FCC Bureau Asks for Comment on State of Play on Accessibility of Telecom Devices

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is asking for comment as it prepares a biennial report to Congress on compliance with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The CVAA report is due Oct. 8 and the bureau asked for comments through April 26 in docket 10-213. “Public comment will assist the Commission in assessing the level of compliance with statutory mandates for telecommunications and advanced communications services (ACS) and equipment used with these services -- as well as Internet browsers built into mobile phones -- to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, the extent to which accessibility barriers still exist with respect to new communications technologies, and the effect of CVAA recordkeeping and enforcement requirements on the development and deployment of new communications technologies,” the bureau said. This is the fourth such report. The 2016 one found “solutions were needed to make equipment used with interconnected VoIP services accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired,” the new public notice said. The bureau also found “little, if any, progress had been made since the 2014 … Report to make non-smartphones used for telecommunications services or ACS accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.” But the bureau determined at the time accessibility of smartphones “and other devices had improved for people with a wide range of disabilities.”