[nabs] accessible products

Wed Dec 1 23:39:23 GMT 2010

I'll have to echo most of Caitlin's sentiments here.

The blindness organizations are certainly interested in universal 
design of *ALL PRODUCTS*, but they are wisely chosing their 
battles one-at-a-time and focusing on certain issues before 
moving on o others.  Leena mentioned the Video and 
Telecommunications Act.  Our very own immediate past president's 
husband was instrumental in getting that law passed.  It will, 
however, be a period of time until companies actually start 
making and shelving accessible telecommunications products.

I share your frustration about more descriptive video being 
offered in the UK.  It's true.  You know why?  They've had those 
laws requiring descriptive video for years, and we only just got 
our law passed a few months ago.  The UK, and Europe in general, 
is farther along than the US in equality and accessibility for 
people with disabilities.

I love games and too am frustrated by the lack of accessible ones 
for the blind.  However, like I mentioned above, the ACb at least 
is chosing to focus on more universal issues since gaming isn't 
necessarily considered an immediate necessity by most blind 
people when compared to accessible currency, accessible 
telecommunications equipment, web accessibility, etc.

Oh, and if I'm not mistaken, the NFB is actually working on 
creating an accessible car.  In jest of course I'd be all for 
this, but I'll be hoenst and say that the actuality of such an 
invention has me a little scared.  I already feel unsafe 
sometimes with sighted drivers.  Lol.

This has been an interesting thread.  Keep the ideas coming; we 
love it!  And, by the way, it's entirely possible that NABS could 
introduce a resolution on some of these related issues at some 
point in the future at an ACB convention.

Laura
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NABS Student Advocate Editor" 
<editor.acbstudents at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind 
Students." <nabs at acb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs] accessible products

Hi Josh,
   I get what you're saying and I understand your point. I'm
personally not a "gamer", so I don't feel all that passionately 
about
these issues, but I think it would be cool to see a WII with 
speech
help or something like that. However, I think that other issues 
should
take precedent for the organizations to devote their efforts to; 
i.e.
money, education, etc. I'm not trying to start problems here or
anything like that, I'd just like to see the playing field 
leveled a
bit more (and yes, we've come tremendously far) before we worry 
about
pushing for luxuries like Wii or DVR.

   If you want audio described movies, I would try
http://www.blindmicemart.com
I haven't consulted it in three months or so, but they used to 
have a
massive section of described films, for free. You would download 
them
from sendspace and could listen on your computer, notetaker, or
however you liked.

   All that being said. An accessible car, yes please!!

Cheers,
Caitlin

On 12/1/10, Leena Bandy <leena.salim at gmail.com> wrote:
> Josh,
> Have you heard about HR 3101? It was recently passed into law. 
> It
> deals with descriptive programming as well as talking cable 
> boxes and
> cell phones and having the emergency notices read to you 
> instead of
> only crawling across the TV screen. Honestly, I never thought 
> of
> trying to make video game consoles accessible. It would be 
> interesting
> to see how that would work. I'd look up HR 3101 the 21st 
> Century Video
> and Telecommunications act. I hope this helps.
> Leena Bandy
>
> On 12/1/10, Josh Kennedy <jkenn337 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> My question is this. Why is the nfb and ACB and AFB not 
>> pushing for
>> accessibility in x-box, accessible nintendo wii? accessible 
>> dvr? If we
>> had these things it would put us on an even more equal level 
>> with
>> sighted people. Why not push for companies to add 
>> text-to-speech to the
>> dvr? x-box, nintendo? make both braille and text to speech a 
>> standard on
>> washing machines, dryers, and other appliances? Also instead 
>> of striking
>> out on its own, why doesn't the nfb, ACB and AFB all work with 
>> google
>> and apple to make the ultimate car that blind people can 
>> drive? Clearly
>> there's a lot of work to be done still. Does the nfb ACB and 
>> AFB not
>> care about such matters as accessible x-box, accessible 
>> nintendo, and
>> dvr? Don't get me wrong we have more choices than we did ten 
>> years ago
>> ut there's still a long way to go I think. In some ways with 
>> tv and dvr
>> and stuff we're behind with the technology. That's good that 
>> apple tv is
>> accessible. But the fact remains that my dish network dvr box, 
>> and my tv
>> set doesn't have talking menus and a talking program guide. 
>> Also for
>> some reason descriptive video is more prevalent in the United 
>> Kingdom
>> than here in the USA. why? why is that? So far in the United 
>> States,
>> deaf people get more on tv than we do. closed captioning is 
>> everywhere,
>> but for blind folks there is very little in the way of 
>> descriptive video
>> unless you get it from the united kingdom. I'm simply stating 
>> facts here
>> guys on issues that I feel nfb ACB and AFB must address in 
>> order for us
>> to be on a more equal level with the sighted people we 
>> interact with
>> everyday.
>>
>> Josh
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