Advocates Want Independent Body to Set IP CTS Standards

Employ an independent body to "determine the metrics, measurement methodology, and performance criteria" for IP captioned telephone services, commented deaf and hard of hearing advocates last week in docket 13-24 on the FCC proposal to amend minimum performance standards (see 2101290025). Commenters included the Hearing Loss Association of America, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf and National Black Deaf Advocates. An American National Standard Institute-accredited standards organization has due process, notification of standards development, and no "dominance by any single interest category," the groups said. Standards should "meaningfully assess whether service providers are delivering functional equivalency and avoid unintentionally establishing the wrong types of provider incentives," said the Clear2Connect Coalition of disability and veterans service organizations. CaptionCall, ClearCaptions, Hamilton Relay, InnoCaption, T-Mobile and CapTel submitted a copy of an industry request for proposal to have an independent third party "test participating providers and validate methods of measuring IP CTS quality metrics." Procedures should be flexible so they "incentivize, not hinder, technological improvements," the providers said. InnoCaption urged encouraging providers to meet a minimum speed for calls using automatic speech recognition: "A requirement would run counter to the FCC’s statutory directives to ensure technological neutrality and functional equivalence."