Thread Subject: Re: Comments re: the proposed revisions to1194.23(k)

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From: David Poehlman
Date: Mon, Mar 05 2007 3:50 AM

What's a soft phone?

On Mar 4, 2007, at 10:04 PM, Gregg Vanderheiden wrote:

1) Shouldn't these provisions go to the new "hardware" group which is
dealing with all things physical? I'm not sure I see anything

'closed' about keys etc. they exist on open and closed products alike.



2) This also talks about a 'telecom' section. I thought we had decided
that we couldn't do product sections anymore. Else we need a telecom, a
computer, a pda, a kiosk, a copier, a .. Etc. section. I thought we
concluded that that didn't make sense anymore. Some phones are closed.
Some are open. The desktop group changed into the hardware group.
Phones
are hardware. I think this group should be dealing with all things
that
are telecom but we shouldn't be thinking of a 'telecom' section.
It is a
characteristic.

Right?


Gregg
-- ------------------------------
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.






_____


From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of
Michaelis, Paul
R. (Paul)
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 5:22 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [teitac-telecom] Comments re: the proposed revisions to
1194.23(k)

It has been proposed that we move all four of the requirements under
1194.23(k) to Closed Products. I'm quite comfortable with the idea of
moving 1194.23(k)(1), (k)(2), and (k)(3), chiefly because I don't
think I've
ever seen a phone that violates these requirements. 1194.23(k)(4) is a
different matter. I'm worried that moving it, without providing a
suitable
replacement within the telecom section, is likely to cause a
tremendously
important telecom accessibility function to be ignored by vendors and by
procurement officials.



1194.23(k)(4) says the following: "The status of all locking or toggle
controls or keys shall be visually discernible, and discernible either
through touch or sound." Okay, so what's the relevance to telecom?



Telephones of the sort commonly acquired by businesses and by government
agencies tend to present a tremendous amount of information
visually. In
addition to caller ID, the visually presented information often includes
which lines are in use, which are on hold, whether there is new
voicemail,
whether the phone is forwarded, whether "do not disturb" is active,
whether
someone on hold has disconnected, and so on. Job-specific
information is
also presented; for example, when used in a contact center
environment, the
phones will display information such as the number of calls in queue,
the
mean waiting time for callers on hold, and the agent's "split
assignment."
In fact, in Avaya systems, the status of over 240 different telephony
functions may be displayed visually by the telephone.



I have always interpreted 1194.23(k)(4) to mean that, if a telephone
is able
to display information or the status of a function visually, it must be
possible for a blind or visually impaired user of that telephone to
obtain
the same information via a non-visual mechanism. Going forward, I
believe
that we must have an explicit statement within the telecom section,
requiring physical telephones to provide the same information to
visually
impaired users that is provided to sighted users. Without such a
requirement, all but the simplest functions provided by modern
telephones
will be inaccessible to users who cannot see the telephones' displays.



I propose the following wording, as a way to retain a requirement
similar to
1194.23(k)(4) in the telecom section: "All of the information that is
presented visually by a telephone must be available via a non-visual
mechanism to blind or visually impaired users of that telephone."



Regards,



Paul Michaelis

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