Hi, Robin.
The phone-style keypad has no speech output, either confirming your arming mode
or other status. You would need to use the app to verify this info, as well as
the status of open doors, windows, etc.
Thanks for the info on ADT, btw, which I found very interesting. As a totally
irrelevant aside, my speech from Acapella often takes incredible liberties when
it comes to converting acronyms and other abbreviations and so all instances of
ADT were spoken as Atlantic Daylight Time. <grin>
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<http://WWW.David-Goldfield.Com>
On 6/3/2018 1:25 AM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
It does indeed. So do the keypads have any speech output I.E. once you set the
mode for instance to arm stay away or the like does it announce it? Does it
indicate if a door or window is open via speech?
In some ways it sounds similar to ADT but with some minor differences. ADT’s
app while a bit cluttered in nature is accessible and you can also set rules
bring up the live view of a camera and monitor system censors through it too.
Recordings from cameras are saved either to cloud or a dvr in your home for an
entire 30 day period before recycling so if something happened someone could go
back and retrieve the recording for you and as I said either save to cloud or
thumb drive for you. ADT keypads as well as talking key fob or more accurately
garage door opener sized device have speech output of modes as well.
My system is so huge that I’m not sure how easily it’d be for me to switch with
so much ADT equipment here but it is always interesting to find out about other
offerings. Here my system monitors for burglary of course carbon monoxide, heat
and fire as well. And alarms if sounded have spoken prompts with them that are
broadcast to any evil doers or residents in the premise's. And I like you don’t
mean to sound like an infomercial either as I’ve no vested interest but since I
asked about the topic I thought I’d share in case others were curious as well.
Take good care.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2018 1:16 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: An Interesting Article About Security Cameras
from the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Hi, Robin.
My wife and I used to have ADT as our security provider. This was before
smartphones were all the rage and so I don't think they had any apps or cloud
storage connected to their services at that time. I'm assuming that ADT now
offers these capabilities and I am actually curious as to how accessible they
are.
I'll try to address your questions regarding Xfinity Home by explaining what is
offered. I will apologize in advance if the rest of this message sounds like an
Xfinity infomercial, as this is not my intent.
1. Like most of the security systems you will get a telephone-style keypad
which I am assuming most people will want by their front door. In addition to
the ten digits for entering your security code there are three buttons below
this keypad which, on my keypad, are Stay, Away and Night. Comcast offers a few
different keypads and I have only seen one of them, which is the one installed
at my home. On that particular keypad the keys are distinctive and the three
mode buttons below it, for Stay/Away/Night, are very tactile. The keys beep
when they are pressed.
2. You also get a separate device known as the touchscreen controller, which
provides the ability to fully control your system by changing codes, adding
additional security codes, etc. This device is very portable and can be plugged
in using any wall outlet. This device is currently not accessible if you solely
rely on speech output.
3. iOS and Android users can control the system by using the Xfinity Home app.
The app gives you similar functionality to the touchscreen controller. For
example, you can use the app to arm or disarm your alarm, activate or
deactivate motion sensors, browse through an activity log of all of the events
recorded by your security system and can even create rules. A rule might be
something like "arm my security system every night at 10:00 Pm or send me a
text message whenever my back door opens or closes. While we continue to always
improve accessibility I would say that the app is nearly 100% accessible. If
you have smart devices which are compatible with Xfinity Home you can use the
app to control those devices, as well. As an example, you could adjust the
temperature of your thermostat or lock your front door remotely. On iOS you can
even use your fingerprint to arm or disarm your system without the need to
enter your security code.
4. There is also a Web-based portal where you can control most of your security
system's settings via your Web browser. I don't believe that creating and
managing rules are offered using the Web interface but most other features
should be available.
If I remember correctly, the basic service comes with the main keypad, the
touchscreen controller, the ability to use the apps and the Web portal and I
think you also get a few sensors included as well, such as those you might want
on a door or window. One motion sensor might also be included but I would check
with the Xfinity Home Web site
<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xfinity.com%2Flearn%2Fhome-security%2Ffeatures&data=02%7C01%7C%7C319b2bd70a42486895c108d5c9126d04%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636003325620447&sdata=fGZt5gZBER2GRksMyI6gpn%2FLpBV47RvJQ9OScMTTVf8%3D&reserved=0>
or one of their sales agents to be certain. 24/7 monitoring is also included
but I don't think that a camera is included with the basic package and, if this
is true, it would be an additional cost. Again, if you're ever curious about
this I would check with Xfinity as there could be any number of promotions or
other discounts that I might not be aware of.
If you do purchase a camera you would be able to monitor what it is detecting
via the Web portal, the apps and even with X1 by using your voice remote and
giving it a voice command to display what your camera is seeing. As you can
imagine, this is a totally visual feature and so a totally blind person would
need sighted assistance to verify the nature of the picture.
For an additional ten dollars per month you can have your camera recording what
it sees and having these recordings sent to the cloud. You could use the apps
or the Web portal to browse the list of recordings. There is, however, some
degree of accessibility here. On the down side, the recordings are still
totally visual and the names of the files would, therefore, not be able to
provide any description of what had taken place. However, each recording, which
I believe lasts for around 45 seconds, is time stamped. Therefore, if you knew
that a specific incident occured at your house or in your backyard at 12:30 PM
yesterday, you could browse the files and locate the ones which were
timestamped at 12:30 and you could then share them. In iOS, you could activate
the typical share sheet for any of these files, giving you the options for
sharing them via email, your Dropbox or Onedrive account, text message, etc.
The recorded files are stored for a period of ten days.
I hope this information helps.
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.David-Goldfield.Com&data=02%7C01%7C%7C319b2bd70a42486895c108d5c9126d04%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636003325620447&sdata=A6hb8LQOjiiAnC%2BvNmWYYHarq08dBVDfVlInhvdgQpE%3D&reserved=0>
On 6/1/2018 5:15 PM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
This is very interesting to me. I have cameras through my ADT pulse system and
while I’m happy to have them I as a blind person can’t do much with them at
all. I can have people look at live views remotely but when it comes to
archiving video clips from them for the purposes of say documenting the fact
that a next-door neighbor takes advantage of one’s blindness by letting their
golden retriever run loose doing its business on your property or jumping at
you and potentially causing injury to you when you’re simply taking your trash
to the curb on your own property sorry I digress (smile). You can do little of
that archiving to thumb drive or cloud process on your own without sighted
assistance.
I’m curious what the xfinity home experience is like over all in terms of
keypads with speech output for alarm systems or archiving of video for instance
from its cameras if any light can be shed on that.
Take good care.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 10:58 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] An Interesting Article About Security Cameras from
the Perspective of a Visually Impaired Consumer
Applevis recently published a blog post discussing the accessibility of
security cameras from the perspective of a visually impaired user. While the
reviewer is not discussing a home security solution such as the one which
Comcast offers this piece still makes for interesting reading. Since I started
using Xfinity Home a little over a year ago I have a greater appreciation for
how and why security systems are of tremendous benefit to visually impaired
consumers, including and especially when dealing with cameras. This is why the
accessibility of these services is so critical and is why I'm very pleased at
how accessible XH has become.
https://www.applevis.com/reviews/miscellaneous/blind-persons-guide-home-security-cameras<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.applevis.com%2Freviews%2Fmiscellaneous%2Fblind-persons-guide-home-security-cameras&data=02%7C01%7C%7C319b2bd70a42486895c108d5c9126d04%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636003325620447&sdata=Mp4a1EZ3A%2BwdKYPc4u%2BeS8chsKBlgjzEk8p%2BquUZTOU%3D&reserved=0>
You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2FWWW.DavidGoldfield.Info&data=02%7C01%7C%7C319b2bd70a42486895c108d5c9126d04%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636003325620447&sdata=uHni%2FJWO0dPoB844D%2BWeFTbB7rHGlQfcQKFleBkT3YY%3D&reserved=0>
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