At our February meeting we talked some about cell phone access, and the possibility of a lawsuit. Somebody has done it.
Dave
>Press Release
>
>
> For Immediate Release
>
>February 21, 2003
>
> For further information, contact:
>
>Charles Crawford, Executive Director
>(202) 467-5081 ccrawford@acb.org
>
> Scott Strauss
>Spiegel & McDiarmid
>(202) 879-4000
>scott.strauss@spiegelmcd.com
>
>
>
>
> AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND SUPPORTS COMPLAINT FILING WITH FCC
>AGAINST AUDIOVOX COMMUNICATIONS CORP. AND VERIZON WIRELESS
>
>
>
>
>Today, the American Council of the Blind (ACB), an organization
>representing tens
>of thousands of blind and visually impaired people from across the
>United States, supports a blind citizen, Dr. Bonnie O'Day, of
>Alexandria, Va., in filing a formal complaint with the Federal
>Communications Commission against Audiovox Communications Corporation
>and Verizon Wireless, Inc., stating that both have failed to make their
>wireless telephones and services accessible to people who are blind and
>visually impaired.
>
> Dr. O'Day's filing is the first formal complaint to be submitted to
>the FCC to enforce the rights provided under Section 255 of the
>Telecommunications Act of 1996. This provision requires that
>telecommunications equipment and services be accessible to and usable by
>people with disabilities, if readily achievable.
>
> "My complaint started out as an informal complaint which I filed
>with the FCC in June of 2001," explains O'Day. "When I began shopping
>for a cellular phone in December of 2000, I went from store to store
>looking for a phone that would meet my needs. I finally settled on the
>Audiovox CDM9000 as 'the best of the worst.' But I found that many
>features of the phone were very difficult to use because most of the
>information I needed even for minimal access to the phone's features,
>such as caller ID and one-touch dialing, was delivered via a visual
>display which is totally inaccessible to me as a person who cannot read
>the phone's screen."
>
> O'Day explains that she contacted both Audiovox and Verizon Wireless
>by letter, and that neither company could offer her the hope of any
>remedy for these difficulties. In fact, each participated in a "blaming
>game," implying that what O'Day requested couldn't be done. "And," O'Day
>says, "each one said, even if it could be done, it was the
>responsibility of the other party."
>
> O'Day contacted the American Council of the Blind, and ACB is
>supporting her in pursuing a remedy for this situation on her behalf as
>well as for the millions of blind and visually impaired people in the
>USA who contend with similar difficulties every day.
>
> According to Christopher Gray of San Francisco, president of the
>Council, "Both Audiovox and Verizon Wireless are clearly violating
>Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. The implementing regulations
>for that legislation were released in February 1998. The service
>providers and the product manufacturers have had more than five years
>now to take our needs into account and to design systems and products
>which we can use, and they're still dragging their feet, telling us
>things like, it's not possible to build a text-to-speech capability into
>their phones, or it's too expensive, or it's just over the horizon."
>
> Gray continues, "It is, in fact, quite possible to do all the things
>Dr. O'Day is asking, and we expect the Federal Communications Commission
>to move this complaint onto their accelerated docket."
>
> Charlie Crawford of Silver Spring, Md., Executive Director of the
>ACB, says, "It is ludicrous for Audiovox and Verizon Wireless even to
>imply that it is not readily achievable for them to make their menus
>accessible to us with voice output. We know that blind people living in
>Japan are already enjoying a text-to-speech capability on their cell
>phones. Verizon Wireless advertises that games and other programs can be
>downloaded onto the Audiovox CDM9000, and similar features are being
>advertised by several other wireless providers. The same technology used
>to download games can be used to download text-to-speech software into a
>cell phone. Dr. O'Day's cell phone has 460 kilobytes of usable space
>where consumers can download games or ring tones. The software required
>to run text to speech would use 250 kilobytes of space. That's
>equivalent to two games, or one-sixth of a floppy disk!"
>
> The complainant states that the defendants have failed to identify
>barriers to accessibility and usability as part of their product design
>and development processes. Defendants have failed and refused to provide
>access to product and service information and related documentation in a
>way that equivalent information is provided to sighted customers.
>
> The complainant is asking Audiovox and Verizon Wireless to make at
>least one accessible wireless telephone device in all price categories
>available for consumer purchase by June 30, 2003.
>
> "Voice output will allow blind and visually impaired consumers to
>access all the features on their phones that sighted people take for
>granted," explains O'Day, "including call forwarding and conference call
>setup, caller ID data as calls are received, verbal echo of all user
>input, distinct audio alerts at key thresholds such as telephone power
>off, link quality change, roaming status change, and key battery
>discharge thresholds."
>
> Currently, blind customers are warned of a low battery just prior to
>the battery's expiration and the phone's shut off, whereas sighted users
>are able to monitor the status of the battery continually through the
>visual display screen.
>
> "We are optimistic that the FCC will act on the complaint
>expeditiously," says ACB President Gray, "and that the complaint filed
>today will mean that blind and visually impaired people will soon be one
>step closer to full inclusion in one more activity that the rest of
>society takes for granted."
>
> The American Council of the Blind is a national organization of
>blind, visually impaired and sighted individuals whose purpose is to
>work toward independence, security, equality of opportunity, and
>improved quality of life for all blind and visually impaired people. ACB
>programs and services include a nationally distributed monthly magazine,
>an Internet radio station, numerous scholarship awards, and active
>participation in the national legislative and advocacy scene. Founded in
>1961, ACB works through more than 70 state and special-interest
>affiliates to advocate for the needs of people who are blind and
>visually impaired at all stages of life. Learn more about the Council
>and its advocacy efforts by visiting its web site at http://www.acb.org,
>listening to ACB Radio at http://www.acbradio.org, and calling its
>national office in Washington, DC at the numbers listed above.
>
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