More Info on New Accessible Cell Phone

[Sean McMahon]

I don't see how this phone meets the requirements of Sec 255.  There is no
voice anouncement of signal strength, and no voice for web or text messages
and can someone say if the menus have an alternate method of access which is
easy for us?   Still this is way better then what's out there now.
Sean
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Clever" <lists at clevercentral.com>
To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'"
<speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 12:08 PM
Subject: FW: More Info on New Accessible Cell Phone


> Since there has been a lot of discussion about this lately...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
> [mailto:VICUG-L at MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU] On Behalf Of Kelly Pierce
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 1:14 PM
> To: VICUG-L at MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: More Info on New Accessible Cell Phone
>
> Hello all,
>
> In the last hour, I reached Bonnie O'Day who shared some information
> about the new accessible cell phone.  As many know, Bonnie filed a
> discrimination complaint about cell phone accessibility against cell
> phone producer Audiovox and service provider Verizon Wireless.  last
> week, Audiovox settled the complaint by offering a cell phone that
> provides voice guidance to enable blind users to place and receive voice
> calls.  The complaint is still pending  against Verizon who has not
> decided to offer the new phone.  Verizon is America's largest wireless
> communications company with 38 million subscribers.  It had $1.8 billion
> in profits in the third quarter of 2003.
>
> The telephone is currently offered by Sprint as the VM4050 by Toshiba.
> It has the following audio features:
>
> *Voice announce of On/off
> *Voice announce of Roaming out of local area
> *Voice identifying battery status by percentage
> *Voice confirmation of outgoing telephone number to be dialed
> *Talking caller ID of incoming calls
> *Voice announcement that voice mails are waiting when phone is turned on.
>
> Bonnie thanked the American Foundation for the Blind who hired as a
> consultant a highly knowledgeable telecommunications expert that provided
> invaluable technical assistance in working with the  companies to develop
> this solution.  It is unclear if this telephone is available at
> storefront Sprint locations or just through catalog orders.  In either
> event, the audio functionality is built right into the phone.  There is
> no special software to install and no blind version either!  The
> mainstream product itself is accessible for basic functionality.
>
> Kelly
>
>
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>
>
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