[Nfbnet-members-list] PresidentialOpenQuestions.com - Questions for Upcoming Presidential Debates

[Danielsen, Chris]

Dear Fellow Federationists:
A website called PresidentialOpenQuestions.com is accepting ideas for 
questions to be asked of the two major party presidential 
candidates  in the upcoming televised debates. Users of the site can 
also vote on submitted questions that they would like for the 
candidates to be asked. CNN and ABC, the networks hosting the final 
two presidential debates, have agreed to consider the top thirty 
questions voted upon by the public for inclusion in the debates. One 
of the questions being heavily promoted relates specifically to 
disability rights and reads as follows: How would you value 
disability rights in your presidency? It is currently among the top 
sixty questions, out of some ten thousand submitted.
While the wording of this question is broad, it is better than no 
question related to people with disabilities at all. We should engage 
in every effort we can to get the candidates to talk about how blind 
people and others with disabilities will be enabled to live the lives 
we want under their administrations. Some members have therefore 
circulated the question and website address to various lists, and it 
was promoted yesterday on our official NFB social media channels.
That said, we have since learned that members who have attempted to 
vote have experienced usability and accessibility issues with the 
site, and its behavior is inconsistent. While some of us have voted 
for the question successfully with little difficulty, others have 
been unable to do so. We have contacted the owners of the site to 
urge them to fix these issues and to point out that the votes of tens 
of thousands of blind people are being lost while they remain 
unresolved. However, since some of us have been able to complete the 
process, and if that fact encourages you to try voting for the 
question, you might have the best experience by following these steps:
1. Click the Register link near the top of the page and then, on the 
next screen, create your account.
2. As part of creating your account, you will have to check a box 
that says "I'm not a robot."  When you check that box, you may or may 
not be asked to solve one or more captchas. If you are asked to solve 
captchas, there will be an opportunity for you to click a button that 
says "Get an audio challenge," or you may receive a captcha that 
simply asks you a question to which you must check the correct answer.
3. Once you have successfully registered, go to the "disability 
question" and vote. Here's the direct link:
<https://presidentialopenquestions.com/questions/7313/vote/>https://presidentialopenquestions.com/questions/7313/vote/ 

Note that the vote button will be above the text of the question, not 
below or after it.
4. When you have voted successfully, the word "voted" will appear 
above the question's text, along with the total number of votes that 
the question has received; this is how you will know your vote has 
been counted.
I hope that many of you are able to vote successfully, and again we 
have let the site owners know that they can and should make it much 
easier for blind users to vote on their site.
Warmly,
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind

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