In Search of an Accessible Cell phone, an odyssey

I obtained my first accessible cell phone three weeks ago. It is the LG Muziq 570. This is one of those semi-accessible phones that does not require the installation of a screen reader. It does not allow me to surf the web or write text messages, but all of the basic telephone features such as the phone book, caller ID, managing call history and voice dialing are all accessible. The process of getting this phone had some unexpected twists and turns.

I’ve been a sprint user since I got my first cell phone back in 2001. I used that phone for almost seven years. In the past, I had been reluctant to replace it because many of the models I examined were very difficult for me to dial. My old phone had easy to find buttons. I knew I didn’t want a phone like the one my wife bought two years ago because I can’t accurately dial phone numbers with it. Over the years, I’ve received a number of sales calls from Sprint trying to get me to buy a new phone. The calls all ended pretty quickly when I informed the sales people that I wanted a phone that would speak to me the information that appears on the display screen. These folks were not aware of any accessible Sprint phones.

Meanwhile, many friends and acquaintances began to use accessible cell phones. Some were like the one I own now and others that required the installation of screen readers were fully accessible including web surfing and text messaging. These screen readers cost around $300.00 but some of the carriers allow for rebates if you sign a contract that commits you to a year or two of service. One thing they all had in common, they did not use Sprint. Some had used Sprint in the past, but they switched carriers when they wanted accessible phones because they were unable to find any accessible phones that ran on the Sprint network. I didn’t really want to go through the bother of switching carriers, so I just put up with my inaccessible phone. After all, I was able to make and receive calls and check voice mail.

Last year at the American Council of the blind Convention, I met a sprint representative in the exhibit hall who was demonstrating the LG LX 550, which was the predecessor of the phone I now own. This phone had all the features I was looking for and I decided that I would someday get one. In early June, I began contacting Sprint customer service to find out if they offered the LG 550 and if it was still accessible. The first four customer service representatives had no idea that Sprint offered accessible phones. They could not find the LX 550 in the list of available phones. Finally, I got a more experienced representative who put me on hold and did some research. He learned that the LX 550 had been replaced by the Muziq LX 570. He assured me that this phone offered all the features I was looking for. So, I called my local phone store and ordered the LX 570. When I went to pick it up, the store manager figured out how to turn the voice guide on. This made some of the features talk such as the caller ID and the numeric keypad, but none of the menus would talk. He spent around 45 minutes with me trying to get the phone to speak its menus. IT was obvious to me that this guy really knew his stuff when it came to cell phones. He was interrupted numerous times by store employees who needed assistance with other customers. He adroitly solved all of their problems, but he could not get the menus on this phone to talk. The users guide was of no help here. So, I left the store with my old clunker of a phone. I asked the manager to keep the Muziq for a few days in case I was able to figure out how to make it talk properly. AT this point, I finally decided that it might be time to switch carriers.

When I arrived home, I spoke with two senior level Sprint technical support personnel. They were both amazed that while they could find a general description of the Muziq phone that said the phone talked, there were no specific instructions on exactly how to make this happen. Next, I put out a query on a national blindness consumer list hoping that I might find a Sprint customer who was using this phone successfully. I finally struck pay dirt. Bert Borja who works for a blindness services agency in Los Angeles California told me that if I switch the theme on the phone’s screen to LG, the menus would talk. I asked him how he learned about this and he told me he discovered it while just playing around with the phone. He had tried unsuccessfully to get this information from both the users guide and Sprint representatives. I went back to my local Sprint store and had the store manager change the theme to LG. Sure enough; the phone began to speak menu selections. He couldn’t understand why neither the users guide nor technical support personnel from Sprint knew how to make this work. Bottom line, Sprint almost lost yet another blind customer due to lack of knowledge and training.

I am now very happy with my new phone. I can independently change settings, use the phone book, caller ID, check and record the numbers of in-coming and outgoing calls and determine status information such as battery power and signal strength.

Since then, I’ve noticed three other issues. Firstly, there’s the users guide. I went online to www.sprintpcs.com to download the book. On the positive side, the PDF file was not a scanned image as are too many users guides. It was very accessible as PDF files go. I was able to paste it into an MSWord file. I am much more comfortable reading long documents in MsWord where I can track my place and search for specific items efficiently. Unfortunately, the users guide made extensive use of the graphical pictures on the buttons of the phone. The talk, end, back, OK, and the directional arrows do not have text on them, just nice little pictures. This made the users guide a lot less useful for a blind person. For example, to change ringer types, the manual says something like “press —— to go to the main menu. Then go to settings, sounds and ringer type. Press ——- to hear the selected ringer. You can press ——- and ——- to cycle through the ringer choices. When you find the one you want, press ——- to select it.” Let us be fair about this problem. I spoke with users of verizon and Nextel phones who reported similar problems with the users guides for their phones. None of the carriers or manufacturers seem willing to adapt their users guide by replacing the lovely graphics with good old text.

Secondly, while playing around with the phone and adjusting the settings to my liking, I inadvertently disabled the vibrate function. Time to call technical support again! This time three representatives were unable to help me with this one. I even reset the phone to factory defaults. Before doing this, I had painstakingly remembered the steps necessary to change the phone’s theme back to LG so that the menus would talk. Unfortunately, vibrate was still not working. I attend a lot of meetings and need a phone that will operate silently sometimes. So, I called my local Sprint store and asked the manager to order me a replacement phone. He first advised me to hit the left soft key after selecting ringer volume. Apparently, this is a toggle that turns vibrate on and off. This worked perfectly and it was not necessary to replace the phone. I told you this guy knew his stuff!

Then there was the phone case I ordered. I wanted a form fitting case to protect my investment. I was told that this case did not have a plastic window covering the numeric keypad. Such a window would make it very difficult or maybe impossible for me to dial the phone. Unfortunately, the case did indeed have such a window. This time it was my wife who came to the rescue. She’s been a nursery school teacher for 25 years and has lots of experience doing arts and crafts projects. She cut out a square whole in the window that gave me access to the numeric keypad.

Looking back, I am happy that I stuck with Sprint and that I was able to get a phone that works well for me. Sprint and all other carriers need to do more than just offer accessible phones and billing statements in Braille and large print. They should be able to offer technical assistance to their blind customers. Given the problems I had and the lack of information in the users guide, I’m wondering how many other customers have encountered similar experiences. Given that many of these phones are on the market for only a year or less this will not be easy to do. AT a minimum, companies like Sprint should see that at least a few of its personnel know the inns and outs of their accessible phones. Then, all of the customer service representatives need to be made aware of whom to contact if customers start asking questions about accessible phones.

Sprint does appear to be moving in the right direction. IN late may, they hired Greg Rogers as an intern to work exclusively on accessibility issues. Greg is totally blind and was very interested in my odyssey. Greg is using a fully accessible personal data assistant with Mobile Speak on the Sprint network. This means he can do text messaging, surf the web and use the calendar. You can reach Greg at greg@rogers.ws. He is very interested in hearing from Sprint customers. He is in the process of developing guidelines that he hopes that sprint will implement with its accessible phones. Greg also told me about a sprint website that deals with accessibility. I just went to the site and actually found the instructions that could have saved me from going through the process described above. To learn more about accessibility and Sprint, go to www.sprint.com/accessibility .