[blindlaw] A dispute over paper-form accessibility

[Steve Jacobson]

Mark,

If their form is truly in an accessible PDF form and the difficulty is that your software won't handle it, then I think Albert is correct that they are not obligated to 
account for all versions of software.  However, accessible PDF forms are not always as accessible as one might expect.  You could ask if they could send you a 
version in Microsoft Word.  That is an option that is often used.  As a word document, you can fill it in usually in "overtype" mode and have it come out reasonably 
well.  There are tools that can convert PDF's into Word documents that might work for this purpose as well if you can't get a Word document.  Whether the law is on 
your side or not in this, you will have to decide which battles to take on.  It is very possible that someone believes the form is accessible but that it is not for practical 
reasons.  These situations are messy. 

On Tue, 1 Apr 2008 06:16:13 -0400, albert griffith wrote:

>I believe it's incumbent on you to maintain updated software if that's
>what's required to fill out this form.  I think the student office is
>obliged to make a reasonable effort to make their forms accessible and it
>seems they have since I can read mine with the latest versions of jaws and
>acrobat reader.  If you have an OCR. package, it may read the form.  Failing
>these suggestions I haven't a clue. 

>-----Original Message-----
>From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of Mark BurningHawk
>Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 8:23 PM
>To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
>Subject: [blindlaw] A dispute over paper-form accessibility

>I am having the same argument with my government student loan repayment
>office that I have had for years.

>I wish to fill out a deferment, while I seek employment.  In order to do
>this, I have some options:
>I could download the PDF form from their website.  To my knowledge, I have
>neither the updated version of Jaws, nor the updated version of Adobe which
>will allow me to manipulate this form, checking the proper boxes and adding
>a signature, once I have done so, much less print it out and send it back.
>The INSIST the MUST have a paper form.

>I could allow some person with sight to fill out this form.  It has been my
>policy to not allow unnecessary access by the sighted to my personal mail or
>financial records, but I do realize it would be a solution to bend that
>rule; I am, at present, unwilling and not in a safe situation for this to
>happen.  Also, I don't really have a sighted person around who would do it
>at the moment.
>Or, the department in question could make the form accessible to me.  They
>utterly refuse to do this, stating there's no way they can send it to me in
>another medium than print or PDF.

>What, if any, rights do I have in this dispute?  I know that the easiest
>solution would be to find a sighted person I even half-way trust to help me
>with it, but I object to this very strongly on a moral ground, and I think
>that is constitutes discrimination to force me into this position.  As well,
>as I have said above, I don't have s sighted friend to provide this
>charitable service for me, nor even someone I could pay--I live in a bad
>neighborhood in an inner city environment.  Are there any avenues I can
>take, other than these?\Thanks.

>--Mark BurningHawk
>Email:  Stone_troll at sbcglobal.net
>my website:  http://www.panix.com/~mbaxter Namaste

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