Accessibility in Croatia

Seems like forever since I’ve posted to the blog, then again I was touring Croatia recently on a well-deserved 3 week vacation!

I’m forever biased to accessibility now that I work in the field. Everywhere I go I can’t help thinking how something relates to it. Could be a menu at a restaurant, the ever popular ramps for wheelchairs or, something as simple as a streetlight.

Let me just start and say Croatia is a stunningly beautiful country, full of life, beautiful beaches, amazing food and great people. Also bear in mind I am not visually-impaired, nor did I spend my entire vacation trolling around the country for ADA lawsuits:)

Overall, I was actually very impressed. It is a very old country, and as such has numerous well documented challenges on getting around as someone using assistive technology and/or aids. The roads/sidewalks are remarkably accessible; at times I almost thought I was in Canada or the US as I listened to the crossings beep at me repeatedly. Seems everyone has their own beep, here in Canada it is more like a sharp whistle, while in Croatia it was more like synthetic beeps.

ATM’s and banks are fully accessible, many even have ramps and electronic doors to assist those in wheelchairs, or the mother pushing a stroller.

A number of beaches were actually accessible. I was surprised to find a few folks in wheelchairs getting around just fine, and in my broken Croatian, was able to determine that is in fact the case. I did not meet any locals who required accessibility, most were tourists from Germany.

The physiology of the visually-impaired is quite different in Croatia. I met one local blind gentleman who was more than happy to speak with me (after buying a shot of local Rakija of course). He agreed with me that in many ways, Croatia is well ahead of the curve in dealing with typical challenges. The major cities are great, and almost all forms of public transportation offer any number of ways to interact. The smaller towns and especially the older cities are however, much more challenging.

This is a problem that seldom exists in North America.  How many thousand year old castles do we have here? How many thousand year old cities do we still live in? I’m not sure what to expect from the local government, and can’t see anyone willing to address accessibility which would require basically destroying old Roman towns, roads etc.

The one area he did call out was electronic accessibility. The government there is just now undertaking all things electronic, and he repeated to me a number of times the inaccessibility of government services online. We also spoke in detail about financial services. I got the impression that while a number of their websites are accessible, their statements are not. I explained what Xenos Group does for PDF accessibility of high-volume transactional output (good luck translating that!), and he seemed to think that is a great approach. Financial independence is what he kept repeating which seems to be a very common thread across the people I generally deal with.

Would be an interesting question for the community and/or an ADA lawyer – how far can you take physical accessibility without destroying culture and history of a nation? I for one think there is a happy medium, one that can help those who need it but, still protect the beauty and history of a country.

Last week’s ABA conference

Last week’s American Bankers Association Compliance Conference was a blast! We were the only vendor showcasing products dealing with ADA compliant electronic statements.

I had the pleasure of co-staffing the booth with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). In attendance with me were Paul Schroeder, David O’Neill, and Marc Grossman.

Co-staffing our booth actually worked out better than I could have hoped. The AFB’s focus was on ADA compliance, including websites and anything physical such as bank machines for example. Putting accessible electronic statements into the mix fit very well, and everyone we spoke to was quite receptive to the approach.

Americans with Disabilities Act: What You Need To Know, was by far my favorite session of the week. It was moderated by Virginia O’Neill, Senior Counsel, ABA Center for Regulatory Compliance. The session had two key speakers; Karen Stephenson, an Associate from Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago as well as Paul Schroeder, VP of Programs and Policy at the American Foundation for the Blind in Washington.

Virginia almost brought tears to the audiences eyes, telling a quick story about her husband, and some of the challenges he has faced after suffering a number of strokes in the past, and the relevance to her daily life and of course, the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Karen brought us down to earth. She spoke about a number of important aspects of the ADA, especially relevant to the recent changes which were implemented in the last year. The service animal discussion was particularly engaging – have you ever heard of a “miniature horse”? Well apparently they are out there, and people are actively using them over service dogs for a number of reasons, first and foremost they are stronger than most dogs and apparently cheaper to maintain. Do you have a service animal policy, and does it include “miniature horses”?

Paul provided an enlightening presentation (with David’s help:)). Paul should be a motivational presenter! His attitude and demeanor are of the highest regard, and the relevance to the community of blind and visually-impaired is obvious and apparent. Although not part of legislation yet, he spoke highly of Actuate, our commitment to accessibility and of course, our solution for accessible statements.

One of the angles he used is difficult to measure. According to the ADA, although Braille and Large Print statements are considered acceptable “alternatives” to paper-based ones, he called out some key differences in them, and reasons to
adopt an accessible electronic format instead:

• Many Blind and Visually Impaired individuals do not use Braille, hence it is not really an acceptable alternative
• There could be a delay of up to one month in actually receiving the alternative statement
• Preference. Most Blind and Visually Impaired would prefer receiving electronic copies of their statements. Not only does it give them independence but, it allows them to partake in this critical aspect of society which is often overlooked.

My 2 cents; you need both, alternative and electronic. There will always be a need for statements in Braille, Large Print or even Audio CD. Electronic is simply a great option, and one that will easily comply with the ADA rules and regulations, and avoid hefty lawsuits!

Want to see our setup at the show? I’ve posted a pic here.

Are you a bank or financial institution looking to make sure you are in compliance with the ADA? Here are a few contacts worth talking to in order to get the job done:

 

ADA Consulting (Website or physical, including ATM’s)

Marc Grossman,
American Foundation for the Blind

 

Alternative Statements (Braille, Large Print or Audio CD)

T-Base Communications

http://www.tbase.com/

 

Accessible Statements

Xenos – a Division of Actuate

http://www.xenos.com/xe/solutions/transformation/accessible-statements/

Sample Statement, almost complete!

It’s been a long road on this one, well over a year from start to finish. It speaks volumes to our commitment as a company to producing WCAG 2.0 AA compliant PDF’s in very high-volumes, and on a repeatable basis.

If you want to see the current accessible credit card sample, please click on this link.

The important piece to note is that many elements of the PDF can be changed, which is why we work so heavily with the AFB on testing and usability of our templates and outputs. Xenos Developer Studio lets you easily define sections, fields, read order, alternate text and deal with tables. It is very easy to go into a template and modify it to your liking.

Want to see more? We have 3 videos on Youtube which outline Xenos Axess:

Presentation:

Xenos Axess PDF  Accessibility Solution

Demonstrations:

Xenos Axess – Product Demonstration – Part 1

Xenos Axess – Product Demonstration – Part 2

The presentation is a bit out-of-date now but, still mostly valid. It is a high-level description of what problems we solve. The product demonstrations (2 parts) are much more detailed, and show the power of developer studio in creating and maintaining these templates.

We are already in a number of cycles with various institutions, and am really looking forward to not only getting it implemented but, pulling in our friends at the AFB for usability testing and eventually, certification of a clients high-volume transactional output as accessible.

We are not done yet! We have some final testing with the various associations on-going, and still have some paperwork to do for our conformance claim (WCAG 2.0 AA). In the meantime, please do not hesitate to send feedback on the sample statement:

Peter Ganza, Director, Product Marketing @ Actuate

pganza@actuate.com

Twitter: pganza