Most Low-Cost Handsets Don't Meet Needs of People With Hearing Loss, Odin Mobile Says

The FCC should expand eligibility criteria for the Lifeline program to specify that any person who receives telecom equipment from a state equipment distribution program be automatically eligible for Lifeline funds, Odin Mobile General Manager Robert Felgar said he told Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline bureau staff. Felgar was accompanied by Zainab Alkebsi, policy counsel to the National Association of the Deaf, said a filing by Odin posted Tuesday in docket 09-197. “We discussed how budget phones provided by eligible telecommunications carriers to Lifeline consumers would not meet the needs of individuals with disabilities, including people who are blind, deaf, hard of hearing, or those who have mobility disabilities,” Odin said. “Such phones would not provide adequate screen readers for people who are blind and would likely not have the ability to provide adequate Video Relay Services or captioned telephone services for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. As a result, people with disabilities will not be able to partake fully in the Lifeline program.”