[NFB-DB] Advocacy update from the Disability Advisory Committee with the FCC

[scottdavert at gmail.com]

Hi all.

These things sometimes happen with baby steps, like from the report below. I
thought I’d pass it along for your information. If this type of email is not
permitted, please let me know. If it is, I’d love to read what other efforts
others on this list are making. This article was part of the December 2024
issue of the DeafBlind American.

 

 

Thanks for reading,

Scott

By René Pelerin and Scott Davert

This report concerns the activities of the Federal Communications
Commission’s Disability Advisory

Committee (DAC) and how AADB and HKNC worked with the Committee to make the
needs and

challenges of the DeafBlind community known. This report focuses on the
advocacy and work that

ultimately resulted in the DAC adopting recommendations and those
recommendations being sent to the FCC.

 

All recommendations were approved on October 18, 2024. If this is the first
time you are learning about the DAC and its activities, you may be
wondering: "What the heck is the Disability Advisory Committee?" The
Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) is a group created by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to help answer difficult questions that the
commission cannot answer on their own including ensuring people with
disabilities have, including those who are DeafBlind, have equal access to
telecommunications services. This includes

access to making phone calls, communicating online and to access emergency
information. The

Committee is made up of different agencies, Telecommunication Relay Service
providers, providers of broadcast media, and major technology vendors
including Amazon, Apple, and Comcast. The ultimate goal of the DAC is to
provide the FCC with timely information and recommendations pertaining to
existing and developing technology. From the DeafBlind Community, Scott
Davert represented the Helen

Keller National Center. AADB was first represented by John Winstead,
followed by René Pelerin, and

now Cathy Miller.

 

Since there are many issues surrounding technology and accessibility, it is
not possible for the entire committee to work on one issue. Instead,
subcommittees were given different tasks to complete which they would then
bring back to the full Committee for voting.

 

Both Scott Davert and AADB collaborated to support the development of a
document with Best Practices for Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS).
This includes traditional TTY relay service, video relay service, IP-relay
service, and Captioned telephone service. The purpose of this document is to
help TRS providers develop guidelines which will provide higher quality of
service when a customer has multiple disabilities. The Committee met almost
every two weeks with presentations from various individuals with all types
of disabilities that included hearing loss. Some examples of topics included
how DeafBlind individuals use Communication Facilitators (CF) during VRS
calls, how to use Deaf Interpreters during VRS calls for individuals who are
Deaf with additional disabilities, and how to accommodate individuals who
are low vision via VRS calls, and so on.

 

Each of the approved recommendations will be covered here as it relates to
the DeafBlind Community. These recommendations were developed to improve the
accessibility and customization of TRS services, educate and reach
underserved populations, integrate new technologies, enhance service
accessibility in

rural areas and expand research and pilot programs for continuous
improvement. For those who are DeafBlind, the impact is that it recommends
that funding be expanded to include communications facilitators and
Certified Deaf Interpreters. Further, provide flexibility for users to
choose Communication Assistants (CAs) based on specific skill sets. It also
recommends the FCC dedicate funding to conduct research for better use of
relay with assistive technology like screen magnification, screen readers,
and braille devices. Additionally, develop specialized training for CAs to
better serve users with unique needs such as those who have a combined
vision and hearing loss.

 

Scott Davert also was a part of the subcommittee which examined the
communications needs of

individuals who are blind, low vision or DeafBlind in video games. At first,
the subcommittee was not

considering the DeafBlind population but quickly changed when the needs and
desires of the

community were raised. The 21st Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act (CVAA) set forth requirements to facilitate accessibility
of certain modern communications technologies to people with disabilities.
The CVAA requires that any provider of advanced communication services or
any manufacturer of equipment used for advanced communications services,
including end user equipment, network equipment, and software, ensure that
such services and equipment are accessible to and usable by individuals with
disabilities, unless doing so is not achievable. This means, for example,
that online communication with other game players should support audio,
text, and video communication. This subcommittee also met bi-weekly and had
many presentations from different perspectives surrounding barriers and
successes within the gaming industry.

 

Scott Davert provided a presentation covering braille and online gaming. The
end results of these

presentations are as follows. First, the FCC should continue to monitor for
CVAA violations from game providers. Further, that the FCC should take steps
to make game and platform developers, designers, and engineers aware of
their responsibility to ensure two-way communications are accessible to all
gamers. Lastly, that the FCC should consider the breadth of hardware and
software barriers that gamers may face in accessing in-game communications.
This includes technologies such as braille displays, Bluetooth keyboards and
software such as low vision enhancements for screen reader users. Finally,
there was a third set of recommendations that unanimously passed on the date
of the final meeting of this term. These related to Best Practices on the
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Caption Live Video Programming. At
the moment, some of the Commission’s Captioning Best Practices could

be interpreted to apply specifically to human captioners. The subcommittee
was tasked with

providing a recommendation about what the Commission’s Best Practices for
Real-Time (Live)

Captioning should look like, with proposed amendments or modifications to
include automated

captioning. These changes were to update the existing best practices already
adopted to include

the use of software and the things that go along with it such as ensuring
that captioning vendors are able to install updates and maintain the digital
systems.

 

In closing, it was a busy October 18 in Washington D.C which included the
unanimous adoption of all recommended changes covered above. The work will
continue in the next term of the DAC where further explorations and
recommendations will be made to continue the advocacy. 

 

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