Qwest Consumer Advisory Panel

Information provided by Karen G. Jothen,

Qwest, Area Manager, Minnesota Policy and Law

The Qwest Consumer Advisory Panel, which includes leaders in the senior and disabled communities, continues to serve in a proactive advisory capacity to Qwest.  The panel has served Qwest well over the years as a way to inform key groups about issues of importance to the business, including our state's legislative and regulatory goals.

As a result, Panel members have often engaged in advocacy efforts to advance policy objectives.  The Panel serves the senior and disabled community well, providing a means to address telecommunications issues of concern to them.

It is important to recognize that the role the panel continues to play is an Ainstitutional memory@ for the business, relative to meeting the legal requirements of Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. One of the strongest benefits of the panel to the corporation is their helping to ensure ADA compliance and reducing the associated legal risks.

Under the leadership of co-chairs Janis Ray and Rebecca Kragnes, there were several areas that stand out as significant and tangible accomplishments of the panel in 2003. 

In the general area of Telecommunications Accessibility Issues

For more than two decades, Qwest has provided telecommunications services for customers with motion, vision, speech and hearing disabilities through the Special Needs Center.  While Panel members have always supported the concept of the Center, they have also voiced, over the years, their distaste for the name of the center.  A new name, which the Panel felt was more suitable and which more correctly identified the customer segment, was proposed, and with the help of Ivy Stevens, Qwest's FCC Regulatory Compliance Manager, the Special Needs Center was renamed Qwest's Center for Customers with Disabilities (CCD) early last year.

The Panel also worked closely with Ivy Stevens and Deb Lovato, a new supervisor for Qwest's CCD, to develop and launch a new web site for the Center. The Panel took a special interest in and continues to work with the corporation to ensure that the CCD website is accessible to all.  Issues were raised, technical people were engaged, and then Panel members tested the proposed improvements.  This was a time-consuming and labor-intensive process.   Suggestions included adapting the web site screen to meet the needs of visually impaired customers.   In addition, Panel members advised Qwest that forms be in HTML format, which is easier to use when completing them on-line or when downloading information.  Panel members also worked with the corporation to ensure that there is a link from the Qwest web site to the CCD web site. 

Panel members expressed their concern that currently Qwest provides no physical location for people with disabilities to touch/feel/try telecommunications equipment.  In particular, cellular phones.  Panel members pointed out that it is imperative for a person who is blind to be able try out a cell phone to make sure it is accessible. Kragnes expressed a concern that residential bills be compatible with screen readers.  She tested a sample bill and found that it was indeed accessible with her screen reader.

In the area of being a resource relative to Telecommunications Product Access

Working again with Ivy Stevens, The Panel was successful in making another of Qwest's products accessible to all.  As a result of feedback Panel members provided to a product development team in 2002, the service New Number Referral Intercept was offered as TTY compatible in 2003.