Here & Now

Vaccine Accessibility

Frederica Freyberg:

Anyone who’s tried to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine can attest it’s not always easy. It can be down-right impossible if you can’t navigate the online process due to low or no vision. We turn to Denise Jess, CEO and executive director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired to explore accessibility problems and solutions. Thanks very much for being here.

Denise Jess:

Thank you so much.

Frederica Freyberg:

What have you been hearing from people your council serves about trying to navigate vaccine sign-up sites online?

Denise Jess:

We hear folks experiencing anxiety on a number of levels. First of all, the sheer notion that some of the sign-ups have to be done online in some cases or folks don’t know the phone number to make that content is already problematic for our population. The majority of folks in the state who live with vision impairment are older adults. While there are certainly folks who have lived with vision impairment all of their lives like I do, we see such an increase among older adults because of diseases. And so they are folks who are new to technology use, potentially. Potentially also new to assistive technology use. And they also may live in places that they don’t have great broadband. So just the sheer notion of having to use a platform like an app or a website that is one layer. And then once you get into that website or that app, whether it’s coded properly for being able to be used with assistive technology or not is a whole ‘nother ball game. So the ADA and the web accessibility guidelines require accessibility of websites and what we know is that requirement and reality don’t always line up.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you’ve spoken to this a little bit, but what are some of the common issues for people with low or no vision when they confront a website, say, in terms of being, if you are low vision, not being able to even work with it? What is it about websites that are difficult for people with low vision?

Denise Jess:

That’s a great question. So there’s a couple of different things. First of all, many people with low vision use some sort of assistive technology or access technology. So maybe they magnify their screen pretty significantly or use a screen reader technology. I use a combination of both and so do other users. So when you interact with a website using those technologies, sometimes the website is fragile, so when you go to do the magnification, things move in unpredictable place so you have to reorient yourself to the page. If you’re using a screen reader, there’s key strokes you have to use in order to navigate down the page, and those key strokes and the page itself should tell you where you are on the page and what actions you can take on the page, whether something is clickable or has a link or is selectable. A lot of times what we experience is that that content isn’t available. So concretely when you’re going to set up an appointment and you want to choose your day and time, your screen reader may tell you that there’s an appointment on Friday, March 5, and at 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 and you hear that content but it’s not coded to tell you can select it. So can I select this? Is this just reading, giving me a list? So you’re unclear what action you can take. So then you have to start hitting keys and hoping for the best. One person told me that when he scheduled his vaccine appointment, he thought he’d chosen the right day but he wasn’t getting the audio feedback he needed so he was greatly relieved when he got his confirmation that he’d actually signed up for the time he’d to sign up for. So it’s kind of a guessing game.

Frederica Freyberg:

As though there aren’t enough hurdles. Really intense for people in that circumstance. Just yesterday the State Department of Health set up a phone number for people to call for vaccine help. We want to give that here.

Denise Jess:

Yes.

Frederica Freyberg:

That number is 844-684-1064. I called it. It’s up. It’s activated. It works. And we will repeat that phone number in a moment. But how needed is an actual phone number for folks to call?

Denise Jess:

Oh, it’s so critical. I’ll just give an example. We have — our organization has a website and a small retail store and then we also have phone. And still the majority of our orders and requests come in via phone. Even though our website is built for accessibility. Just because there’s comfort in hearing a human voice. And for so many people in our population, isolation and loneliness are profound. You can’t get out. You can’t drive yourself someplace. So being able to talk to a human being who hears you, who can answer your questions, who can be a comfort that emotionally in a scary time is huge. And then for anybody who can’t navigate the website, it is vital. Otherwise how do you go about assuring that you’re going to get the vaccine?

Frederica Freyberg:

We leave it there. Thank you very much. Thanks for your work and thanks for enlightening us about this.

Denise Jess:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Again, for vaccine help, the State Department of Health Services has just made a phone number available to call. It’s 844-684-1064.