Regulation Often Not Answer on Disability Issues, Pai Tells TDI

The FCC is moving forward on issues important for the deaf and hard of hearing, but regulation often isn't the answer, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told a Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. (TDI) meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, Thursday: “Advancing the public interest doesn’t always require adopting new rules.” A key to disability access is encouraging the telecom industry to make “accessibility a priority, rather than an afterthought,” he said. One of the most “encouraging developments” is that devices like smartphones have begun incorporating accessibility principles “from the get-go,” Pai said. “Accessibility by design helps those with disabilities stay as current as everyone else when digital, Internet, mobile, and other technologies are developed. It’s also so much easier and cheaper than retrofitting products after the fact.” Pai reflected on how much things have changed since 1968, when TDI launched: “You were using 18-wheelers to schlep discarded teletypewriters that weighed hundreds of pounds to the homes of deaf and hard-of-hearing people. You were doing it so that your community could have telephone access, which everyone else had been enjoying for decades.” Today, people have “mini-computers that fit in our pockets,” he said. Two years ago, then-Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke to TDI (see 1508200044) at its last major meeting. Pai’s comments were later posted.