True and that may be a solution. The problem with such buttons is the
possibility of accidental calling of 911.
Greg
On Jan 15, 2007, at 09:21 , Josh de Lioncourt wrote:
The iPhone does have a couple of traditional buttons on it, so
presumably they will hard code into the phone that to press and
hold one of these, or a combination of them, will dial 911. That is
a simple and logical sollution, and i don't know why other
manufacturers wouldn't have done that with the rejected phones you
mentioned. Some phones already come with a 911 function built in
now, so this isn't a stretch at all.
Greg Kearney wrote:
In doing some research into this matter I have found two
regulations/laws that may have a bearing on the iPhone. I want to
stress that we DO NOT KNOW if the iPhone is inaccessible or not.
So let's assume that it isn't for now.
First is the Telecommunication Act. This would seem to require
Apple to produce a phone that is accessible. The act give an out
if it is not readily able to do so. However given that the phone
run OSX by Apple's own admission then it would be hard to argue
that it is not readily about to make the phone accessible. The
other option the act provided is that the maker, Apple, could
provide another accessible model. No good in this case as this is
the only model offered.
The second and perhaps far more serious issue is one of FCC
approval. The FCC has never approved a screen only phone and there
have been several attempts to get one approved. The reason for not
approving them has nothing to do with accessibility it has to do
with safety. They were rejected because in the case of an accident
where the screen was broken the phone would be unable to dial 911.
It will be interesting to see how Apple deals with this issue.
The last issue would not matter what Apple claims the iPhone to
be. I think it a ridiculous argument that the Telecommunication
Act would not apply because the iPhone isn't in fact a phone. I
mean they call it the iPhone after all.
Greg Kearney
