[Blindtlk] FW: Comcast's talking Program Guide/Article from Philadelphia Inquirer

Thu Aug 29 04:58:39 UTC 2013

To bad Charter Communications, Cable Vision or other cable companies
aren't doing this, as I personally think Comcast sucks! Strictly IMHO
though, due to my experience with them.

On 8/28/13, Ray Foret jr <rforetjr at att.net> wrote:
> And here, I present by way of reply, a video of Tom demonstrating the afore
> mentioned feature.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTL-3fj6HI
>
> I am so syked about this.  Switching to Comcast very very soon!
>
>
> Sent from my mac, the only computer with full accessibility for the blind
> built-in!
> Sincerely,
> The Constantly Barefooted Ray
> Still a very proud and happy Mac and Iphone user!
>
> On Aug 28, 2013, at 6:40 PM, "Andrews, David B (DEED)"
> <david.b.andrews at state.mn.us> (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Blind Comcast exec developing a talking TV channel guide
>> Comcast Corp. has hired a sight-challenged executive, Tom Wlodskowski,
>> Vice President/Accessibility, to develop a "talking TV interface" for the
>> blind and other accessible products for the disabled. The talking TV guide
>> could be out in 2014 as part of X2 channel guide and available for
>> everyone.  ( CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer )
>> Bob Fernandez, Inquirer Staff Writer
>> POSTED: Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 1:08 AM
>> <www.inquirer.htm>www.inquirer.com
>> How does a blind person find what to "watch" on a TV with 200 channels and
>> 46,000 video-on-demand choices of movies, shows, and clips? Tom
>> Wlodkowski, a blind executive at Comcast Corp., thinks he has the answer:
>> a talking TV channel guide.
>> No joke.
>> "The television is not strictly as visual a medium as you might think,"
>> said David Goldfield, a computer technology instructor at the Associated
>> Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. "Radio drama in the U.S. is
>> more or less dead. If you are blind and you want a good story, you're
>> still going to get it on television."
>> Comcast expects the talking guide to come with its next-generation X2
>> platform in 2014. The cable giant demonstrated the talking guide this year
>> at a California technology conference and at the cable-TV-industry trade
>> show in Washington.
>> Comcast also market-tested the guide with 20 average-Joe-type
>> sight-impaired individuals in Philadelphia, arranged by the Associated
>> Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
>> The interactive, cloud-based guide - the current voice is a woman, but
>> users eventually could choose the voice, as they can with a ring tone -
>> responds to buttons the person pushes.
>> This is part of a year-old project at Comcast to make the company's
>> products more accessible to customers with disabilities. Wlodkowski has an
>> "accessibility" team and will soon have a lab in the Comcast Center.
>> Comcast isn't doing this just to reach out to the nation's 1.3 million
>> blind individuals who fear being left behind as popular culture and media
>> go digital on the Internet and TV.
>> The Twenty-First Century Communications and Accessibility Act of 2010,
>> passed on the 20-year anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act,
>> is forcing technology companies to integrate accessibility functions into
>> products. It's believed that, in three years, talking interfaces will have
>> to come with TV products.
>> Wlodkowski thinks he also can drive business. People with disabilities
>> account for $200 billion in discretionary spending power, and catering to
>> their needs, he believes, can boost brand loyalty.
>> "We will meet the requirements of the law, but we also believe there can
>> be innovation," he said.
>> Wlodkowski is looking to develop products that could help older Americans
>> "age in place" through the Xfinity home products, which now include home
>> security.
>> Generally, technology companies - with the exception of Apple Inc. - have
>> received poor marks in the selling of blind-friendly products.
>> "We see it as a civil right, and we see manufacturers embracing
>> accessibility way too slowly," Lauren McLarney, government affairs
>> specialist at the National Federation of the Blind, said of consumer
>> electronics and technology companies. Comcast's talking guide sounds
>> "worthwhile," but she hasn't seen it.
>> The association offers a channel guide by zip code called "newsline" that
>> last year was accessed 600,000 times.
>> Before the talking guide, Wlodkowski said, he would have to recognize Matt
>> Lauer's voice at NBC or Anderson Cooper on CNN. He also memorized channel
>> numbers. But most times, he had no idea what was on the channel.
>> "The only way I could navigate TV before," Wlodkowski said, "was to go up
>> and down the channels and listen until I found something that I liked."
>> Recently, he was fiddling with a talking TV guide and stumbled on Brady
>> Bunch reruns. "They still syndicate that? Wow," he said.
>> Formerly with AOL Inc., Wlodkowski is the vice president of accessibility
>> and said his team at Comcast had four goals:
>> To seek information from disabled customers about what they need and how
>> they interact with Comcast's products.
>> To integrate functionality into products so they can be more easily used
>> by disabled subscribers.
>> To introduce specific products, such as the talking guide.
>> To enhance customer service for disabled subscribers.
>> Wlodkowski, who was born blind, was raised in Southington, Conn., with
>> three older brothers. His parents insisted on a regular childhood. He rode
>> a bike in the neighborhood, skied with a guide, and marched in the
>> marching band (he beat the snare drum).
>> His most popular sitcom was Cheers because, he said, "it was relatively
>> easy to follow. When Norm walked in, everybody said, 'Hi, Norm.' "
>> He attended Boston College, majoring in communications. His first media
>> job was with WGBH, the public broadcasting station in Boston. While there,
>> Wlodkowski developed, with a federal grant from the Department of
>> Education, a prototype of a talking TV interface. It was never
>> commercialized.
>> Wlodkowski said he was happy to be back in a city with mass transit and
>> lives in an apartment at 17th and Arch Streets. His wife, Michele, and
>> 15-year-old son, Colin, will relocate from Virginia, and he intends to buy
>> a suburban home near a rail line.
>> One challenging experience in Philadelphia has been mastering the
>> elevators at the sky-high Comcast Center. There are more than 30
>> elevators, and some go only to certain floors.
>> "Catching the elevator in this place," Wlodkowski said, "is an art that I
>> don't think I have figured out."
>>
>>
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