Re: pdf forms from Social Security

[Janina Sajka <janina afb net>]

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