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Greetings:
Here is a letter I sent to CompuServe pursuant to the NFB in Computer
Science meeting.
Regards,
Curtis Chong
chong99@cris.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 21:59:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Curtis Chong <Chong99@cris.com>
To: Christine Morris <cmorris@csi.compuserve.com>
Cc: Kent Stuckey <kent@csi.compuserve.com>,
Dave Eastburn <de@csi.compuserve.com>,
Robert Massey <rjm@csi.compuserve.com>,
Dave Andrews <72157.3547@compuserve.com>, Ted Henter <tedh@hj.com>
Subject: NFB in Computer Science Meeting
National Federation of the Blind
in Computer Science
_________________________________________________________________
Curtis Chong 20 Northeast 2nd Street
President Apartment 908
Phone: (612) 379-3493 Minneapolis, MN 55413-2265
July 15, 1996
Cristine Morris
District Marketing Manager for the Southwest
CompuServe, Inc.
Dear Ms. Morris:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for speaking at
the 1996 meeting of the National Federation of the Blind in
Computer Science, held in Anaheim, California on Monday, July 1.
I have waited this long to write you to ensure that what I say in
this letter is not unduly colored by some of the strong feelings
that were expressed at the meeting; for as you know, people
expressed some frustration and annoyance with CompuServe for not
taking more direct action to ensure that blind people have full and
equal access to its services.
To begin with, I wish to commend you personally for taking time
from your busy schedule to come to our meeting and tell us about
CompuServe's plans for its blind customers. I was glad to meet you
personally. I trust that the messages we asked you to pass along
to the management of CompuServe were transmitted.
As you recall, the majority of the time allotted to your
presentation was devoted to a demonstration by Henter-Joyce of its
JAWS for Windows screen reading software and the impressive
tailoring that it has done to enable that software to work with
CompuServe's WinCIM program. I and many others were
impressed--more with the work of Henter-Joyce than with any effort
on CompuServe's part to ensure accessibility to its services.
After the meeting, many people came to me and expressed the belief
that CompuServe was exploiting the work of Henter-Joyce by taking
credit for making its services accessible to the blind while doing
very little to modify its WinCIM program to ensure accessibility.
Others expressed the view that it was not good enough simply for
CompuServe to assure us that we would continue to have access to
its Disability Forum through the ASCII interface, pointing out that
this forum is only a fraction of the services used by the blind via
this interface. To be frank, given what has happened so far, I
find myself in agreement with these views.
Let me be clear about what I am saying here. I think that it is a
good thing for CompuServe and Henter-Joyce to be working together
to ensure accessibility to CompuServe by people who are blind.
Although I believe that the bulk of the technical work to
facilitate this access was performed by Henter-Joyce with only
passive cooperation from CompuServe, the fact is that there is an
unprecedented relationship between CompuServe and an access
technology vendor of products for the blind--a relationship that
should continue. Nevertheless, CompuServe must not exclude the
possibility that another vendor of screen reading software for the
blind will want to enter into a similar relationship. CompuServe
must afford other companies this opportunity. After all, JAWS for
Windows is only one of the screen reading systems used by the blind
to work in the Windows environment. We should not be forced to
purchase JAWS for Windows simply to access CompuServe. Ideally, we
should be able to use the Windows screen reading system of our
choice. In addition, future releases of the WinCIM program must
not diminish our ability to use CompuServe.
In recent announcements, CompuServe has made clear its intention to
allow access to its services using traditional Internet browsers.
Blind people today are only beginning to use Netscape and similar
graphically-capable web browsers. More popular is the text-only
LYNX browser. Even for those blind people who are using Netscape,
a particular web page can be rendered useless by displaying
graphical objects without any accompanying text. If blind people
are to have access to CompuServe through the Internet, CompuServe
must work to ensure that its web pages contain enough text so as to
make them useful to blind CompuServe customers. So far, nothing
has been said in this regard, neither by you nor by any public
announcements I have read.
Regarding the ASCII interface, which was a key factor in attracting
many blind people to CompuServe in the first place, I recognize
that CompuServe must move toward a more graphical, Windows-oriented
presentation in order to survive in a highly competitive market.
Nevertheless, CompuServe must understand that for many blind people
today, the ASCII interface is infinitely preferable to what is
available through Windows. True, change being inevitable, this
will not remain so indefinitely. Eventually, Windows will become
a platform on which blind people can do real, productive, and
satisfying work. There will come a time when blind people will
feel comfortable with and perhaps embrace the WinCIM interface. In
the meantime, as CompuServe's ASCII interface continues to devolve
when compared to the more recent enhancements to its service, it is
inevitable that some blind CompuServe customers will feel
frustrated and cheated. This can be mitigated somewhat if
CompuServe works closely with organizations representing blind
people--organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to speak at our
meeting. I have tried to be as candid, positive, and forthright as
I can. I hope we can begin to build a constructive and productive
relationship between the National Federation of the Blind and
CompuServe.
Yours sincerely,
Curtis Chong
President
National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science
Internet: chong99@cris.com
cc: Kent Stuckey, Vice President
CompuServe Ventures, Inc.
Dave Eastburn, Vice President
Product Planning and Development
CompuServe, Inc.
Robert Massey
President and Chief Executive Officer
CompuServe, Inc.
David Andrews
Section Leader
CompuServe Disability Forum Section 5
(vision impairment)
Ted Henter, President
Henter-Joyce, Inc.
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