While on the surface this sounds great, as a blind person, if I lived in
the UK and company's could be considered in compliance with disability
access laws by tapping into this service, I'd surely feel that my
options for web access were not equal to that of sighted persons. The
way I read this it means that businesses and organizations would not
have to make their websites accessible if they tap into this service.
That in itself is discriminatory towards those who do have computers
with screen readers and choose not for whatever reason to sign up for
the service. Also, what about all those outside the service area? With
such a system one cannot download interesting articles and other
information, can't send a file or link to another individual, is likely
very time consuming, certainly flies in the face of mainstreaming and
puts NRIB in the position of gaitkeeper. Also, for college students, how
can they learn to do their own research on the web if businesses,
organizations and government agencies are able to circumvent the intent
of the law that requires access to websites? And this certainly isn't
limited to college students. Blind people who surf the web learn a lot
of vital computer skills that can transfer to employment. Just read this
portion I quoted from the posting and see if you don't agree.

"PhoneAnything's technology will also benefit organisations wishing to
comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. The Act requires all
service providers to make reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver
services to ensure disabled people can use them. PhoneAnything's
web-over-phone technology can make an organisation's website instantly
available to any blind or partially sighted user with a phone -
organisations can license the technology and provide their website to
visually impaired customers through specific phone numbers."


Terri Hedgpeth
Disability Specialist 
Disability  Resources for Students
Matthews Center box 87-3202
Arizona State University
(480) 965-1232 (v)
(480) 965-0441 (fax)


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html