Hi James, I think that a bunch of blind people organizing a boycott wouldn't do any good, however, if we can find ways to convince our sighted colleagues, friends, relatives and neighbors to purchase only from companies that also happen to pay attention to accessibility, then, we would have something useful. :-)
In many other areas, AOL has actually made great strides forward in accessibility. AOL's Instant Messenger and Mail services are known to work well with screen readers. I use AIM on my job to communicate with other members of my team around the world. ----- Original Message ----- From: "TheLearningCenter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 4:32 AM Subject: Ujnfortunate AOL News and Information For as long as I can recall, which is ever since AOL has been around, their services have not been that accessible to Blind people. I know I have heard that they have done some things to make their services more accessible to us, but it has been a struggle for them to even do anything. I guess I am wondering why blind people continue to support companies who don't seem to care anything about our accessability needs and continue to put out products that make us work very hard at using them. Now, about the AOL's new CBS Player, AOL knew of their plan to change their program, so why couldn't they test and make sure the product is accessible to screen readers before they installed it. It makes absolutely no sense to put out a product that is not accessible to all of its users. AOL knows blind people use their service, especially radio and music playing components of their system, so why do they continue to disregard us? Maybe just because they can. I don't buy that argument that "business requirements forced them to rush the product in prior to them wanting to do so. CBS has been around for a while and I often access their stations and theeir player seems to be accessible enough. Does the one AOL uses work differently than the CBS stations would use? It sickens me when companies continue to cry about not making things accessible because of business reasons. We blind people pay our subscription fees to them, so shouldn't our needs matter too. I think blind people make up a pretty sizeable market for their types of services. My question would also be, if it is so hard to do, then how do other companies do it. Like someone said, doesn't they (AOL) own Winamp? Why not use Winamp for their needs? I have had enough of this stuff and excuses. I will no longer spend my money with companies who act this way. I can take my money elsewhere. We should do this across the board and let those companies who don't seem to care know what we are doing. Those companies that we have to use, then we can sue them into complying with the law; those who we only use for pleasure and entertainment, we should let go. You know, blind people get such treatment because we accept it and continue to buy stuff that don't work for us. Companies like Apple, who makes a cell phone with no keyboard or bluetooth accessability; Intuit (Quicken), who produces an almost totally inaccessible tax program, even though blind people have to do taxes to and want and need to do their own taxes; and most of their radio automated programs (OTSDJ), which require us to always script them into shape; and many more, who just don't seem to care, should be dropped by us and not used. I know we will say that we need some of these programs, but these companies don't seem to care and only give lip service to making their products more accessible. I would say to AOL, "Get your act in Order." Make this product accessible, it is only a software thing and shouldn't take too long to take care of it. Excuse time is over and better service is in order. Finally, every person who continue to use these types of products despite their companies' failure to care about our needs are contributing to the problem; stop keeping them into budsiness to discriminate against you and put your money where your needs are. If they say, our money is not enough to make a difference, then let's move on and find a product that meets out needs. If we need the product and it is the only one around, then sue those companies into making their products accessible. I heard this stuff fifteen to twenty years ago, when I got my first (PCXT) and should not be hearing it now; we are trying, but business requirements make us go backwards or do nothing at all. Let's get our butts in gear and start demanding better service; there is absolutely no reason why any software should be inaccessible to blind people, as the technology is there to make anything accessible. AOL and similar companies should ask us before emplimenting programs that don't meet our needs and maybe we can help them know what route to take. James Robinson Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
