[gui-talk] Time Warner Cable Nightmare

Thu Jun 12 21:43:27 UTC 2014

And actualy, I've gotten very good service from Comcast customer service.

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ray Foret
Jr via gui-talk
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 10:49 AM
To: Steve Jacobson; Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk
Mailing List
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Time Warner Cable Nightmare

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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> 
> 
> 
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