[Nfbf-l] Fw: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility toAdvanced Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
Kirk
kvharmon54 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 8 02:10:25 UTC 2011
Carlos, this is wonderful news! Thanks for getting out the word to all of
us! Your friend in the cause, Kirk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carlos J MontasAS" <carlos.montas at gmail.com>
To: "NFB of Florida Listserv" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 6:54 PM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Fw: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility
toAdvanced Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility to Advanced
Communications to 54 Million Consumers with DisabilitiesJust passing this
information along.
----- Original Message -----
From: White House Disability Group
To: carlos.montas at gmail.com
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 4:58 PM
Subject: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility to Advanced
Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
Please circulate so everyone will have a chance to participate in the
process.
Washington, D.C. – As part of its ongoing efforts to implement the
“Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010”
(CVAA), the Federal Communications Commission issued three Notices of
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs). The CVAA is considered the most significant
piece of accessibility legislation since the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act in 1990. The CVAA has modernized existing communications
laws to ensure that people with disabilities are able to share fully in the
economic, social, and civic benefits of broadband and other 21st century
communication technologies.
The first of the three FCC CVAA-related NPRMs approved by the Commission
seeks to ensure that the 54 million individuals with disabilities living in
the United States are able to fully use advanced communications services,
equipment and networks. Section 255 of the Communications Act now requires
telecommunications and interconnected VoIP manufacturers to provide such
access. The NPRM seeks to ensure that when Section 716 is implemented, it
will fully complement Section 255. Until now, people with disabilities
often have not had full access to the benefits of rapid technological
changes in advanced communications. Wireless handsets have evolved into
multi-media devices capable of accessing the Internet, sending e-mails or
text messages, and enabling video conversations.
The Advanced Communications Services NPRM seeks comment on the following:
• How should the FCC implement the requirements of Section 104 of
the CVAA, which creates new sections 716 and 717 of the Communications Act?
It is essential that the Commission ensure that manufacturers of “advanced
communications services” (ACS) equipment make their devices and products
accessible to people with disabilities. In certain cases where manufacturers
cannot achieve compliance by making their products or services accessible,
they must ensure that their equipment and services is compatible with
assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.
• Are there steps that the Commission should be taking to enhance
its enforcement and recordkeeping procedures for manufacturers and
providers, under Sections 255 and 716? The CVAA directs the Commission to
implement new procedures in this area under Section 717.
• With section 718 taking effect in 2013, what steps can the
Commission and stakeholders take to ensure that ACS manufacturers and
service providers are working to make mobile phone Internet browsers
accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired?
The FCC approved a second NPRM that seeks comment on reinstatement and
modification of the video description rules originally adopted by the
Commission in 2000. Video description is the insertion of audio-narrated
descriptions of a television program's key visual elements into natural
pauses in the program's dialogue. This feature makes television programming
more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired by providing
them with essential information that is otherwise conveyed to the audience
only visually.
This NPRM would reinstate the Commission’s video description rules that were
previously overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals more than a decade ago.
The enactment of the CVAA in 2010 provided the Commission with ample
authority for the reinstatement of these rules.
As directed by Congress in the CVAA, the proposed rules would require:
* Large-market broadcast affiliates of the top four national networks
and large multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) to provide
video description;
* These broadcasters to provide 50 hours per quarter of video-described
primetime or children’s programming, with affected MVPDs providing the same
amount on each of the five most popular non-broadcast networks; and
* All network-affiliated broadcasters and all MVPDs to “pass through”
any video description included in network or broadcast programming they
carry. Live or near-live programming would be exempt from the proposed
rules.
Finally, the FCC approved a third NPRM to implement Section 103(b) of the
CVAA, which mandates that the Commission extend participation in and
contribution to the Telecommunications Relay Service (“TRS”) Fund to
interconnected and non-interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”)
service providers. Although interconnected VoIP service providers already
contribute to the Fund under Commission rules, this would statutorily codify
that practice, and further extend this obligation to non-interconnected
providers. The TRS Fund compensates TRS providers for the costs of providing
service to individuals with hearing and speech disabilities.
Contributions to the TRS Fund are calculated on the basis of annual
interstate end-user telecommunications revenues. There is a “safe harbor”
provision that permits interconnected VoIP providers to calculate their
contributions on the basis of actual revenues or a traffic study, or to rely
on a “safe harbor” provision that allows them to consider 64.9% of their
revenues to be interstate telecommunications revenues.
The TRS Fund NPRM seeks public comment on the following:
* Should the safe harbor provision extend to non-interconnected VoIP
providers?
* What revenues should be included in calculating TRS contributions,
i.e., just revenues from interstate end-user calls or revenues from all
sources?
* Should the FCC require VoIP providers that offer services for free and
have zero end-user revenues to make any contributions to the TRS Fund?
Action by the Commission March 2, 2011, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(FCC 11-37, FCC 11-36, FCC 11-38) respectively. Chairman Genachowski,
Commissioners Copps, McDowell, Clyburn and Baker. Separate Statements
issued by Chairman Genachowski and Commissioner Copps. Docket Nos. CG
10-213, MB 11-43, CG 11-47.
For more news and information about the FCC please visit: www.fcc.gov
<http://www.fcc.gov/>
The White House · 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW · Washington DC 20500 ·
202-456-1111
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