Free Annual Credit Reports Now Available In Accessible Format

As part of the historic agreement negotiated by ACB, The California Council of the Blind (CCB) and several blind individuals, free annual credit reports available through
www.annualcreditreport.com
are now designed to be accessible to blind consumers. Each person is entitled to one free report each year from each of three different companies. By the end of this coming December, these companies will also be providing the free reports in Braille, Large Print, and Audio formats.

ACB and CCB used Structured Negotiations to reach the landmark agreement with the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. To access your free on-line credit report, go to
www.annualcreditreport.com
. After selecting your state and requesting your report, you will be taken to a form that must be filled out. At the end of the form there is a security feature (known as a Captcha) as well as an alternative request page for blind and visually impaired consumers who cannot see the characters that need to be entered into the box.

Unlike some on-line audio Captchas that are difficult to understand, the security feature on the credit report site includes a phone number to call that will clearly provide you with the code you need to enter into the site. These security features are designed to help companies make sure that you are a real person, and not a computer.

The credit reporting companies have worked hard over the past several months to make the Captcha on this site an accessible one. When you have completed the form and the security feature, you will be asked to select which of the three companies you want to receive your report from.

There will be a small number of people who will be unable to obtain their report on-line because of the need for additional authentication. This happens with sighted people also and has nothing to do with visual impairment. If this happens to you, and you are unable to get your report, please contact our lawyers using the information below. If you have any difficulties obtaining your report, please contact them as well.

The companies are working closely with ACB and its lawyers to make sure the reports are accessible and the process is as usable as possible. If problems occur we will try to resolve them as soon as possible. Feedback can be sent to our lawyers, Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian, by emailing
LF@LFLegal.com
, or calling (510) 548-5062.
Please keep this information for future reference and share it with other blind or visually impaired people you know.

Melanie Brunson, Executive Director American Council of the Blind