National Federation of the Blind and Motorola to Cooperate on MakingCell,Phones Accessible to the Blind

National Federation of the Blind and Motorola to Cooperate on Making

Cell Phones Accessible to the Blind.

BALTIMORE, and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
National Federation of the Blind, the nation's oldest and largest organization
of blind people and the leading advocate for making mainstream devices
accessible to the blind, and Motorola Inc., a leading manufacturer of cell
phones and other mobile communications devices, announced today that they have
entered into a cooperation agreement to promote technologies that improve the
accessibility of cell phones to blind consumers.

Certain future Motorola cell phones will provide verbal readouts of
information such as the time and date, battery level, signal strength, user's
phone number, caller ID information for incoming calls, missed and received
calls, and voice mail alerts. Blind users will also be able to take advantage
of verbal readouts and voice-command features for ring tone status, inputting
and accessing contacts, and various other settings. Motorola expects these
cell phones to be available in 2010. The parties have also agreed to work
together to make additional phones and features accessible to blind users.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "In
an age where productivity and success increasingly depend on access to mobile
technology such as cellular telephones, it is critical that blind Americans
have equal access to today's cell phones through user interfaces that do not
require vision. The National Federation of the Blind appreciates Motorola's
commitment to making the features of its cell phone products accessible to
blind users without the need for third-party software, and we look forward to
working together with Motorola to make future improvements to the
accessibility of telecommunication technology."

SOURCE: National Federation of the Blind.

Chris Danielsen, Director of Public Relations, National Federation of the
Blind, +1-410-659-9314, extension 2330, cell: +1-410-262-1281,
cdanielsen@nfb.org; or Jennifer Erickson, Motorola, Inc., +1-847-435-5320,
Jennifer.erickson@motorola.com