[tabi] Re: Fw: [Nfbf-l] Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV
- From: Governor Staten <govsta@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:53:25 -0500
Now, if AT&T would get their act together concerning these things.
On 1/12/2014 11:29 AM, Sila Miller wrote:
Hats off to Comcast!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Denyece Roberts, MSW, RCSW"
<peace05@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 5:22 PM
Subject: [tabi] Fw: [Nfbf-l] Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV
----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Dicey" <adicey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2014 9:15 AM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV
Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV
Deborah Kendrick
As one of the giant communications entities, Comcast has captured
its share or more of headlines in recent months. For those of us
interested in accessibility for people who are blind and visually
impaired, however, the company has grabbed our attention for an
entirely different set of reasons.
Entertainment, specifically entertainment that comes into your
living room via television, is an integral part of popular culture
in the U.S. and elsewhere and for many who are blind or visually
impaired access to that entertainment is difficult or impossible.
Onscreen menus and the complexity of choices they deliver are
daunting for many TV viewers who can see the screen to read them. If
you can't see the screen, finding and using basic programming
information is mostly something you just can't do independently.
Now, with the dramatic and welcome increase in described programming
prompted by the 2010 Communications and Video Accessibility Act,
blind people are more interested than ever in watching television,
and thus are more likely to sit up and listen when any company says
they are going to do something about the current state of
inaccessibility.
Comcast certainly seems to be serious about being the company to
bridge the accessibility gap, not just for people with visual
disabilities, but for all people who have ability or language
differences. Eighteen months ago, Comcast hired Tom Wlodkowski to be
vice president of their newly established accessibility department.
Wlodkowski is blind himself and at least one member of his
five-person team has low vision. In other words, Comcast has
selected a leader who understands accessibility problems personally,
and whose expertise holds the promise of finding solutions.
The solution of greatest interest to AccessWorld readers will,
undoubtedly, be the new talking TV interface that Comcast will be
rolling out in a limited trial January 1, 2014. Before talking about
that effort, though, a peek at the broader accessibility picture
seems in order.
Location, Location, Location
Tom Wlodkowski says that he knew Comcast was serious about a
stepped-up approach to accessibility during the interviewing
process. Every senior management member of the company's executive
team weighed in on interviewing him, he said, and that clearly
indicated that his hiring was not being taken lightly.
Rather than being on the legal policy side of business or customer
service (retrofitting accessibility, in other words, simply because
the law requires it), Comcast placed Wlodkowski and his
accessibility department next to product innovation. When new
products or improvements to old ones are being created, rendering
those products as usable and accessible to all customers is part of
the conversation. The company maxim of building "a smarter home for
everyone," in other words, seems to include people with disabilities
in its vision.
The accessibility department and newly opened accessibility lab are
on the same floor of the Philadelphia corporate headquarters as the
product innovation department and all the innovation engineers, a
clear indicator that the effort is more than symbolic.
The accessibility lab, a combination test lab and showcase, is
designed to hold the kinds of entertainment and communications tools
that actual homes occupied by actual people with disabilities might
include. A computer with software and hardware for controlling the
environment via eye movements, a computer with magnification
software and text-to-speech software, braille playing cards and a
braille Scrabble game are just a few of the items visitors might
notice.
When a product or product enhancement is under development, the
accessibility lab is the place for staff to give it a test drive.
More than Cable TV
Although cable TV might be the first product that comes to mind when
we hear the Comcast name, Wlodkowski was quick to point out that the
company is the fourth largest provider of telephone services, and is
constantly striving to move all its services (television, telephone,
internet services, home security, and home automation) toward
creating that "smart" and, perhaps, more efficient home.
Mobile apps that allow Comcast customers to accomplish tasks ranging
from activating lights or changing the thermostat, to texting the
kids or checking tonight's movie availability are constantly
evolving. And each of those functions presents its own set of
accessibility challenges. Can a deaf person access a voicemail via
text? Can a blind person navigate the website? Can a person who is
quadriplegic operate the remote control to select the desired
channel on the TV?
Comcast is striving to address these issues and more, and has
created an Accessibility Center of 22 customer service agents
trained specifically to answer questions regarding Comcast's various
accessibility features.
And Now.The News You've Been Waiting For
While high-speed Internet, mobile apps, and telephone service all
matter as much to blind people as to anyone else, the one area where
access has been most blatantly unavailable is in navigating the
myriad features available to sighted viewers in browsing, selecting,
and saving television programming. Comcast announced at the largest
cable trade show in October that they have finally developed a
talking TV interface for the Comcast box.
Slated to be tested in the first quarter of 2014 by a small group of
customers, the box provides text-to-speech access to all those menus
sighted viewers take for granted. You can hear which programs are
available in which categories, how many episodes, which movies are
available for renting, and oh yes, which programs offer video
description. You can search by category or title or even by the
descriptive feature itself.
The sample I heard for this article was a pleasant female voice
(Carol is her name). Speed and pitch controls for the voice are not
available at this point, but Wlodkowski said such features would
undoubtedly be added soon. Also in the foreseeable future, he
indicated, would be a voice input feature for the same system.
As a blind professional, Tom Wlodkowski has an enormous opportunity
to assist one company in demonstrating by example how accessibility
can work for everyone as a from-the-ground-up consideration. If he
does it right, we'll all win.
Contact Information:
Comcast Accessibility Center for Excellence
Phone: 855-270-0379
Hours: 9 am-10 pm week days
resource
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw150107
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Check out the TABI resource web page at http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
and please make suggestions for new material.
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