[sacate] AAPD-News: Telecommunications Issues
- From: "Elisabeth Ellenbogen" <seieinmensch@xxxxxxx>
- To: sacate@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 04:14:53 GMT
Sending link also text for easy access (especially mine) Elisabeth Ellenbogen
http://www.aapd.com/News/telecomm/070814coat.htm
Information provided by AAPD - Disability Coalition Urges Action by Wireless
Industry
Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology
-------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Contacts:
Jenifer Simpson (AAPD) 202-457-0046
Brenda Battat (HLAA) V-301-657-2248, or TTY 301-657-2249
Adrianna Montague-Gray (AFB) (212) 502-7675
COAT Members Urge Action by Wireless Industry to Improve Disability
Accessibility
Washington, D.C. â?? Consumers with disabilities are taking their concerns
about lack of accessibility of cell phones to the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) this month, with multiple complaints against numerous
companies submitted by representatives of the Coalition of Organizations for
Accessible Technology (COAT). The FCC is the federal agency that enforces
Section 255, an eleven-year-old law that requires phones designed to be
accessible for people with disabilities. Complaints are filed against both cell
phone carriers and manufacturers.
â??Wire line, wireless and VoIP companies and manufacturers are required to
make services and products disability accessible and usable,â?? says Jenifer
Simpson, Senior Director of Telecommunications Policy at the American
Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a COAT affiliate organization
that helps consumers file their complaints. â??Companies scoff at federal law
when they fail to design at the front end for the needs of people with all
kinds of disabilities. We urge the industry to take more action now so that
people with disabilities, including the growing population of seniors, can
purchase wireless phones and services without becoming exasperated and
frustrated by unusable phones and unresponsive customer service.â??
â??Millions of Americans use hearing aids, for example,â?? states Brenda
Battat, Associate Executive Director at the Hearing Loss Association of America
(HLAA), another COAT affiliate, â??and this number will grow rapidly as the
baby boomers age. It is unfathomable to HLAA why there are new cell phones
coming into the marketplace that do not address this need.â??
â??These complaints illustrate a market failure on the part of the cell phone
industry to address accessibility,â?? adds Paul Schroeder, VP of the Programs
and Policy Group at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), another COAT
affiliate, which assisted over a dozen individuals in submitting complaints to
the FCC recently. â??While some companies have taken steps, consumers with
vision loss have few good options for accessibility, and almost no reliable
information about accessibility.â??
The complaints from consumers with disabilities include:
Cell phones not providing for audio output of information displayed on the
screen for users with vision disabilities;
Cell phones not built for compatibility with hearing aids;
Visual displays difficult or impossible to navigate for persons with fine motor
disabilities;
No easily-found disability â??point of contactâ?? at the company as required by
FCC regulations;
Number and control keys hard to distinguish by touch;
Product manuals not available, and not available in alternate formats such as
Braille or large print;
No easy-to-find descriptions of accessibility features; Phone bills and
customer contracts not available in Braille, large print, or other easily
readable formats; and Customer service personnel ill-equipped to handle
concerns of consumers with disabilities.
COAT is a new coalition of disability organizations, launched in March 2007, to
advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access
by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and
other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. The Coalition of Organizations for
Accessible Technology, or COAT, consists of over 100 national, regional, and
community-based affiliates dedicated to making sure that as the nation migrates
from legacy public switched-based telecommunications to more versatile and
innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with
disabilities will benefit like everyone else. More information about the
disability coalition is available at website.
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