[blindlaw] Satellite and Cable TV Tuner Boxes

[Leslie Fairall]

Actually, I think the LSAC issue is more important than making cable boxes 
accessible to blind people. While most blind people have either cable or 
satellite TV, 70% of us are still unemployed. Ensuring that a blind person 
can enter a profession and support themselves is more important than 
access to entertainment such as as cable and satellite TV boxes and 
remotes. I own a couple of satellite radio receivers, and they're not fully 
accessible either. However, these are for my entertainment pleasure, not 
my life's work.


On Sun, 22 Feb 2009, Michael Fry wrote:

> It seems cable box accessibility is relevant to more visually impaired
> people than LSAC accessibility.
>
> On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 7:32 AM, Ford, Tim (CDPH-OLS)
> <Tim.Ford at cdph.ca.gov>wrote:
>
>> I fully agree that such lawsuits need to be carefully chosen.  I mention
>> the satellite and cable boxes because they are so wide-spread.  I also
>> suspect that, similar to an ATM machine, there are probably very few
>> differences inside the various boxes in terms of the basic technology.
>> Hence, the solution to one company's box may be either directly or
>> easily transferable to others.  Certainly with the advances of screen
>> reading programs, it would not be that hard to come up with a speech
>> output option for these boxes, which by their nature have much  fewer
>> variability as compared with a typical computer system.
>>
>> Tim Ford
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>> On Behalf Of Rod Alcidonis
>> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 6:11 PM
>> To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Satelitte TV Tuner Boxes
>>
>> If you guys are wishing that every access issues should be addressed
>> through law suits, let me suggest to you that this is not possible. Our
>> efforts have to be targeted, else you lose credibility quickly.
>>
>> Rod Alcidonis
>> Juris Doctor Candidate, 2009.
>> Roger Williams University School of Law
>> 10 Metacom Ave., Box: 9003
>> Bristol, RI 02809
>> Cell: 718-704-4651
>> Home: 401-824-8685
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ford, Tim (CDPH-OLS)" <Tim.Ford at cdph.ca.gov>
>> To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 6:57 PM
>> Subject: [blindlaw] Satelitte TV Tuner Boxes
>>
>>
>>> If anyone is looking for another possible case, how about the complete
>>> lack of accessibility of my Dish Network satellite video
>> tuner/recorder?
>>> I assume the same lack of access exists for all the satellite and
>> cable
>>> system video recorders used by all those companies.
>>>
>>> The unit is essentially a computer, with a hard drive and an operating
>>> system.  There are a series of menus, left and right arrow options, a
>>> button to select, etc.  It strikes me that it would not be a hard task
>>> to put speech output into that operating system, especially since it
>> is
>>> a set amount of options and commands.  Just for fun, I asked DISH
>>> Network about a set of instructions so that a blind person could
>> operate
>>> their video recorder.  Needless to say, they had nothing.
>>>
>>> Yes, I can change/select channels, but that is about it.  The rest of
>> it
>>> involves too many steps and series of choices, and the choices vary
>>> depending upon the situation, so I doubt that much could be done even
>>> with a long series of steps to take, with no way of confirming what
>> you
>>> have done.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Tim Ford
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> blindlaw mailing list
>>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> blindlaw:
>>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/roddj12%40hotm
>> ail.com
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindlaw mailing list
>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindlaw:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/tim.ford%40cdp
>> h.ca.gov
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindlaw mailing list
>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindlaw:
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/mikefry79%40gmail.com
>>
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/fairall%40shellworld.net
>
>