.  By simply adding the appropriate alt tag to their photos, MATA can ensure that everyone receives their messages and not just the sighted.  

Yesterday MCIL had the opportunity to bring this issue up with the new MATA CEO, Gary Rosenfeld. As he recapped the meeting, Mr. Rosenfeld included accessible tweets was one of the six items MATA said they would work with MCIL on to provide more effective service.

MATA CEO Visits MCIL

Gary Rosenfeld Discusses Accessible Transportation with MCIL

Today, MCIL had the opportunity to directly ask Gary Rosenfeld the CEO of MATA to work with the Center on more effective service. Allison Donald, the chair of the Specialized Transportation Advisory Committee asked for the meeting and facilitated the discussion.

Allison began by asking Mr. Rosenfeld his vision for MATAplus, but the group was disappointed when he seemed to respond by working to meet minimal ADA compliance. The CEO was able to express his vision and he mentioned that to get people where they need to go in Memphis in an hour was a goal. He also is pushing hard for a large pot of dedicated funding, which all seemed to support.

MCIL asked MATA to consider the idea of making trips on the fixed-route free for MATAplus riders with their MATAplus ID card. MCIL knows that MATA must move to conditional eligibility for the paratransit system and this incentive for current MATAplus patrons would help make the move to using the accessible fixed-route easier.

Gary Rosenfeld stated that MATAplus was twenty to thirty percent of the current system. The suggestions of free fares would likely be very helpful in curbing the trend of paratransit service and could make a significant improvement in the system overall.

MCIL made the case that the free fare on fixed route may have a minimal cost and that in the long-run, motivating and training people with disabilities to use the fixed-route it will be huge cost-saver for MATA.

Rosenfeld made a recap at the end of the meeting and discovered six things that he said he would work on. First was the free fare in transition to conditional eligibility, travel training to assist people with disabilities to use the fixed-route, an update to the MATAplus Rider’s Guide, to evaluate problems with the MATA phone system, to examine text to riders and to make sure that social media is made accessible.

The Marrakesh Treaty

The right to knowledge and literacy for the blind is a worldwide priority

By Christina Clift

In 1966 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the international covenant on civil and political rights.  Article 19 addresses the idea that freedom of expression includes the right to information. Specifically it says that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression and this right shall include the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds regardless of frontiers.  

One critical component is the right to read and manipulate the written word. For the blind, this right has been difficult to achieve, and its full realization and permanency are not yet secured. Besides the obvious barriers limiting our right to read, the inability to physically to read visual print and inaccessible information technology, there is another major barrier to our full enjoyment of the right to access information, and this is copyright laws.

Without an exception or limitation, international law makes it overwhelmingly clear that reproducing a copyrighted work—no matter the kind of copy, violates the exclusive right of the copyright holder to control distribution of their work. So the only way to get around this exclusive right is to ask each copyright holder permission to copy their work in an accessible format. That permission is either granted, which takes a long time, or denied.  

The United States Congress passed an amendment to the United States Copyright Act in 1996, often referred to as the Chaffee Amendment, which includes an exception that permits reproduction of published works into accessible formats such as braille, audio, and accessible electronic texts.  The Chaffee Amendment would not have been possible without the combined efforts of the National Federation of the Blind and the Association of American Publishers.

However the exception in the United States does not address the vast wealth of accessible works throughout the world. It has been estimated that over 95 percent of the world’s works of not been available in accessible formats. International copyright laws have either outright banned the practice of exchanging accessible works over international boarders or have made it extremely difficult to do. 

This phenomenon has been dubbed the “book famine for the blind.” That is why the NFB has partnered with the World Blind Union to put forward an international agreement that would amend international copyright law. The agreement permits exceptions and limitations allowing reproduction of works into accessible formats and allows such accessible works to flow across international borders. 

On June 28, 2013, in Marrakesh, Morocco, an international treaty was born. A treaty holding out the promise to eradicate the book famine for the blind and signaled a global priority on the right to access information, the right to access knowledge and literacy for the world’s blind.

Over the past four years implementing the Marrakesh Treaty has become an official, binding, legal instrument for all the countries that have ratified or acceded to it.  So far, twenty-nine countries have joined the Marrakesh Treaty community by delivering their accession to the World’s Intellectual Property Organization.

One of the countries that is notably absent from the 29 member countries who’ve already ratified the treaty is the United States.  How can the country who led the way in producing accessible book titles at both the governmental and private sectors and who has one of the strongest exceptions to our copyright law permitting the creation of accessible formats not be on that list?  

Well, that is because the United States has signed an intent to ratify the treaty.  We made our intent clear on October 2, 2013 and as of yet have still not ratified the Marrakesh Treaty.  Pursuant to the Constitution, President Obama sent the Marrakesh Treaty for ratification to the U.S. Senate in February 2016.  In the Senate the treaty seemed to have no voiced opposition and in fact, seems to have a majority support. Why hasn’t it been ratified?

After President Obama forwarded the Marrakesh Treaty along with proposed implementing legislation, key copyright stakeholders such as the publishers and the library community expressed their reservations.  They wanted to add amendments to the treaty.  This was the same opposition we met back in 2013. As a result, we had to re-argue the same issues, the same issues that had proposed solutions, and the same issues and solutions that these same key stakeholders had agreed to.

Thanks to the efforts of the NFB these key stakeholders have once again been brought back to the table. The issues have once again been resolved. Now, we have the full support of the American Council of the Blind, the American Foundation for the Blind, The American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and many more.  As a result, the legislative language has been submitted to the appropriate Senate committees.  These Senate committees are currently conducting their due diligence, and it is my hope and that of the NFB that the U.S. Senate will ratify the Marrakesh Treaty by the end of the year.

The Marrakesh Treaty will be implemented on a practical level by the Accessible Book Consortium (ABC) that was created by the World’s Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  The Accessible Book Consortium is a public-private alliance representing key stakeholders. 

ABC has three main objectives. First, to operate the ABC Global Book Service. This is a platform where authorized entities can list and share their accessible titles.  So far, they have acquired 400,000 accessible titles and 130,000 blind individuals from around the world have downloaded titles and are using them.  Second, capacity-building or adding new members and work with existing members to increase the amount of accessible titles. The final objective of the ABC is to promote inclusive publishing.  This means that ABC works with publishers to provide techniques and guidance on how to make books and have them born accessible.  

To that end ABC has several projects in this area including a guide for self-publishing authors on how to make accessible books, creation of a starter kit for accessible publishing, and created a charter of accessible publishing which several publishers and publisher associations have signed indicating their intent to create works that are born accessible.

The Marrakesh Treaty is the first time in human history access to information, the right to knowledge and literacy for the blind is a worldwide priority.  It was NFB founder Jacobus TenBrook who once said “we have a right to live in the world.” Part of that right, and in fact fundamental to it, is the right to access information on terms of equality. We will accept nothing less.

Colonial Middle School Transition Fair

MCIL talks about THE TALK

 

By Allison Donald
Christina Clift and I attended the Colonial Middle Transition Fair for parents of children and young adults with disabilities.  This was my third year attending the event as both a vendor and a presenter in a breakout session. My breakout session this year was entitled The Talk:  How to Begin the Conversation about healthy relationships with your child with a disability. 

This transition fair was an opportunity for parents to connect with resource organizations directly related to disability.   It was also a good opportunity for MCIL to communicate with parents and let them know that the Center provides services that can benefit children with disabilities.

Our primary goal for the fair was to make parents aware of the services MCIL offers. Particularly self-advocacy, peer counseling and information and referral.  As vendors we spent the majority of our time talking with parents about options for their children with disabilities. 

Christina and I outlined how we assist people in setting goals and achieving them. We also took the opportunity to network with organizations like You Can Achieve Now (UCAN). They work with adolescents through mentoring, workforce development, and bully awareness.  UCAN is starting to explore working with youth with disabilities.  MCIL would be a great partner for UCAN and I look forward to following up with their outreach team. 

The presentation was to the point we wanted the parents to know that the conversation on intimacy. The Talk is one that typical children and disabled children must have.  

Christina and I addressed the stereotypes about people with disabilities and what could happen if those myths are not talked about openly with your child.  At the conclusion of our presentation we told parents that people with disabilities need to know what healthy relationships look like in all forms. To pretend that part of being human does not include intimate relationships is not reality.