I know absolutely nothing about the original problem that generated this thread, but in general, I have concluded over the years that blind folks tend to immediately assume that they are being snubbed or otherwise discriminated against. In many, if not most instances, it turns out not to be true at all. I see all sorts of complaints like this on various lists, and having used the same service or what ever, and having never had a similar issue, I have to conclude that something else is at work. I always come back to the same thought, regardless of what some folks believe, being blind is a heck of a lot more than a nuisance. Many occasions/situations in life will prove to be much harder to accomplish, if not close to impossible, simply because we are blind; no kidding folks, that is the way it is. It ain't good to be blind, no matter how you look at it.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Alan R. Downing Phoenix, AZ -----Original Message----- From: Chris G [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 4:27 AM To: Tom Fairhurst Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: Verizon Snubs Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired Customers Hi, It's not screen readers, it sounds like the rep was not familiar with general windows terminology. IE buttons, list boxes etc. The general sighted community just has no clue what controls are and what they are called. They just know where to click. I was on the phone with a sighted consumer and this person had no idea what a menu bar was. Told them to click the tools menu and they were like huh? I sure can understand the frustration of the original poster, but, maybe asking the rep how he got a job in cust service might not have been the best way to go about it. Chris On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:20:15 -0600 "Tom Fairhurst" <[email protected]> wrote: > Issues like this one occur routinely for many of us. It was correctly pointed out that the problem, itself, may not be Verizon's. However, apparently, they did a very poor job of trying to help their customer. If front-line representatives are not familiar with a subject matter, they should try to get help. Frankly, if no one at Verizon is familiar with screen readers, they need to be educated. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: donald E. Bowen, Jr. > To: GW Micro Support List > Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 12:11 PM > Subject: Verizon Snubs Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired Customers > > > Hi, > > > > After a very frustrating morning with Verizon.com , I am writing to you all as a form of therapy. > > > > I managed to register an online account with them this morning and when trying to complete an online payment came across an inaccessible Submit button I could navigate all around it but could not get focus on it. I finally had a sighted individual look for me. The button was there. I asked the sighted person to put the mouse pointer on it but not to click. He did. > > > > Window Eyes announced graphic > > > > I took over with the numpad mouse controls but could not navigate away from and then back to. Well, I was able to move away from, just not back to. Oddly, not even the jump to graphic navigation command would take me back to the Submit button. > > > > I gave up, asked my son to go ahead and click on it for me. He did. The payment confirmation screen loaded. > > > > I then called the Verizon e-services center. > > > > John O'Niel, the telephone support agent who answered, said he did not know what a control was, He did not know anything about links, buttons, drop down boxes or list boxes or what a screen reader was, nor did he have any idea what to do. When I asked him how he got a job as a telephone support agent for Verizon e-services, He then hung up on me. > > > > I called Verizon and asked for the legal department. The clerk who answered there said, with disdain, when I briefed her on the reason for my call, "please hold" and transferred me to Customer Service. > > > > If Target, and other commercial web sites can be successfully sued for Publishing an inaccessible web site, surely a utility company is under some sort of obligation to provide an accessible web site. > > > > Thanks for letting me vent. And by the by, anybody have a clue how I can submit my payment to Verizon? Besides a paper check or paying a service fee for pay by phone? > > > > Sincerely, > > Donald E. Bowen, Jr. > > Music for Sight > > SKYPE ID: musicforsight > > > > > If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original > sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and > your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending > your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. > > All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search > form at the bottom of the page. > > If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to > [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body > of the message. > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4636 (20091125) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original > sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and > your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending > your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. > > All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search > form at the bottom of the page. > > If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to > [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body > of the message. -- The home of the Mystic Place blog and podcast. www.mysticplace.info RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/mysticplacebp If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message.
