[Nfbf-l] Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV

[Alan Dicey]

Comcast Accessibility: More Than Talking TV
Deborah Kendrick
As one of the giant communications entities, Comcast has captured its share 
or more of headlines in recent months. For those of us interested in 
accessibility for people who are blind and visually impaired, however, the 
company has grabbed our attention for an entirely different set of reasons.

Entertainment, specifically entertainment that comes into your living room 
via television, is an integral part of popular culture in the U.S. and 
elsewhere and for many who are blind or visually impaired access to that 
entertainment is difficult or impossible. Onscreen menus and the complexity 
of choices they deliver are daunting for many TV viewers who can see the 
screen to read them. If you can't see the screen, finding and using basic 
programming information is mostly something you just can't do independently. 
Now, with the dramatic and welcome increase in described programming 
prompted by the 2010 Communications and Video Accessibility Act, blind 
people are more interested than ever in watching television, and thus are 
more likely to sit up and listen when any company says they are going to do 
something about the current state of inaccessibility.

Comcast certainly seems to be serious about being the company to bridge the 
accessibility gap, not just for people with visual disabilities, but for all 
people who have ability or language differences. Eighteen months ago, 
Comcast hired Tom Wlodkowski to be vice president of their newly established 
accessibility department. Wlodkowski is blind himself and at least one 
member of his five-person team has low vision. In other words, Comcast has 
selected a leader who understands accessibility problems personally, and 
whose expertise holds the promise of finding solutions.

The solution of greatest interest to AccessWorld readers will, undoubtedly, 
be the new talking TV interface that Comcast will be rolling out in a 
limited trial January 1, 2014. Before talking about that effort, though, a 
peek at the broader accessibility picture seems in order.

Location, Location, Location

Tom Wlodkowski says that he knew Comcast was serious about a stepped-up 
approach to accessibility during the interviewing process. Every senior 
management member of the company's executive team weighed in on interviewing 
him, he said, and that clearly indicated that his hiring was not being taken 
lightly.

Rather than being on the legal policy side of business or customer service 
(retrofitting accessibility, in other words, simply because the law requires 
it), Comcast placed Wlodkowski and his accessibility department next to 
product innovation. When new products or improvements to old ones are being 
created, rendering those products as usable and accessible to all customers 
is part of the conversation. The company maxim of building "a smarter home 
for everyone," in other words, seems to include people with disabilities in 
its vision.

The accessibility department and newly opened accessibility lab are on the 
same floor of the Philadelphia corporate headquarters as the product 
innovation department and all the innovation engineers, a clear indicator 
that the effort is more than symbolic.

The accessibility lab, a combination test lab and showcase, is designed to 
hold the kinds of entertainment and communications tools that actual homes 
occupied by actual people with disabilities might include. A computer with 
software and hardware for controlling the environment via eye movements, a 
computer with magnification software and text-to-speech software, braille 
playing cards and a braille Scrabble game are just a few of the items 
visitors might notice.

When a product or product enhancement is under development, the 
accessibility lab is the place for staff to give it a test drive.

More than Cable TV

Although cable TV might be the first product that comes to mind when we hear 
the Comcast name, Wlodkowski was quick to point out that the company is the 
fourth largest provider of telephone services, and is constantly striving to 
move all its services (television, telephone, internet services, home 
security, and home automation) toward creating that "smart" and, perhaps, 
more efficient home.

Mobile apps that allow Comcast customers to accomplish tasks ranging from 
activating lights or changing the thermostat, to texting the kids or 
checking tonight's movie availability are constantly evolving. And each of 
those functions presents its own set of accessibility challenges. Can a deaf 
person access a voicemail via text? Can a blind person navigate the website? 
Can a person who is quadriplegic operate the remote control to select the 
desired channel on the TV?

Comcast is striving to address these issues and more, and has created an 
Accessibility Center of 22 customer service agents trained specifically to 
answer questions regarding Comcast's various accessibility features.

And Now.The News You've Been Waiting For

While high-speed Internet, mobile apps, and telephone service all matter as 
much to blind people as to anyone else, the one area where access has been 
most blatantly unavailable is in navigating the myriad features available to 
sighted viewers in browsing, selecting, and saving television programming. 
Comcast announced at the largest cable trade show in October that they have 
finally developed a talking TV interface for the Comcast box.

Slated to be tested in the first quarter of 2014 by a small group of 
customers, the box provides text-to-speech access to all those menus sighted 
viewers take for granted. You can hear which programs are available in which 
categories, how many episodes, which movies are available for renting, and 
oh yes, which programs offer video description. You can search by category 
or title or even by the descriptive feature itself.

The sample I heard for this article was a pleasant female voice (Carol is 
her name). Speed and pitch controls for the voice are not available at this 
point, but Wlodkowski said such features would undoubtedly be added soon. 
Also in the foreseeable future, he indicated, would be a voice input feature 
for the same system.

As a blind professional, Tom Wlodkowski has an enormous opportunity to 
assist one company in demonstrating by example how accessibility can work 
for everyone as a from-the-ground-up consideration. If he does it right, 
we'll all win.

Contact Information:

Comcast Accessibility Center for Excellence
Phone: 855-270-0379
Hours: 9 am-10 pm week days
resource

http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw150107