[GTALUG] Landline and Bell revisited.

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 12:50 PM Dhaval Giani <dhaval.giani at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 9:36 AM Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 11:40 AM James Knott via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> > Bell faces human rights complaint over allegations of inaccessibility for
>>> blind customers
>>> > https://globalnews.ca/news/9373449/bell-human-rights-complaint/
>>>
>>> This is about what Bell is not providing, even though other companies
>>> do. However, this is current technology, not obsolete, which Karen seems
>>> to need.
>>>
>>
>> I call shenanigans on that perspective.
>>
>> Given the nature of our group it is natural that some here will see the
>> issue as merely one of choice and pace of technology, but IMO it must be
>> seen as a broader issue of problem-solving.
>>
>
> Evan, I did not read James' response in that vein. I read it as genuine
> curiosity.
>

Forgive me for insisting that technical curiosity take a back seat to the
real-world medical needs of people. But I will insist. This is a real
problem, not an experiment nor a business decision.


> Keep in mind that this group is primarily engineers/problem solvers.
>

So far the engineering-based problem-solving I've witnessed in this thread
has amounted to "you can't get there from here". Explaining how Bell's
system works now does zero to solve Karen's technical issues, let alone the
quality of the customer-service response to her actions to date.

And I think it is an important question to answer. What is it that changes
> that it causes Karen issues?
>

Indeed, that is Bell's problem that it MUST solve. If the transition has
broken backwards compatibility (to use our lingo), they must fix the
breakage. Their current digital-to-analog solution may work for many users
(such as my landline) but clearly isn't sufficient for Karen's needs.

The best possible solution is to find something that addresses Karen's
requirement with a purely digital connection. Maybe it's a latency issue;
remember how sensitive faxes were to even slightly unstable connections? I
don't have any clue on the technical issues, but simply insist that the
onus is on Bell to address them since they broke compatibility. I care less
about "how" than that it gets done.


> While we are not medical professionals, we are engineers and it is our job
> to solve the problem. In order to do that we do need to understand the
> problem. This doesn't mean that Karen needs to participate in that process.
> Maybe the medical professionals have an idea on what is getting affected
> physically, but they are not engineers and they cannot comment on how to
> answer the question on how to solve it.
>

The medical professionals are required to define the problem, ie the
specifications required for their instruments to work properly. The comms
engineers then need to solve that problem by whatever means necessary. We
know that an analog solution using POTS works. Karen cannot simply be left
behind by the move to digital.


> If Karen's accessibility needs require analog service in 2023, then that
>> service is not obsolete merely because it's convenient for Bell to declare
>> it so.
>>
>
> The service is obsolete because the technology is no longer being actively
> maintained
>

I don't want to digress over semantics and definitions of "obsolete", see
below.

This doesn't absolve Bell of the responsibility to ensure accessibility
> requirements are met. It just means the technology is obsolete.
>

If you agree that Bell has the responsibility to be backwards-compatible,
then designations of "obsolete" are irrelevant.

I am reminded (once again) of the brilliance of Jon Stewart's 2021 rant on
the Colbert show <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSfejgwbDQ8>, talking
mainly about the COVID lab leak "theory" but coming up with this general
comment:

*"We owe a great deal of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways,
> helped ease the suffering [...] which was more than likely caused by
> science."*
>

Bell broke it. They need to fix it. Full stop. No excuses.

- Evan
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