The Mind of Brian Charlson

Dear visually impaired baseball fans:

This is a pre-opening day update about accessibility improvements to mlb.com and the 2010 audio and video players. This information will be updated at themindofbriancharlson.com and lflegal.com. It will be updated as we have new information to share.

MLB has been working very hard to ensure that this year’s video and audio players are accessible, and we have been working closely with them in this effort. One thing we have learned in the process is that changes to the whole site—not just accessibility—are being made up to the very last moment.

For that reason, we cannot tell you today the precise pathways to get to this years players, or even what this year’s audio and video players will be called. We do know that you should assume that any mlb.com bookmarks stored in your system will not work for the 2010 season.

Please give yourself time when you go to mlb.com, and please read and follow any instructions that will appear for those who use access technology.

If you experience difficulty on the site, we encourage you to explore the new accessibility FAQs and contact mlb.com directly through email or phone as follows:

FAQs: There will be dedicated accessibility FAQs on the site this year. We will provide the direct url when we have it, but know they will be reachable through an accessibility link on the home page. We don’t know for sure when they will be up.

Email address for accessibility issues: access@website.mlb.com

Customer Service telephone specifically for accessibility issues: 1-866-239-1284 (this line will be operational during the same hours that the main customer service line is open to the public)

We are confident that a new, stable accessible player for both audio and video will be available in the very near future. (While MLB is committed to accessibility for Mac users, current access to Flash players by Mac users who use screen readers has inherent limitations. We will provide more information as we have it.)

We also know that despite everyone’s best efforts, we can anticipate that as the season gets underway there will be glitches not only in terms of accessibility but for all new or changing features on the site.

MLB has been a great and willing partner in this year’s accessibility efforts and we are confident that glitches will be resolved. We will be providing additional information as we have it.

Brian Charlson
Lainey Feingold
For ACB’s MLB Accessibility team

Brian Charlson
themindofbriancharlson.com/ /> 617.775.2541
brian.charlson@carroll.org /> Twitter:@brian.charlson

Lainey Feingold
lflegal.com/ /> 510.548.5062
LF@LFLegal.com /> Twitter: @LFLegal