Pai Tells Disability Advisory Committee HAC Rules to Include VoIP

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai reassured the Disability Advisory Committee the agency is paying close attention to disabilities issues, and said an upcoming order cleaning up hearing-aid compatibility standards for wireless and wireline handsets will help. 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 assist the growing population of seniors, he said. DAC approved a Technology Transitions Subcommittee resolution encouraging quicker adoption of real-time text to replace legacy text technology. In December, the FCC approved a common standard for the transition. The resolution encourages public safety answering points to adopt RTT and urges better coordination between PSAPs and carriers. The resolution also encourages public safety groups or the FCC to collect information on who is or isn’t making the move. Linda Mastandrea, new director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination, said the Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands hurricane recovery is challenging because “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.”