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Re: Providing a Better UI

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From: JP Jamous
Date: Oct 25, 2016 6:14AM


Not sure as to why Jonathan. A buddy of mine, who used to work for the State of PA, told me that because talking medical equipment are categorized under Assistive Living Aides. To ensure the medical privacy of individuals, they stuck everything that provides digital accessibility under that law.

I'll check with the people that have done the investigation for me and try to get you guys some resources.

Personally, I think it is BS, because I have worked with various corporates that tried to find out how they can improve their web and desktop UIs to be more accessible. I am happy to provide them with information if that's their goal. If they collect it anonymously, then what is the issue behind it?

All visitors to an ecommerce site are monitored anonymously. What links they click on, how they fill out forms, what browsers and devices they use, etc. I don't see an issue with identifying "User1 is using Windows 10 64 with JAWS 17."

Anyways, stay tuned. I will get you some references this week.
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jonathan Avila
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 5:35 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Providing a Better UI

JP,

> Why does the ADA block companies from anonymously collecting data about assistive technology users?

Can you please provide a citation our source that will help inform the discussion.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of JP Jamous
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 1:28 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: [WebAIM] Providing a Better UI

Folks,



Companies tend to shy out from running surveys, because of the ADA restrictions on people privacy. What if some companies are doing it for the simple sake of making their pages more accessible? How do they go about that?



I have faced this for a while without any robust answer. Can someone shed any light on the following?



Why does the ADA block companies from anonymously collecting data about assistive technology users?



What are the safe ways that a company can collect information about people with disabilities that use assistive technologies without fearing that it could get suit?



Personally, I favor any company that wants to learn more about how it can improve its pages for screen readers. Why are is the ADA making it harder and scary for those companies to provide a better UI?