[Electronics-talk] accessible TV shows and how do we fix ourTV'sto get the audio?

[Gerald Levy]

Interestingly, when I first started with Time-Warner Cable 30 years ago, 
their converter box was a lot simpler and the remote did, in fact, have a 
separate button to turn SAP on or off.  But over the years, as they have 
added more channels and features, the boxes have become more complicated, 
and so to keep the number of buttons on the remote to a reasonable level, 
many features that used to have their own dedicated remote button have been 
relegated to options on an onscreen menu.  So now, turning SAP on or off 
requires navigating through three or four layers of menus and at least five 
or six button presses.  Most consumers, according to surveys, would prefer 
fewer features and channels to choose from with so-called "a la carte" 
pricing, but the cable providers don't really care what their customers 
think because they are absolute monopolies in their markets and pretty much 
do anything they damn well please.

Gerald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cheez" <cheez at cox.net>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] accessible TV shows and how do we fix 
ourTV'sto get the audio?


> Gerald, thanks for saving me time.  I was going to call my cable provider 
> and ask if the cable box remote control had a button to push for SAP.
>
> I know this is a pipe dream, but one would think someone would come up 
> with some device that would give the blind the ability to access all 
> displays. And when something new hits the market, all one need do is 
> perform a simple upgrade.
> They can send men into space, open the door for amnesty, but they can't 
> come up with a device similar to the above pipe dream.  Sheesh!
> Vince
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gerald Levy" <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
> To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 2:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] accessible TV shows and how do we fix 
> ourTV's to get the audio?
>
>
>>
>> This whole situation is a real mess.  So the networks are going to 
>> increase the number of prime time hours dedicated to audio described 
>> programming. But if you are blind and you have cable TV or one of the 
>> satellite providers, this is of little consolation because there is no 
>> way to access the SAP channel unless you have sighted help to navigate 
>> the onscreen menus of the converter box to turn it on or off.  Presently, 
>> none of the cable or satellite providers has any plans to offer 
>> accessible converter boxes, so once again, we blind consumers are getting 
>> screwed over while the advocacy groups pat themselves on the backs for 
>> increasing the amount of available audio described programming. Imagine 
>> if the deaf had to rely strictly on audible clues to turn the closed 
>> caption decoder on or off.  You can bet their advocacy groups would 
>> scream bloody murder to the FCC.
>>
>> Gerald
>>
>>
>>
>> Gerald
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jenny Keller" <jlperdue3 at gmail.com>
>> To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
>> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 4:55 PM
>> Subject: [Electronics-talk] accessible TV shows and how do we fix our 
>> TV's to get the audio?
>>
>>
>>> As the subject says.  Most of the TV's menus are not accessible, so how 
>>> will we get our TV's to the proper settings?
>>>
>>> If it is the SAP thing, you can't leave that on all the time, because if 
>>> it's not available in audio description, it turns in to the spanish 
>>> option.  besides, again, you can't access the menus by sight it you 
>>> don't have any.
>>>
>>> also, the article said that there would be symbols and sounds, well, the 
>>> symbols is a stupid idea cause if you are blind, and/or visually 
>>> impaired, how will you see the symbols?  that's kind of stupid in my 
>>> opinion, the symbols thing.
>>>
>>> Sounds like they have a lot of bugs to get out before July first, and 
>>> I've seen nothing on the networks saying anything about that, and 
>>> believe me, I'm a TV junky.
>>>
>>> JMO,
>>>
>>> Jenny
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Electronics-talk mailing list
>>> Electronics-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>>> Electronics-talk:
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org/bwaylimited%40verizon.net
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Electronics-talk mailing list
>> Electronics-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> Electronics-talk:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org/cheez%40cox.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Electronics-talk mailing list
> Electronics-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> Electronics-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/electronics-talk_nfbnet.org/bwaylimited%40verizon.net