[Missouri-l] FW: [leadership] FW: End of the Year Advocacy: Feedback needed

Tue Dec 1 22:17:40 CST 2009

  _____  

From: leadership-bounces at acb.org [mailto:leadership-bounces at acb.org] On
Behalf Of Mitch Pomerantz
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 10:04 PM
To: leadership at acb.org; acb-l at acb.org; announce at acb.org
Subject: [leadership] FW: End of the Year Advocacy: Feedback needed

Colleagues:

Our outstanding attorneys, Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian, need your
assistance.  Please do what you can to further our efforts to assure full
accessibility to the goods and services provided through their various
structured negotiations efforts.

Mitch Pomerantz

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From: Lainey Feingold [mailto:LF at LFLegal.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 5:25 PM. 

Dear members of the blind community: 

As we approach the end of the year, we are asking for your help in making
sure the settlement agreements negotiated by ACB and its affiliates are
working well.  Feedback from individuals about Talking ATMs, accessible
credit reports, tactile Point of Sale devices, accessible pedestrian
signals, and accessible websites is critical to the success of Structured
negotiations.  Please take a minute to read this email and send us feedback
on any of the issues raised here.   We can be reached through Lainey's email
at:   <mailto:LF at LFLegal.com> LF at LFLegal.com or by calling toll-free to
Linda's office at 1-800-822-5000.   Thanks in advance for your help, and
wishing everyone a peaceful holiday season. 

Feedback needed about the following:

(1) Accessible Credit Reports  Credit reports are available in Braille,
Large Print, Audio CD, and on-line in an accessible format.  Each person is
entitled to three free credit reports per year, one from each national
credit reporting company.  If you haven't received your free reports for
this year, you can go on-line to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call toll
free 877-322-8228 (you will be offered the chance to chose your format
towards the end of the phone tree.  More information available at:
http://lflegal.com/2008/12/credit-announce/

(2) Tactile Keypads:  Ten national retailers have signed agreements with
ACB, CCB, AFB and BSCB to install and maintain tactile keypads so that
customers with visual impairments can privately enter their PIN and other
confidential information.  The stores have trained staff on these issues,
but if blind shoppers don't use the devices, this training is often
forgotten.   If you are able in the next month or so to shop at any of the
following retailers and can use a debit or other PIN-based card, we'd
appreciate hearing from you:   7-Eleven, CVS, Target, Rite-Aid, RadioShack,
Safeway, Trader Joe's, Wal-Mart, Staples and Dollar General.   (Please
recognize that the full roll-out has not yet been completed at all these
chains.) 

When blind customers use a PIN-based card at these retailers it helps all of
us to monitor the settlements reached as a result of Structured Negotiations
and lets the companies know that these changes are important.  A short
summary of all the POS settlement agreements with links to the full
agreement is available on Lainey's website at
<http://lflegal.com/category/settlements/point-of-sale-settlements/>
http://lflegal.com/category/settlements/point-of-sale-settlements/ .  You
can read all the press releases issued about these settlements at:  

http://lflegal.com/category/articles/settlement-agreement-press-releases/pre
ss-releases-point-of-sale/

(3) Accessible Websites:  Blind community advocacy has been instrumental in
making the internet more accessible to people with visual impairments.  We
are currently monitoring the following websites as a result of Structured
Negotiations settlements, and would welcome feedback:  Staples
(www.staples.com); CVS (www.cvs.com); Bank of America
(www.bankofamerica.com); Rite-Aid (www.riteaid.com) and RadioShack
(www.radioshack.com).  We are also interested in hearing about other
websites, particularly health-care and health insurance related, with
accessibility barriers.  

(4) Talking ATMs:  Ten years after the first Talking ATM was installed in
the United States we continue to monitor Talking ATM progress.  In
particular, Bank of America, with the most Talking ATMs of any bank in the
country has Talking ATMs at over 90% of its locations nationwide.  Please
let us know if you encounter any issues at any Bank of America Talking ATM,
or with Talking ATMs at other institutions around the country.   

(3) Accessible Pedestrian Signals in San Francisco  As a result of the
settlement with CCB, the LightHouse and the Independent Living Resource
Center, San Francisco has installed Accessible Pedestrian Signals at close
to 80 intersections throughout the City.  Feedback on the devices is
critical to ensuring effective implementation of the agreement. 

Thanks for everyone's continuing advocacy on these issues.  Of course, if
you have new issues about accessible information and technology you would
like to bring to our attention, we're always happy to hear about those too. 

Lainey and Linda

Lainey Feingold

Law Office of Lainey Feingold

http://LFLegal.com

510.548.5062

LF at LFLegal.com

Linda Dardarian

Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian

www.gdblegal.com

510.763.9800

LDardarian at gdblegal.com

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