Interim Report from Arkansas

Interim Report from Arkansas

The Braille Monitor

July,

2002

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Interim Report from

Arkansas

From

the Editor: In 1999 Arkansas was one of the first states to enact legislation

requiring state government to purchase only computer hardware and software that

could be made accessible to disabled users if needed. The law passed was a version

of the NFB's model technology act, legislation that Federationists across the

country are encouraging their state legislatures to enact. Everyone cheered

the action of the Arkansas legislature and praised their willingness to take

the lead.

Almost

immediately Arkansas hit rough water. It's just plain hard for some people to

understand that such legislation has implications for them. Among these were

the Arkansas officials in charge of implementing a statewide accounting system

for state government. Blind people could not use it efficiently, so the fat

was in the fire. The National Federation of the Blind brought suit, recognizing

that unless a flagrantly illegal program like this one could be fixed or removed,

such legislative protections as the Arkansas technology-access law would be

worthless. Nothing has yet been resolved, but on April 1, 2002, the following

story appeared in the Paragould Daily Press. It accurately describes

the current situation and the magnitude of the problem. Here it is:

System

Doesn't Provide Needed Access

by

Gail Jackson

Arkansas's new accounting system,

called AASIS, was supposed to streamline record processing, but difficulties

in working with the system drove employees in the state's Agency for the Blind

to sue to have it improved or removed. "It should never have been put online.

It is not accessible to the blind, and it keeps blind people from doing their

jobs," said Agency for the Blind Supervisor Larry Wayland, who along with

co-worker Donna Hartsell initiated the legal action.

The basis for the lawsuit is a 1999

Arkansas law that prohibits the state from purchasing any software or hardware

that is not accessible to the blind or the visually impaired. "Shane Broadaway

sponsored the 1999 bill, and Arkansas legislators seemed to be very proud of

the fact that they passed it," Wayland said, also pointing out that there

are federal laws that prohibit having a system that prevents blind employees

from doing their jobs and--according to the Americans with Disabilities Act--if

it's not accessible, that law needs to be changed.

The AASIS system tracks inventory,

employee records, timesheets, and processes checks. Wayland's department uses

it to access employee files. It's supposed to have a keystroke echo feature

and a speech feature that allows blind employees to command the system to read

back information, but it doesn't. Another feature that poses problems is that

some of the data is arranged in cells of dynamic rows and columns. The only

way to go from cell to cell is to use the tab feature. "In order to do

their jobs, employees have to hit the tab key four, five, six, seven hundred

times to get to a particular cell to change a file," Wayland said.

The system was supposed to be designed

so that everybody could do their own work, but it could cause visually impaired

employees to need assistance. Because of that, Wayland foresees that the AASIS

system, as is, could cost a lot of people their jobs. He said, "It's not

just us, but it's the possibility that other people would apply for a job that

would be required to use the system. Look, if you want blind people to work,

you've got to make it possible for blind people to work--that's what this agency

is all about."

Wayland knew in advance the Department

of Finance and Administration planned to supplant old accounting procedures

with the Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System. Since it's his

responsibility to assess the technical aspects of the jobs within his department

and make recommendations on equipment that best suits the needs of the blind

and visually impaired, he asked if AASIS would be accessible to the visually

impaired. He said he was told it would be and that it would be more accurate

than the previous record-keeping system, but it hasn't panned out.

The system was blamed for child support

checks not going out, but Dan McDonal, administrator for the Office of Child

Support Enforcement, said that had nothing to do with AASIS. He said child support

payments are handled through ARCSIS, the Arkansas Child Support Information

System, and that the two systems are not connected whatsoever.

H.C. Lemmons, administrator at the

Greene County Department of Human Services, said AASIS has streamlined some

procedures, as intended, and is a big improvement over the old system, but Wayland

said other departments have complained about problems.

Wayland said the state had already

tested the program and knew when it went online July 1 that it wasn't working.

Arkansas purchased AASIS for $19 million in 2000, from SAP, a German company.

Ron Hopper, who was in charge of the system at first, was replaced, and the

state has spent additional millions (the estimate is more than $50 million including

the purchase price) making adjustments to the system. There's no time limit

on getting the bugs out, and the end is not in sight.

"I know I'm seeing an awful lot

of timesheets that I didn't have to sign before. I was under the impression

that this was supposed to eliminate all this paperwork," Wayland said.

"They're not even saying it can

be done. And as the bugs are all worked out, it could cause more work. The people

working on this just got raises while agencies are having to cut their budgets

a lot, including the Agency for the Blind," he added.

Arkansas legislators recently criticized

spending so much money on the system and questioned spending more to contract

with outside sources to study the system.

Wayland and Hartsell acted to require

the state to make the AASIS software system accessible to the blind in a suit

filed by the National Federation of the Blind, after the system went online.

An attempt was made to contact the Little Rock attorney and the head of the

Federation of the Blind at the national headquarters about the suit, but neither

responded. The state appealed the lawsuit, but the appeal was thrown out of

court.

Wayland

hopes that if they win, AASIS will be made accessible within a specific time

frame. "If it can be made accessible, it could open doors," he said.

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