Q: I understand how important it is to maintain good credit. As a blind woman, how am I able to access my free credit report?

A: The nation’s three major consumer credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, recently unveiled a comprehensive program to provide improved access to important credit information for people who are blind or visually impaired.  The initiative, crafted with the American Council of the Blind, its California affiliate and several individual members of the blind community, will help protect the credit information of individuals who cannot read a standard print credit report.
 
The goal of this program is to give people with visual impairments the same ability as every one else to monitor their own credit. Under the initiative, the three companies have begun working to make online credit reports and related information accessible through their jointly operated website, AnnualCreditReport.com, the official site to help consumers obtain free credit reports.  Accessible credit reports for people with visual impairments will be available online by October 31 of this year.  By the end of the year, the companies will also make credit reports available in Braille and other formats at no charge to qualified individuals who cannot access print information.
 
Web Site Access
 
This initiative includes a commitment to design online credit reports and related web pages in accordance with guidelines issued by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (www.w3.org/wai).  The guidelines, which do not affect the content or look and feel of a Web site, ensure that Web sites are accessible to persons with visual disabilities.  The guidelines are of particular benefit to blind computer users who use screen reader or magnification technology on their computers and who rely on a keyboard instead of a mouse.
 
The full agreement is available on line at www.LFLegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-agreement. 

The press release below is also available on line at http://lflegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-press-release/.