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People bark into them while driving and eating meals. They ring annoyingly during religious services, movies, plays, school classes, and court hearings. Yes, I'm talking about cell phones -- and they have become nearly universal.
Universal, that is, except for the millions of people with disabilities. Too often, disabled people believe they are excluded from the opportunities wireless telecommunications provide. Verizon, MCI, AT&T, and Pacific Bell claim they offer telecommunications products for people with disabilities. In the wireless arena, however, the products often don't address the specific needs of disabled consumers.
Take the case of Shirley Mazziotti, a 26-year-old Alexandria (Va.) woman with cerebral palsy. "I cannot use these damn cell phones. The push-button numbers are too small for my fingers," says Mazziotti, who has searched relentlessly to find a cell phone she can use. She visited three different telecom stores in her region. In each one, Mazziotti asked for a wireless phone with raised numbers, so she could press the keys with her slightly bent fingers. "Every salesperson tells me they don't have anything for me. They suggested I should buy a voice-activated memory phone that will dial a number when I say Fred, or Sally, and Shirley," Mazziotti says. That wouldn't help her, since she has a speech impairment and can't use voice-activated systems.
NOISE TOLERANCE. Mazziotti isn't alone. "I'm blind, and I searched for a cell telephone with Braille on the numbers. Or one that speaks when I press the number. I can't find one. Why?" asks 43-year-old stockbroker Lawrence Ackerly of Towson, Md. Ackerly says that 40% of the calls he dials on his cell phone are wrong numbers. He believes that if wireless phones had either speech or Braille, the number of misdials would virtually disappear.
Legally blind, 29-year-old Doris Greene of Frankfort, Ky., adds: "Cell phones are not made for blind people. I had one, but someone else always had to dial it for me, especially for Internet access." She adds: "Voice-activated phones don't work when there's a lot of noise." And voice-activation systems also tend to conk out when batteries are low.
To be sure, not everyone with a disability feels left out. Take 67-year-old Sam Diamond of Washington, D.C. Diamond has osteo-arthritis in both hands. That prohibits him from using the dial pad of a telephone. But he feels voice-activated wireless features meet his needs. "I just pick up the phone and say any name programmed into the phone, and I get my connection," Diamond says. The voice-activated telephones help him with another problem associated with aging -- memory loss. "I don't remember telephone numbers anymore. But I remember names. So it's easy for me to call my family, friends, and taxi through a one-word command."
DUAL PAD. Some in the deaf community aren't feeling left out, either. Thomas Hummer, 37, of Atlantic City, N.J., who is deaf, is content to connect his Teletypewriter (TTY) to his cordless phone to expand his communications opportunities. He can make long-distance calls using his TTY via cell phone. "I know the disability community says we can't do this with telecommunications and so we are being left out. The fact is, with a little imagination and the right connecting equipment, everyone can use telecommunications," Hummer says emphatically.
Actually, European wireless giant Nokia is experimenting with a wireless phone that does make telecommunications accessible to just about everyone. The Nokia phone has two number pads. The top pad is for regular calling. But if you press a button, it pops up and a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) board appears underneath. Nokia has been testing the product in Europe and eventually hopes to bring it to North America.
I've seen the Nokia phone. It's larger and heavier than most cell phones on the market today, and the numbers on the dial pad are bigger. But I could see people using it for both regular and TDD calls. The Nokia phone has a potentially huge market in North America for people with disabilities.
HOT AIR. There's no reason why Nokia should be alone in making these phones. Disability-rights advocate Lisa Gray of Duluth, Minn., contends that telecommunications companies drag their feet when it comes to developing and marketing products for deaf people, and a government mandate is required. "Every cell phone should be mandated to have TDD functions [by the FCC]," Gray says.
For its part, the telecommunications industry believes the FCC doesn't have the legislative authority to mandate that cell phones have TDD or any other special features. I agree with their interpretation -- but am not satisfied with the current federal policy.
For years, the telecommunications industry has been discussing universal design in its telephones. The hot air that has come from their mouths on universal design could send a balloon around the world. For the most part, the universally designed products I have seen are aimed at individual or dual disabilities -- CP and blindness or limited or no dexterity and memory loss.
WAKE-UP CALL. Universal products such as the Nokia phone are long overdue. Maybe CEOs of telecom firms are satisfied with little steps and believe that it's sufficient just to have telecommunications devices capable of connecting to wireless phones. But that's not enough.
The American Council for the Blind, Telecommunications for the Deaf, and other advocacy organizations encourage companies to improve their universally designed phones. They have offered to sit on their boards to help with the effort. It's time for execs in this field to recognize that there are profits to be made in the disabled consumer market. These execs should give engineers a real challenge in the field of universal design -- and tell their marketing people to stop being Rip Van Winkles on the issue of a universally designed wireless phone.
For answers on assistive technology write to Williams at JMMAW@aol.com. Edited by Alex Salkever
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Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P.
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