[gui-talk] Time Warner Cable Nightmare

[Ray Foret Jr]

Well, all I can say is this.  Comcast is in fact at work on addressing very directly the issue of set top box access.  So far as I am aware, Comcast is the only company even doing something about this.  We're talking direct access to all the menus, the TV guide listings, the DVR functions, and basically everything the sighted user is able to access.  Want proof?  go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTL-3fj6HI

You want to pay attention right toward the end of the video.

Despite what you may perhaps believe, this is not a hoax.  This demonstration was given at a cable fair in 2013.  IF all goes well, blind Comcast users should have this fairly soon.  Can't say when though.

I don't know how much of the apps we will be able to access from the box like that, but, what you see toward the end of this video provides as much of a glimps as we can get now of what is coming soon.  


Sent from my mac, the only computer with full accessibility for the blind built-in!

Sincerely,
The Constantly Barefooted Ray, still a very happy Mac and Iphone 5 user!

On Jun 12, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Steve Jacobson via gui-talk <gui-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Actually, the merger might be helpful for accessibility in that Comcast is apparently trying to address some 
> issues, but like many, I worry about a merger for other reasons.  
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Steve Jacobson
> 
> 
> On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 10:13:29 -0400, Gerald Levy via gui-talk wrote:
> 
> 
>> I'm already paying almost $120 a month for Time Warner cable service for the privilege of receiving 500 channels, 
> 99% of which I have no interest in just to be able to receive the few that do interest me.  It has taken me years 
> to figure out which channel numbers corresponded to my favorite channels.  I spend a lot of time listening to the 
> Music Choice channels, so imagine my surprise when I tuned to TWC channel 629  this morning, which used to be the 
> solid gold oldies channel , to discover that it was now some other channel.  And to my horror, all the other Music 
> Choice channels, which used to be carried on channels 601-647 were also apparently gone.  Fuming, I called Time 
> Warner customer support, always an exercise in aggravation, and after waiting 20 minutes, finally got a customer 
> service agent who explained to me that Time Warner had changed its channel lineup, and that my beloved Music 
> Choice channels were now located from channel 1901 to 1950.  I explained to the agent that I was blind and that 
> the only way I could determine where all my favorite channels were located would be to visit their web site and 
> use the Find function of my screen reader to locate each channel by number and its corresponding musical genre.  
> But Time Warner has not bothered to update its wb site , so when you visit it, you get the old channel lineup , 
> which is completely different from the new one.  And because the onscreen channel guide displayed by the cable box 
> is totally inaccessible, there is no way to get correct channel information this way.  And the channel lineups on 
> NFB Newsline have not been updated in years to reflect the current Time Warner lineup.  What an outrageous 
> nightmare!  After telling me that she had no idea when or if the Time Warner web site would be updated to reflect 
> the new channel lineup, I asked the agent when Time Warner would be offering accessible set-top boxes, but after 
> she asked me to hold so that she could speak to her supervisor, she came back on the line and told me that she had 
> no idea when such boxes would be available.  I asked her whether Time Warner was even working on an accessible box 
> and again, she told me that she had no idea.  If I could get decent reception with an antennaa, I would ditch Time 
> Warner altogether, but here in Manhattan, reception with an indoor antenna is difficult to impossible.  Time 
> Warner really has its customers by the gonads,and things are only going to get worse if their merger with Comcast 
> is approved by the FCC.  Do any other Time Warner cable customers on this list have any tips for locating specific 
> channels of interest without sighted help?  Or must I scroll through all the channels on my cable box just to find 
> the few that I'm interested in?  What a freakin' mess!
> 
>> Gerald 
> 
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