chapter 9

technological change and disabled customers
a true opportunity, if you avoid the missteps

serving—anticipating—the needs and wishes of people with disabilities is a true opportunity. I know that sounds like clichéd happy-talk, but I mean it: People with disabilities constitute a large and growing segment of the populace, a factor that should be enough to encourage you to commit, with a sincere smile rather than a grudging grimace, to serving them. Furthermore, the public whom you serve includes an even larger, and also growing, proportion of people who are children of, parents of, spouses of, siblings of, or simply fond of people with disabilities. So don’t assume that showing active kindness to this segment will go unrewarded or, on the negative side of the ledger, that callousness will go unnoticed.

there’s more to ramping up than putting ramps up: a variety of issues and solutions

People in our society with disabilities include those who use wheelchairs, and many who don’t. (In fact, the universal use of the wheelchair symbol to indicate disability may be responsible for some confusion on this front.) The spectrum includes visual disabilities of greater and lesser severity, chronic pain, lack of manual dexterity, and other issues that are less visible yet affect our customers and their loved ones.

For people with disabilities, technology is a double-edged sword. In obvious ways, technology can be a godsend: from automobiles and mass transit to (some) e-readers, from medical advances to assistive-technology devices controllable by body gestures, technology has the ability to make life better for people with disabilities, now and in the future. The other edge of the sword cuts in when technology is advanced without consideration for how people with disabilities are using the current iteration of the technology. This has happened repeatedly—and with stunning speed—as internet commerce and mobile technology have advanced.

Be sensitive to this when providing customer care. Not all your customers can interact with your IVR (interactive voice response telephone systems)—they may have hearing loss or vocal limitations to the point that it’s not possible—making it important that you offer an alternative. Not everyone can see the graphics-intensive website you’re so proud of—it may be entirely unreadable by blind customers who depend on screen-reading technology. This is why it’s so important that you follow good accessibility protocols in designing your website. (If your web designer says, “What’s that?” or “That’s not important” when you bring up accessibility, take your business elsewhere or partner your web designer with an expert in this area.)

Mobile technology can be especially problematic, in part because of the miniaturization inherent in this field and in part because changes in the field have been so rapid. Here, even an overwhelmingly positive case in point brings up some issues: The iPhone is one of the most encouraging examples in this regard, packed with accessible technologies, including type you can zoom to many times its original size to compensate for moderate visual impairments, built-in TTY compatibility for the deaf (TTY, also known as TDD, is a two-ended system that allows someone with hearing or speech limitations to communicate on the phone using a keyboard), and more. Not to mention Siri—the extraordinary voice-based personal assistant. [Disclosure: Nuance, and its acquired brand MacSpeech, where I’ve been a long-time investor, is involved in the current generation of speech recognition technology.] And Apple has been excellent at holding third-party vendors to accessibility standards if they want their software on the iPhone. Yet the fact remains that this largely accessible marvel of technology comes in a nearly flat device, almost entirely lacking in the traditional grasping points and tactile cues of a standard telephone and keypad, making it hard to handle or even hold for people with certainly physical limitations. This being one of the most positive examples, imagine how paradoxical other evolving technology can be for those with disabilities.

Netflix, while well known for providing excellent customer support over the telephone, has caused a problem for the Deaf community by entirely eliminating the option to contact the company by email. What could be more welcome for someone who can’t hear than to use email to reach customer service or tech support? Well, the ability to use plain old email or chat, or anything other than voice to contact Netflix is exactly what the Deaf community asked for … in 2007. Read a deaf customer’s comments below, along with Netflix’s response. (Netflix in bold italic, customer in regular type.)

Nice … until you try this number (I have): It doesn’t work, even though Netflix continues to post it as the TTY alternative on its contact pages, for example, http://ir.netflix.com/contactus.cfm.¹

Don’t make the same mistake yourself. My point isn’t that you necessarily have to offer TTY or other fancy assistive technology when you’re running an online commerce site, as long as you’re careful not to block the disabled at the gates through faulty communication policies and processes: For instance, don’t eliminate support by email (à la Netflix) and don’t use heavy graphics on your website without making allowances for accessibility. These and other thoughtless actions will leave you dead in the water with certain disabled populations.

Another lesson you would do well to learn, which, again, Netflix doesn’t seem to understand, is that technology and processes that benefit people with disabilities often benefit the rest of us as well: for example, clearly labeled website elements, “universal design” in buildings (such as those easy-to-use lever-style door “knobs” even the able-bodied appreciate when loaded down with groceries), and closed captioning (subtitles), against which Netflix has been running a highly publicized battle, initially refusing and then dragging its feet on implementation of subtitles for its streamed videos. Captioning clearly benefits the fully deaf and the moderately hard of hearing, as well as fully abled people in noisy environments and movie buffs who want to catch the intricacies of dialog. An overall win, one would think, but in its shortsighted opposition, Netflix has brought forces together against it, including cultural icons like Marlee Matlin, in a battle that makes little sense.

Efforts to block the enemies of technology—spammers and hackers—can also end up barring the disabled, in this case those with visual impairments. Websites try to protect themselves from spammers and hackers by requiring the input of a CAPTCHA (CAPTCHA is a laborious acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to join a site or use its contact forms. But by doing so without an audio alternative or other nonvisual substitute is to lock out customers who have sight impairments. This is bad business, unethical, and potentially illegal, by violating Section 508.² (Section 508, an amendment to the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973, is the federal law requiring that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities—further defining “accessibility” as the ability to be used as effectively by those with disabilities as by those without.³) Note, though, that many of the available audio alternatives to CAPTCHAs are incredibly difficult to use as well (try one out yourself and see what I mean!), so be thoughtful in choosing and implementing these, too.

wynn some

I’m going to end here with a little technological silver lining: the use of, if not high-tech, at least mezzo-tech by Wynn Resorts to assist the disabled. When visiting Vegas to give a speech to a hospitality organization on a beautiful June day, I saw a huge ceramic trash can at the front entrance of The Wynn that seemed to be blocking the push switch for disabled access. However, on closer inspection, I saw the disabled-access switch was apparently motion activated, with an indication on it reading “Wave to open.” Curious, I gave a little wave of my hand from where I was standing—eight feet away. The technology worked like magic: no need to struggle to move the clearly unmovable trash can, no need to wonder if a clunky old mechanical push button was broken (as they often are), no need to exert the arm strength sometimes unreasonably asked of those in wheelchairs.

I’m not sure whether this extra technological courtesy is thanks to Steve Wynn’s sensibilities concerning disabilities or is a sign of the overall advanced thinking of his hotel development team, but either way I want to say: Nice going. Technology, combined with thoughtfulness, can go a long way. (Visit www.micahsolomon.com to see photos of this Wynn entrance.)

“and your point is?”

People with disabilities constitute a large and growing segment of the populace. And the public we serve includes an even larger proportion of people who are related to, responsible for, or simply fond of people with disabilities. Therefore, showing active kindness to this segment isn’t something to assume will go unrewarded, and showing callousness isn’t something to assume will go unnoticed.

Problems arise when technology advances without consideration for how people with disabilities are using current technology.

It’s important that you follow good accessibility protocols in designing your website; remember, not everyone can see it as you do, and similarly remember that audio-based technology like IVRs (interactive voice response telephony systems) may not work for those with hearing impairments.

Websites try to protect themselves from spammers and hackers by requiring the input of a CAPTCHA, but doing so without an audio alternative—a good audio alternative—is to exclude customers with visual impairments.

Technology that’s necessary for people with disabilities also often makes life easier for the able-bodied.