[nfb-talk] letter from a blind Comcast customer; feedback wanted

[Ray Foret jr]

Hi,

I would like y'all's input on the following which is a draft of the letter 
I'm intending to send to Rick Germano, the Vice President of Customer 
service at Comcast.


Dear Mr. Germano:

            I have been a customer of Comcast ever since January 24th, 2008.
I am a totally blind customer.  I use a screen reader to access my computer.

For the most part, I have very much enjoyed your service.  The courteous
attitude of nearly all of your customer service representatives speaks well
of their love of working for Comcast and of their strong commitment to try
to help their customers as much as it is in their power to do so.  And yet,
Mr. Germano, I do have some serious problems with certain aspects of the
service which Comcast provides to its customers; and, particularly, the lack
of knowledge of the special accommodations which are sometimes needed by
blind customers.  This is the case regarding especially two key areas of
service; the totally inaccessible barrier put up by the use of the visual
captcha found when a customer signs up for the online bill payment service
and for Fancast, and the other is the lack of a convenient way to access the
menu structure of the cable set top boxes and DVR units you provide.

            Let me give you specific examples of exactly what I mean.  I
went to:

www.comcast.com

to try to set up my online bill payment account.  I was able to fill out the
form for the most part, until I got to the bottom of the form.  At the point
in the form just before the "submit" button, there was the instruction,
"please type in the numbers you see in the image.".  It is not possible for
screen reader programs such as the one I use to access and read the numbers
or special characters indicated; moreover, neither was there an audio
alternative which I could have used.  I called and requested a special pin
to try to resolve this issue.  I got the pin in the mail but it didn't work.
I then called customer service.  The lady who answered the phone was very
nice and she too tried to fill out the form using the information I'd given
her; but, she couldn't make it work either.  Upon consulting her supervisor,
she was informed (and she thus informed me) that customer service
representatives are NOT supposed to fill out those web forms because it
opens up liability issues which could potentially compromise security.  I
then asked about paying my bill via telephone.  I was informed there is a
$4.00 (Four dollar) charge for this service.  Mr. Germano, this is
unacceptable!  This practice and policy on the part of Comcast eeffectively
shuts out the blind customer from being able to independently pay bills and
otherwise transact business with your company!!!  Why should the blind
customer be charged a fee and thus be penalized merely due to blindness and
inexcusable oversight on the part of Comcast policy makers who most likely
haven't taken us blind customers in to account?  It is not just this matter
which I wish to communicate to you.  There is another.

            I have the Hi Definition DVR.  When I first got it, I was unable
to get any customer service representative to assist me with the
properoperation of the DVR.  To his credit, the representative scheduled an
installer to come to my home for the purpose of helping me learn the menu
structure of the box.  This memorize and press routine is, however, very
much a hit and miss solution.  IF a wrong key is pressed, how does a blind
customer know where he is and thus how to navigate to where he needs to be
to find the menu item in which he is interested?  For a second time, I
needed help.  For a second time, I was offered the solution of an installer
to come to my home to help.  Mr. Germano, I do not think it is an acceptable
solution that an installer should have to come to the home of a blind
customer to get him or her out of a jam with a cable box menu structure;
especially when he may have much more important calls to make; whether they
are installation or trouble shooting calls.

            Finally, Mr. Germano, I asked for my Comcast bill to be sent to
me in Braille.  The customer service representative indicated that he didn't
even know if this was possible or not.  He told me this after I waited
nearly two hours on the phone.  I am informed this is in fact possible.

Mr. Germano, I would like to remind you, or make you aware in case you 
hadn't
heard, that the National Federation of the blind:

www.nfb.org

passed two resolutions at our 2007 national convention which deal very
directly with the issues I have raised.  If you have any questions, please
feel free to contact me at my home number:

(985)360-3375

or my e-mail:

rforetjr at comcast.net

or Dr. Maurer, President of the National federation of the blind:

(410)659-9314

or by e-mail:

officeofthepresident at nfb.org

Here are the text of the relrelevant resolutions we passed regarding the
issues I raised:

RESOLUTION 2007-07

Regarding Elimination of Barriers Created by Online Security Measures

WHEREAS, an ever-increasing number of financial transactions are taking
place online, including bill paying, stock trading, account management, and
the

purchase of almost every imaginable kind of merchandise; and

WHEREAS, the vast sums of money now moving over the Internet tempt the
unscrupulous to develop schemes and scams to steal this money as Internet
users are

painfully aware from the all too familiar emails pretending to be from
various banks and institutions, which are not actually sent by them; and

WHEREAS, online merchants, financial institutions, and others recognize the
growth potential of the Web, but also realize that this growth will be
thwarted

if individuals are concerned about the security of their transactions; and

WHEREAS, for security reasons banks are rapidly adopting systems using the
method known as "visual CAPTCHA" because so far it cannot be circumvented by

computerized means, but requires a human to enter numbers displayed on a
screen; and

WHEREAS, visual CAPTCHA is impossible for blind people to use, and online
entities are developing yet other systems, also impossible for blind people
to

use, such as credit and debit cards whose security numbers change visibly in
accordance with a particular pattern; and

WHEREAS, all these security systems to eliminate fraud may also eliminate
blind people from engaging in financial transactions online; and

WHEREAS, security systems that prevent fraud and do not prevent blind users
are achievable and should be mandated by our country's laws requiring access

for the disabled: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this sixth day of July, 2007, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia,
that this

organization call upon online merchants to find solutions that enhance
security but do not block the access of blind users to these extremely
important

online services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization seek congressional or
regulatory solutions to this access barrier if online merchants choose to
protect security

only by closing out blind Americans.

RESOLUTION 2007-16

Regarding the Inaccessibility of Digital Cable Services

WHEREAS, cable television companies such as Comcast, Time Warner, Mediacom,
and others are offering a growing number of digitally based and interactive

services through their networks such as video on demand; digital video
recording and playback; and on-screen, interactive program guides; and

WHEREAS, none of these services can be used without the ability visually to
read menus and prompts that are displayed on the television screen, thus
rendering

them inaccessible to the blind; and

WHEREAS, given that technologies now exist to make computers, cell phones,
and other electronic devices fully accessible to the blind, and given that
synthesized

speech is now available for hand-held devices, this regrettable lack of
nonvisual access is difficult to understand, let alone accept; and

WHEREAS, blind cable customers pay as much as everybody else for the cable
services they receive, even though some of these services are not fully
available

to them: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this sixth day of July, 2007, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia,
that this

organization call upon cable companies such as Comcast, Time Warner,
Mediacom, and others to take immediate steps to remove the nonvisual access
barriers

they have created for their blind customers through the adoption of
digitally based, interactive services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization urge these same companies to
work with the blind themselves, through the National Federation of the
Blind,

to design, develop, and implement specific solutions that will allow their
blind customers to use the same digitally based, interactive services as
their

sighted peers.

Mr. Germano, I strongly urge you to take my letter with the utmost
seriousness and to work with me and your other blind customers and the NFB
to find resolutions to these issues.  Thank you very much.

That is the end of the letter.  Thoughts?

Note, my e-mail signature will not appear in the text of the letter.


Sincerely yours,
The Constantly Barefooted,
Ray
Home phone and fax:
(985)360-3375
E-mail:
rforetjratcomcastdotnet
Skype Name:
barefootedray

God bless President George W. Bush!
God bless our troops!
and God bless America