[Nfb-announce] FW: Comcast's talking Program Guide/Article from Philadelphia Inquirer

[Andrews, David B (DEED)]

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."