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Thank you Kim

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Good morning

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I've very excited to focus on, can you hear me ok?

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It's ok, good. I tend to talk softly

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and sometimes it carries a bit, but

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not always. And we were talking about

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a really good video, that I was telling

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Jennie about that I would love to share

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someday. It's a video about people who say

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oh, I don't need the mic, I talk loudly.

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That's a bad idea but it's a great video

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because it's true it might make a big

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difference in terms of communicating sound

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effectively. You have no idea how much of an

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impact talking loudly does not do the same

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thing. So, that's why you have a mic for me.

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So Jennie and I asked to come talk to you all

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and I'm very excited to hear your stories

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because usually, when I come in front of an

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audience, on the job, to persuade you on why

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accessibility matters. It sounds like you

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already know that (laughter).

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So, thank you (laughter).

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I have a slide to talk about that so I'm

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going to go ahead and go over some of the

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basic stuff to make sure that we are all on

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the same page but most of you have said

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that you know you are here to hear about

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accessibility and you want to support

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accessibility. So to give you a little more

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details about that just so that, not only

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do you have that information but you can talk

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to other people who you may need to

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persuade, on why you do what you do.

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It's good to have those tools in your tool

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box is useful when you are planning your

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role and what you are trying to do. So we

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will spend some time on that and then Jennie

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is going to talk about getting to and making

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content accessible. This is my section of

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the slide and my title is Chief Information

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Accessibility Officer and I think that's the

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best title in the state because you say CIAO.

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So, we are part of the Office of

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Accessibility. We are housed in Minnesota

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IT services or MNIT. We don't have the dock

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anymore in those slides, I'm sorry.

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And (indiscernible).

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Our role is standards that effect the state

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of accessibility standards and related

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standards, outreach, education, we often get

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involved in procurement, making sure the state

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buys stuff that is accessible. And so we have

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to look at the standards when buying new

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content management systems, buying software,

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buying new systems, we want to figure out

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that what you buy is accessible and how to

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build that into the system. We also have

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accessibility coordinators, like Kim

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introduced herself as an accessibility

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coordinator for MDE. We want to have

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every agency and division or your organization

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if you want, to have at least two

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coordinators. Somebody on the IT side and

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somebody on what we call the business side,

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or the non-IT side and they will partner

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with each other. Ok, so we organize

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meetings every month and other activities

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for the coordinators as well.

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So, I'm going to give you a quick quiz

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to see where you are at and what your

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understanding of accessibility is. Can

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anybody give me an answer or have a guess

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at the difference between accessibility

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and accommodation? We tend to use those

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words very often, sometimes interchangeably.

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But, they are not interchangeable. So who can

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say what the difference is between accessibility

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and accommodation? Anybody want to give

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a shot at it? Ok. Accessibility is literally

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making content controls accessible to people

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with different abilities. Accommodation is

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changing instruction to meet those needs

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as opposed to how it's physically works.

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That's interesting, I've never heard that

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answer before. That's an interesting answer

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because you're talking about making content

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instruction accessible, which I know

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people in here are coming from. Let me

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give you my answer and then we will

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see how the two line up, ok. Because that's

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a very interesting way of putting it. For me,

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accessibility is the foundational concept.

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It's making something that everybody

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can use, in every way. So, kinda what you

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said about putting it in there. So, what

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we do, I'm not looking at the house

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I'm looking at the curb cut because in

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a digital world, we call digital accessibility

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this is an electronic curb cut. It's an example

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of putting something there regardless of

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whether or not we anticipate a need.

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So for example, with the curb cut, when they

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built the sidewalk, they didn't walk around

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we need to poll any resident to find out if

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there is anybody in a wheelchair within five

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blocks. They just put the curb cut in so it's

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not about whether or not there is a known need.

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It is built into the system so accessibility,

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like you said, is what we build into it. The

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accommodation, at least in the digital world,

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and not necessarily a change in construction,

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that is one way to do it, right. For example,

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what your perspective would be like, is

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somebody who wanted a text version of a

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audio file. Then in our interpretation would be

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an accommodation is something that is specifically

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an instruction or a technology for that person.

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So assistive technology, for example is

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an accommodation. For example, a screen

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magnifier, a screen reader, a pair of glasses,

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a refreshable braille reader. Those are things

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bolted onto the system to serve a particular

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purpose or requirement. However, the

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accommodation may not have any value if the

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technology itself is not accessible. We could

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have an inaccessible website, put a

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refreshable reader right on there and

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say have it, they still can't use it. The

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accommodation does not work because

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the technology itself is not accessible.

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Which is a slight difference from what you

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are saying because accommodation, from your

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perspective, which is a valid accommodation,

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is taking in accessible content, reformat it,

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make it accessible and then give it as

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an accommodation. That is doing something

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after the fact. I built an inaccessible PDF, oh oops, too bad.

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I can't read it so I'll print it out, make it a text file and

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then give it to somebody. That's the accommodation,

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to fix something that was not accessible. Where

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the accessible PDF file, where everybody

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could use it, but then I happen to require

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Read Write Gold, which is assistive

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technology to actually read the PDF. That's the

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slight difference of what I'm talking about

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where you're talking about accommodations

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to fix something that's not working and is

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not accessible. I was trying to not work

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the assistive technology because I thought

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that was the next question (laughter).

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I taking if from my own child's needs

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where his instruction is an accommodation for

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his instructional needs (indiscernible). And again,

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to your point, some of the accommodations

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when it's in a non digital world -

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Jay - right -

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really does require physically changing

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something after the fact, because text

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books aren't necessarily accessible in of

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themselves, the way they are printed off.

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Exactly, so, it sort of depends on the

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situation, like you said, and what we are

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trying to do today, or what we are

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trying to do in your world, is

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trying to make things accessible so

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that we can get the bar higher and

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require less accommodation because

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accessibility covers what they need. And then

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accommodations are only added for those

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that have specific needs because of mobile

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issues, sight issues or from my perspective,

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hearing issues. But, that is the other thing

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about accessibility and accommodations,

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we're changing that bar as the time evolves

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as for example, captioning, it's no longer

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an accommodation it's part of the accessibility.

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So, I shouldn't have to request an accommodation

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for captioning cause it's just built in. As

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opposed to somebody needs a screen reader.

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You don't build a screen reader into web

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browsers, yet. Down the road, they

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may be building screen readers into web

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browsers. Microsoft is already doing that

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with Microsoft Narrator. Ok. The difference

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there is that requires you to use one product

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as opposed to having a need you prefer

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or have a need for something else.

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And so things get a little tricky there.

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I'm not going to talk about that today but

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I am saying that the definition though the

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line between accessibility and accomodation

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is evolving and will continue to evolve,

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through the roof. Ok, so, accessibility,

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accommodation and then assistive

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technology is the third word that I'm

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assuming most of you know what that is.

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That in the digital technology world,

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assistive technology is something that

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we need to be sure we are buying

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is readable by something like a

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refreshable braille reader. Ok. Is there,

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as you pointed out, are there other

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accommodations besides that of AT,

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such as reformatting a document or

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providing other concrete mechanisms.

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Ok, so, we've talked about accessibility,

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we talked about accommodations. What

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people (indiscernible) word is how do I

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make this ADA compliant? They have

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the right idea, they have their

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heart in the right place. But they are

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using words that I consider to be inactive.

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And, so one of my missions is to increase

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more clarity and (indiscernible) in the terms

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that we use. So that we are clear and

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we can communicate more effectively about

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what we are trying to do. Most of you have

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heard about the Americans with Disabilities

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Act, or the ADA. The ADA was written

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before the internet was invented yet. Which

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means that when the ADA was written there

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was no internet. There was no concept

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of digital accessibility. And that is why

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the ADA was updated in the 1990s

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they (indescernable). For involving for your

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son or for involving like people needing

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ramps, floors, handlebars. Ok. So there

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is nothing in the ADA law that has anything

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to do with digital technology. So how do you

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make something that is ADA compliant?

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There is nothing there. What is there is

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that the ADA there are three titles for the ADA

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or five. The first one is involving requirements.

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The second is we have state and local

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governments. And the third involving

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(indiscernible). And the fourth is the

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Department of Justice. And the Department

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of Justice is several civic and federal courts.

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That have determined that public

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accommodations in the public sphere

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now extends from the physical bonds

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to the digital bonds. And so case law

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has subjects that have started to target

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law suits way back, maybe you have talked

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about Target quite awhile ago, with an

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inaccessible website. That is when the ADA

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started evolving into the digital space.

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But, there was still nothing written into the

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ADA itself. They have been writing or

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rewriting something called an advanced

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mode of supposed rule making.

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(indiscernible)

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And they were taking there time doing it,

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as you know ((indiscernible). And they

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were getting close to it and then

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(indiscernible), now we know where they are

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at. So, we don't say ADA compliant, because

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they're not the same. But we do say is

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how do I make this work for everyone? And

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that is what you want to do cause that

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makes sense to people. How do you make it

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work for everyone. And (indescernable) building

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something you want it for one the people who

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can see. Do you ever say that? I want it only

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for people who have full use of their legs

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and arms. Do you ever say that? You don't

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say that. So think about it in this way,

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(indiscernible) compliance. But, there are rules

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(indiscernible) written in the ADA, so we will

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go over those rules very quickly. First of all

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how many of you have heard about the

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web content accessibility guidelines 2.0?