Fix this!

RantWoman aspires to provide some possibly technical useful material by the end of this post, but first RantWoman must make confessions.

RantWoman is just the sort of militant megalomaniac who thinks that everyone who ever learns how to use a word processor or make a pdf should learn how to make accessible documents by default instead of having key material tacked onto the curriculum toward the end of the textbook. But:

The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing is chock-a-block full of people who use assistive technology. If RantWoman is going to be a megalomaniac about what the rest of the world should do, she should start at home, and the Friendly Neighborhood Center... is nowhere near this standard!


RantWoman posts that in all humility prior to recording her misadventures with a new health care provider. RantWoman found the provider's website. RantWoman found several documents such as financial policies and consent for treatment on the site as PDF's. It's fashionable to ask patients to fill out forms in advance. RantWoman downloaded documents. RantWoman learned that the documents read fine with Mr. JAWS but that RantWoman cannot edit them if for instance she wanted to prepare the documents unaided before an appointment. RantWoman got to fume that who do these people think they are? Why even the IRS knows how to create forms where one can add content to fields and then save changes!


RantWoman is a mouthy sort, but RantWoman somehow manages to have at least somewhat influential friends. RantWoman has one friend whose job it is to exhort website creators in the very large organization that oversees the provider RantWoman was investigating to develop sites with accessible features. After RantWoman's first experience with the PDF's mentioned above, she fired off an email to Influential Friend saying, essentially, "FIX THIS." Influential Friend reminded RantWoman of the training point above and RantWoman recalled her twinges about her fantasies for the Friendly Neighborhood Center...



In the meantime, RantWoman succeeded in scheduling an appointment with the provider in question. RantWoman meant to grumble about the forms, but she encountered a whole separate form of comedy: when RantWoman checked in for her appointment she learned that the registration application automatically populates the fields RantWoman would have completed on her own. All RantWoman had to do was to record an electronic signature on some kind of electronic signature gizmo. RantWoman almost burst out laughing. Never mind!

If RantWoman needs extra megalomania points, she can try to imagine inserting a blind interpreter and the issue of sight translation into this story. Probably a good thing RantWoman does NOT need extra megalomania points!