Unequal Access to Information

This is one of the greatest injustices that exists today for persons who are unable to see: unequal access to information. Many mainstream folks may be shocked to read this, but to my community it is no shock. Governments continue to turn a blind eye to this problem. They are fully aware of this very gross injustice but yet they fail to act appropriately and quickly. The Canadian government is one such government, and this is why I am presently involved in a charter challenge against them.

What exactly is a charter challenge? In short, I am suing the Canadian government over inaccessible websites. This esteemed government once occupied the position as the number one government in the world to be an accessible entity on the Internet; but sadly no more. This government continues to spend the taxpayer’s precious money to fight me on an issue that is clear to everyone else but themselves. It would not surprise me if they have spent way over a million dollars thus far to do so. They continue to pay their lawyers to try and assassinate my character instead of focusing on the issue at hand. They continue to refuse to admit that indeed, they are depriving blind and visually-impaired Canadians of their God-given right to equal access to information.

To put the picture into capsule form: Blind and visually-impaired Canadians are unable to access vital governmental information on the Internet. They are unable to complete request forms independently, access information on their pensions, important health topics, statistical data that they need in order to keep abreast of country wide trends, plus much more. Mainstream Canadians can access all of this, but we are unable to do so because the information is not being provided to us in alternate formats.

As long as we are unable to have equal access to information on the Internet, we will continue to face such chronic problems as barriers to job opportunities as well as financial opportunities. In addition, our privacy, confidentiality and independence will continue to be trampled upon. What are alternate formats? Formats that can be read by our screen reading software such as MSWord, RTF, Text, and HTML.

For anyone who is not sure, for the most part PDF formats are not accessible to us for many reasons, and I am going to direct you to a very good url where you can learn why PDF formats are no good for those of us who are afflicted with vision loss. Visit http://www.rnib.org.uk/wacblog/pdf/why-pdfs-suck/

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your accessibility and special-needs business consultant, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and help lobby governments and companies to make information accessible to everyone.