LC: "Get your helper to ..." just isn't a 508 solution. I understand about the need to get business accomplished, but our advocacy needs to stress compliance with the law. On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, L. C. Robinson wrote: > On Sun, 4 Aug 2002, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > I do not believe that SS will accept an ASCII translation, > > though I may be wrong about that. Therein lies only part of the > > problem with these forms. > > Probably not as such. But I was able to get them to accept > something similar a few years ago, after a bunch of hassle about > alternative adaptations. Try something like this: > > Get someone to check off some obvious boxes on the real original > form for you (sex, national origin, maybe age, etc). Only let > them do the most terse, brief stuff: this is mostly symbolic that > you used the form. The forms provide inadequate space for longer > answers in short boxes throughout, and that is where most of the > info really is. The instructions say to use the back (also very > limited) and/or added pages for continued answers: this is what you > use for almost everything. You get your helper to write on the > first few of these: > "Not enough room -- see attached" > Then more terse: > "See attached" > or > "See other continued" > "Same as last question" > and the like, finally just: > "Same" > in the rest of the boxes. > > Following your pdf2text translation, you just then write a simple > text based letter with the answers (keep what came through of the > original question with some minor fixup, with the question > numbers where they show up). The original forms are a messy mass > of lines and boxes, impossible to convert well, so a lot will be > scrambled, but just work with what you have, doing the best you > can. Include an explanation of what you are doing and why, and a > polite disclaimer at the end about stuff that may have been lost, > and to just contact you if they need anything. Maybe include a > copy of the original pdf2text translation with your edited one, > so they can see what you were up against, and that you made a > good effort. > > If part of the form is impossibly garbled, consider calling the > casework assigned to your case for clarification -- but don't > give them a chance to approve of disapprove of your approach -- > just say something vague about adaptive technology that fits your > peculiar needs and lifestyle (ie, lowlevel textmode linux CLI > stuff, emacspeak, synth, -- the jargon may be your friend here). > > Perhaps make a point that you used the form, as far as your > limitations permitted (thus you filled the letter of the > law^H^H^H"regulation"). > > It might be counterproductive to use fancy formatting or a nice > postscript printer with fancy fonts in this situation, even if > you have access to such. They should understand the reality of > what you work with. Of course, decent neatness and care are > always important. > > I found the SS bureaucracy incredibly inflexible, but the workers > I talked to seemed willing to help, but similarly tied down by > the system. You will probably find that some will sort of > indirectly agree with you that they are in violation of the law, > but you will likely meet that inflexibility anyway. My review > dragged on for about a year before I finally thought of a similar > solution, and they accepted the final result. A lot may depend > on the workers involved, and how you treat them (they must have > to put up with a lot of such frustration every day). It must be > a bit embarrassing, in an agency that is supposed to be helping > disabled people. > > Best of luck -- with SS, you will need it. LCR > > PS. Appeals are normal and routine with that underfunded, > financially unstable, overloaded, perpetually months or years > behind in their caseload, technically backward, and generally > broken system. > > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org