Introduction

[Kelly Pierce]

Hello,

If you wrote down the name of the customer service representative with whom
you interacted and the date and time of your call, consider filing a
complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.  If you didn't fully
document this interaction, request by
e-mail a Braille manual from Verizon and LG.  Contact information is on the
Verizon and LG websites.  Retain all correspondence.

I recently started using a cell phone and requested a Microsoft Word
version of the i205 manual from Motorola.  Here's what my request looked
like:

Dear Motorola,

I am a blind user of the Motorola i205 cellular phone and am writing to
request a copy of the manual in accessible format.  I visited the Motorola
website in search of the manual for this phone, but the only one I could
find was in portable document Format (PDF).  As a blind person who cannot
see the contents of a computer screen, I rely on a screen reader to voice
the contents of Internet web pages and files.  PDF documents are largely
inaccessible with this technology.

As a consequence, I request the manual in Microsoft Word, HTML, or plain
text format, all of which are compatible with screen reader technology.  I
will appreciate your assistance.

Kelly

Ironic to this situation, Motorola wrote back and offered me a Braille
manual.  Although I am a Braille reader, I cannot easily carry around a
thick Braille volume in my pocket.  However, my Bookport fits in my pocket
and it can read Microsoft Word files, allowing me the same portability and
flexibility of access to the manual as sighted people have.

If Verizon and LG turn out to be as unresponsive as Motorola was to me,
consider filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Communications
Commission.  Currently, the American Association for People with
Disabilities In Washington will provide free assistance in filing an 
informal
accessibility complaint with the FCC.  Jenifer Simpson, formerly of the FCC 
disability
 access section, now works for AAPD on telecommunications access
concerns.  Jenifer will be happy to hear from you and compose and file a
complaint on your behalf, citing the specific FCC rules with which Verizon
and LG are required to comply.  Jenifer can be reached by calling
202-457-0046.  Her e-mail address is:

aapdjenifer at aol.com

Within a month of filing my informal FCC complaint through Jenifer about an
accessible electronic version of the i205 manual, I received a call from
the Senior Director of the Motorola Government Relations Office who readily
agreed to provide me with the Microsoft Word file on which the Braille
manual was created.  The MS Word version arrived in my inbox that same day.

I hope you have as much success with your cell phone manufacturer as I did
with mine.

Kelly






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Noe Villeda" <nvilled1 at tampabay.rr.com>
To: "The Accessible Phones Discussion List"
<blindphones at mosenexplosion.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: Introduction


> Hi Kelly,
>
> I've found my service with Verizon Wireless to be less than satisfactory.
> Their customer service representatives are barely trained, let alone when
> it
> comes to anything dealing with accessibility.
> When I mentioned needing a Braille manual, the person had no idea where
> to
> even begin to find the answer, the number that's listed for LG on their
> website is no longer a working number.
>
> Noe
>
>
> You received this message because you subscribed to the Accessible Phones
> Discussion List.
>
> If you don't want to receive messages from this list anymore, just send a
> blank e-mail to:
> blindphones-unsubscribe at mosenexplosion.com