[Nfbnet-members-list] National Federation of the Blind and Verifone Collaborate to Make Taxicab Terminals Accessible

[Kuhnke, Kristian]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind and Verifone
Collaborate to Make Taxicab Terminals Accessible

Baltimore, Maryland (July 20, 2015): <http://www.nfb.org/>The 
National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's leading advocate 
for accessible technology, and Verifone will work together to enhance 
the accessibility of Verifone's in-taxi technology for blind 
passengers by the end of this year, under an agreement that was 
recently reached by the two organizations. Verifone's in-taxi systems 
enable passengers to pay their cab fare with a credit or debit card 
and enjoy curated media content during taxi rides.

Currently, blind passengers can use the terminals by tapping the 
center of the screen to initiate an accessibility mode, which uses 
voice prompts to provide information about the fare and to guide the 
user through the payment process. Planned accessibility enhancements 
will include voicing information about the taxi's then-current 
location, as well as other improvements to the user interface. 
Additionally, Verifone and NFB will discuss the feasibility of making 
other new features accessible if and when they are introduced.

Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, 
said: "Verifone has already done outstanding work to make its taxicab 
units accessible to blind passengers, and we are delighted to work 
with the company to improve the user experience even more. We commend 
Verifone for working with blind users to improve its systems and look 
forward to helping this great company set an even higher standard for 
accessibility in the taxicab industry."

Amos Tamam, Senior Vice President of Taxi Systems for Verifone said: 
"We are committed to providing a great experience for all users of 
our technology. We are delighted to work with the National Federation 
of the Blind to make sure that our systems are usable and accessible 
to blind taxicab passengers."

The NFB raised its accessibility concerns to Verifone, and the 
parties quickly began effective collaboration to resolve these 
concerns. The negotiations were facilitated on behalf of the NFB by 
the law firms of LaBarre Law Offices; TRE Legal; Clark, Hunt, Ahern & 
Embry; and Disability Rights Advocates.


###


About the National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the 
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise 
the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create 
obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life 
you want; blindness is not what holds you back.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbnet-members-list_nfbnet.org/attachments/20150720/ff556c18/attachment.html>