Law Office of Lainey Feingold
Disability Rights Legal Advocacy

Need information about how to order Talking Prescription Containers for prescription medications obtained from Walmart? You’ll find everything you need in this post. In June, 2012, Walmart became the first national pharmacy retailer to offer Talking Prescription Containers free of charge to persons with visual impairments. The ScripTalk Talking Prescription program is being offered to customers across the country through Walmart mail order. In addition to the national mail order program, Walmart recently began offering ScripTalk at 33 stores around the country. A list of stores where ScripTalk is available, as well as instructions for ordering, appear in this post.

Posted here is a press release announcing Bank of America’s most recent accessibility initiative — its commitment to ensure the accessibility of security features on its website and iOS mobile applications.

Bank of America Continues its Leadership Role in Accessibility for People with Visual Impairments

New Accessibility Commitments for Online and Mobile Application Security Features

March 19, 2013 - Charlotte, NC and Watertown, MA - As part of its long-standing commitment to customers with visual impairments, Bank of America announced today that it is enhancing the accessibility of its award-winning Online and Mobile Banking security features.

Bank of America’s security features allow customers to safely access their accounts from home computers and mobile devices. The accessibility enhancements announced today will apply to both Online and Mobile Banking on Apple products with iOS operating systems.

Since its early commitment to Talking ATMs and web accessibility in 2000, Bank of America has had a leadership role in providing accessible services to customers who are blind and visually impaired. Posted here is the Bank’s most recent settlement agreement with the blind community, addressing the accessibility of security features on the bank website and mobile iOS applications Bank of America worked on this initiative in Structured Negotiations with the Bay State Council of the Blind and bank customers Carl Richardson of Massachusetts and Shen Kuan of California. They were represented by the Law Office of Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian, of the Oakland, California civil rights firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho.

On February 12, 2013 a New York Times editorial noted that one in five consumers have confirmed errors in their credit reports. The news came from a detailed report issued in December, 2012 by the United States Federal Trade Commission and is a timely reminder about the need for everyone to check their credit reports. As a result of Structured Negotiations, free credit reports are available in Braille, Large Print, Audio CD and online in an accessible format. An accessible credit report is only a click or a phone call away. Here is the information you need to order one today.

Tactile keypads are a crucial element of accessibility for people who are blind and visually impaired. Apple has shown that a touchscreen can be made accessible, but in the absence of tactile keypads, significant swaths of today’s technology and electronics are off limits to persons who cannot see, and to others with disabilities as well. As with many ubiquitous elements of the built environment, we often fail to appreciate the origins — or the originator– of the technology we rely on. This is certainly true for tactile keypads, or it was true until a fascinating obituary of John E. Karlin published in the New York Times earlier this month. Mr. Karlin deserves to be called the father of today’s tactile keypad.

An important component of any Structured Negotiations settlement agreement involving web accessibility is a company’s commitment to maintain an Accessibility Information Page, or AIP. The ideal page has details about the company’s web accessibility policy, details about other accessibility services, and a phone and web-based method for the public to forward accessibility concerns, both positive and negative. The page should be easy to find on the site, preferably linked from the home page and all page footers, and searchable through the site search engine. Pages of some of the largest entities in the United States are included in this post.