In listening to the entire State of the State speech, New York can be proud of its social justice platform. But, there is work to do in regard to disability. People with disabilities were not mentioned once in the address. Our advocacy community in New York State must be included in the social justice conversation. Let Our Ability and our New York Business Leadership Network help Gov. Andrew Cuomo achieve this goal.
If Gov. Cuomo is to run for President of the United States, please reach out and listen to the disability community. It is obvious, Gov. Cuomo is uncomfortable with issues related to people with disabilities, discussing policy in regard to people with disabilities and advocacy of people with disabilities. As a potential presidential candidate, this will continue to come up.
In the State of the State, there were three opportunities to address disability related issues. Yes, he mentioned “mental illness” in regard to homelessness. We applaud this. But homelessness is a small part of much larger issues with disability advocacy in New York State.
The State of the State was the right place to mention increasing employment of people with disabilities under the economic development advancements of New York State-especially in Upstate New York. We have shown some small employment growth. In beginning the Employment First initiative in 2015, Gov. Cuomo challenged us to lower poverty levels and increase employment. The State of the State provided the perfect platform to remind business about the benefits of recruiting, hiring and retaining people with disabilities as well as highlighting the businesses adapting to these new initiatives.
In mentioning the successful MWBE program and expanding it with county and local governments, Gov. Cuomo should have called upon adding people with disabilities (and the LGBTQ community) as part of the minority category, as is in other states (see Massachusetts and Pennsylvania). This would allow people with disabilities to start their own businesses and pursue state, county and local contracts. In mentioning healthcare, identifying the need for universal healthcare Gov. Cuomo should have outlined its positive effect on disability education, independent living and employment.
And, social justice. We applaud the support of black and white, gay and straight, Christian, Muslim and Jew alike. But, not recognizing the social justice of 1.1 million New Yorkers who live with disability was a dramatic and obvious oversight. Puerto Rico was mentioned numerous times and how we should not forget. True. We should also not forget New Yorkers with disabilities.
Gov. Cuomo need not look further than the recent national debate on health care, for one of the main reasons it was defeated is the loud voice of the disability community on Capitol Hill. #CripTheVote was seen repeatedly on Twitter, advocating people to fight for their healthcare. People were marching and sitting in in the US Capitol-willing to be arrested. These voters will be a strong and vocal in 2020.
To Gov. Cuomo-please engage with our community. Let us help you fulfill your goals in New York State, and all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue. It is in your own political best interest especially when you realize that nearly 1.1 million New Yorkers and as many as 15 million United States citizens live with disability today. And finally, let the disability community in New York be proud of our inclusion into this important social justice platform!
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to