Disability Issues Remain an FCC Focus, Pai Tells Disability Advisory Committee

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai reassured the Disability Advisory Committee the agency is paying close attention to the communications needs and problems of those with disabilities. “The commission takes seriously its commitment to accessibility,” Pai told the group. DAC also got a briefing on communications for people with disabilities in the areas affected by the recent hurricanes.

Pai said an upcoming order cleaning up hearing-aid compatibility standards for wireless and wireline handsets (see 1710030059) will be helpful to people with disabilities. The FCC would impose HAC requirements on VoIP phones, he said. “The order also would require volume control on cellphones, something the community has requested for over a decade,” Pai said. “This would help ensure that people using hearing aids, as well as those without such aids, are better able to select cellphones that meet their communication needs.” The change will help the growing population of seniors, he said.

The FCC also is working with local and state governments and other federal agencies on direct video calling. “The ability to call somebody directly, rather than through a third party, ensures better accuracy, more privacy and call efficiency,” Pai said: The commission is providing "technical guidance on how these government entities can provide direct video calling.” The FCC later posted Pai's speech.

Commissioner Brendan Carr told DAC he spoke on an accessibility panel at an ITU conference in Argentina last week. “Your support and research and efforts the U.S. continues to lead the world on accessibility issues,” Carr said.

Linda Mastandrea, new director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, said FEMA has been extremely busy since she started last month. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been particularly challenging, she said. “We can have all the best technologies in the world available to us, but if we don't have the power to use them, they are pretty meaningless,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re not working every day to improve communications access.”

Radio has become the only source of information for many living in both U.S. territories, said Wade Witmer, deputy director of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. Many people have radios in Puerto Rico and NAB has worked to send 50,000 more to the island, he said. The big issue is batteries, he said. “They need power to keep them running,” he said. “I think a lot of people assume that communication access is just about providing interpreters, captioning and other technology, but there is another piece of it that we are working very diligently on and that is clear and understandable language so that people clearly understand what needs to be done [during a disaster] and what they need to do,” said Gay Jones, FEMA strategic communications specialist.

DAC approved a resolution by its Technology Transitions Subcommittee encouraging quicker adoption of real-time text (RTT) to replace legacy text technology. In December, the FCC approved a common standard for the transition (see 1612150048). The resolution encourages public safety answering points to adopt RTT and calls for better coordination between public safety answering points and carriers. The resolution also encourages public safety groups or the FCC to collect information on who is or isn’t making the move.