Hi everyone,

Wanted to let you know about my new project which is actually quite easy.

As you know I connected with national runaway safeline in 2016 around the possibility of volunteering. We only got to have one meeting before deciding that at the moment it wasn’t the right time. I’ve happily done some other volunteering. I am thinking of trying again to reconnect as the invitation was open for me to do so in a year.

Looking back at my notes, the site that they use to manage their whole system, shift scheduling, call logs ETC is called iCarol.

http://www.icarol.com/

So you would log into that site and have access to everything you’d need as a volunteer and staff manage everything they need from there as well.

I only had an hour to play with the site when I went over to NRS. I noticed a couple accessibility issues but obviously don’t remember everything. This weekend I learned more about just how popular this software/site is.

Here is a testimonials page where you can see many well known hotlines and services use this website

http://www.icarol.com/client-testimonials/

So basically if you want to volunteer somewhere chances are you’re gonna run into this site!

Which is why it’s extremely important that it be fully accessible to those with all disabilities. The organizations that use the software don’t have control over this, they don’t actually build the site so we need to go right to the source. So what would be great is if everyone, whether you volunteer on hotlines or not could just write a wuick note to this address

support@iCarol.com

Just saying how important it is that the website be compatible with screen readers so volunteers and staff who are blind and visually impaired can use all the features. They wrote a very short statement in 2013 saying they were making “the best parts” of I carol accessible. I’m hoping in four years they’ve continued to do this. It’s gonna take as many voices as possible to keep on them about it.

Better yet, if you’re reading this and know all about assistive technology and accessibility and can write them from that perspective and connect in that way that would be great. I know it’s really hard to get jobs in that area if you’re free lance and maybe you could work with them. Maybe they’d pay you I don’t know. But it’s worth a shot. If they’re as open to doing this as they say they are they’ll at the very least appreciate the feedback and offer of your skills.

I’m hoping we can be successful with this because clearly it’s impressive software if so many people are on board. Thank you for helping with this.