This is lengthy reading, but it clearly breaks down the 21st Century telecom
legislation about which we have been asking folks to contact their congress
persons. I'm hoping folks are doing this; Congress leaves town on July 2,
and I'm not sure exactly when they come back but they leave again in August
to work in their home districts. Even if all you care about is video
description, even if all you care about is accessible user interfaces, even
if all you care about is hearing aid compatibility, the time is absolutely
now to contact your representative. Anyone working with and among the
deaf-blind community should sit up and take notice of the proposed ten
million dollars to be used annually for telecom equipment for that very
under-served community. Here is the plain language summary; thank you for
your advocacy!
H.R. 6320
Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008
Plain Language Summary
Overall goal of the legislation: Amends the Communications Act to establish
new safeguards for disability access to ensure that people with disabilities
are not left behind as our nation migrates to the next generation of
Internet-based and digital communication technologies.
Title I - Communications Access
Section 101 - Adds definitions to the Act as follows:
Disability - This has the same meaning as in the Americans with Disabilities
Act and Section 255 of the Communications Act.
Interconnected VoIP Service - This definition has the same meaning as in the
FCC's regulations (47 CFR 9.3).
Internet-enabled communication service - This definition encompasses
interconnected VoIP service and includes transmission services that have the
purpose of enabling voice, text, or video conversations, interactive voice
response systems, voice mail systems, and other similar communication-based
purposes.
Sec. 102. Hearing Aid Compatibility - Extends federal law that currently
requires hearing aid compatibility on newly manufactured and imported
telephones, to customer premises equipment used to provide Internet-enabled
communication service, where such equipment has a built-in speaker that is
typically held up to the ear. The purpose of this section is to make sure
that people with hearing loss have access to telephone devices used with
advanced technologies, including cell phones or any other handsets used for
Internet-based voice communications. This section does not extend to
headsets or headphones used with computers.
Sec. 103. Relay Services - This section clarifies that telecommunications
relay services (TRS) are intended to ensure that people who have hearing or
speech disabilities can use relay services to engage in functionally
equivalent telephone communication with all other people, not just people
without a hearing or speech disability. It revises Section 225 of the Act,
which has been interpreted at times (by the FCC) to authorize only relay
services between people with disabilities and people without disabilities.
This section also expands the obligation to contribute to the
Telecommunications Relay Services Fund to all providers of Internet-enabled
communication services that provide voice communication.
Sec. 104. Sec. 255A - Access to Internet-Based Services and Equipment - In
general, this section is intended to expand upon Section 255 of the
Communications Act, which already requires telecommunications, as well as
interconnected VoIP providers and manufacturers, to make their services and
equipment accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. This section
creates new safeguards for Internet-based communication technologies
(equipment, services and networks) to be accessible by people with
disabilities unless doing so would result in an undue burden. Where an
undue burden would result, manufacturers and providers must make their
equipment and services compatible with specialized equipment and services
typically used by people with disabilities. The term "undue burden" has the
same meaning given it in the Americans with Disabilities Act
Sec. 255B. Enforcement and Reporting Obligations - This section
contains measures to improve the accountability and enforcement of
disability safeguards under Section 255 and the new Section 255A, including
directives for new FCC complaint procedures, reporting obligations for
industry and the FCC, the creation of a clearinghouse of information on
accessible products and services by the U.S. Access Board and National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and directives for
enhanced outreach and education by the FCC and NTIA.
Sec. 104 also clarifies that the transmission and receipt of
text messages sent by radio to and from mobile wireless devices are
telecommunications services, and therefore must comply with the
accessibility obligations under Section 255 and the new accountability
measures under Section 255B.
Sec. 105. Universal Service - This section recognizes consumers with
disabilities - as a distinct group - as eligible to receive universal
service support through two specific measures: (1) it grants the FCC
authority to designate broadband services needed for "phone communication"
by people with disabilities as services eligible to receive support under
the Lifeline and Linkup programs. This would include, for example, deaf
individuals who are otherwise eligible for Lifeline and Linkup support, but
who rely on Internet-based video relay services or point-to-point video for
their telephone communications; and (2) it grants authority to the FCC to
designate programs that distribute specialized equipment used to make
telecommunications and Internet-enabled communication services accessible to
individuals who are deaf-blind, as eligible for universal service support,
capping this support at $10 million per year.
Sec. 106. Emergency Access and Real-Time Text Support - This section
contains a specific requirement for real-time text support, to ensure that
people with disabilities, especially individuals who are deaf or hard of
hearing or who have a speech disability, are able to communicate with others
via text in an IP environment with the same reliability and interoperability
as they receive via the public telephone network when using TTYs. A primary
goal of this section is to ensure that individuals who rely on text to
communicate have equal access to emergency services during and after the
migration to a national Internet Protocol-enabled emergency network.
Title II - Video Programming
Sec. 201. Commission Inquiry on Closed-Captioning Decoder and Video
Description Capability, User Interfaces, and Video Programming Guides and
Menus. - This section directs the FCC to conduct three inquiries within 6
months of passage of the Act, and to report to Congress on the results of
such inquiries within 1 year: (1) to identify formats and software needed
to transmit, receive and display closed captioning and video programming
provided via Internet-enabled services and digital wireless services,
including ways to transmit televised emergency information that is
accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired; and (2) to identify
ways to make user interfaces (controls - e.g., turning these devices on and
off, controlling volume and select programming) on television and other
video programming devices - including the receipt, display, navigation and
selection of programming - accessible to people who are blind or visually
impaired, and (3) to identify ways to make video programming guides and
menus (typically on-screen) accessible in real-time to people who cannot
read those guides or menus.
Sec. 202. Closed Captioning and Video Description Capability. - This section
expands the scope of devices that must display closed captions under the
Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 from the present requirement of
television sets with screens that are 13 inches or larger, to all video
devices that receive or display video programming transmitted simultaneously
with sound, including those that can receive or display programming carried
over the Internet. The section also requires these devices to be able to
transmit and deliver video description. Video description is the provision
of verbal descriptions of on-screen visual elements that are provided during
natural pauses in dialogue.
Sec. 203. Video Description and Closed Captioning . - This section
reinstates the FCC's modest regulations on video description. Those rules,
originally promulgated in 2001, were struck down by a U.S. Court of Appeals
for lack of FCC authority. This section also authorizes the FCC to
promulgate additional rules to (1) ensure that video description services
can be transmitted and provided over digital TV technologies and equipment,
(2) require non-visual access to on-screen emergency warnings and similar
televised information about emergencies, and (3) increase the amount of
video description required. This section also allows the FCC to create
certain exemptions to the video description rules.
This section also defines video programming to include programming
distributed over the Internet, to clarify that the existing closed
captioning obligations (and future video description obligations) contained
in Section 713 apply to video programming that is distributed or
re-distributed over the Internet. It goes on to direct the FCC to create
captioning rules for three types of programming: pre-produced programming
that was previously captioned for television viewing, live video
programming, and programming first published or exhibited after the
effective date of such regulations provided by or generally considered to be
comparable to programming provided by multichannel programming distributors.
Sec. 204. User Interfaces - This section requires devices used to receive or
display video programming, including devices used to receive and display
Internet-based video programming, to be accessible by people with
disabilities so that such individuals are able to access all functions of
such devices (such as turning these devices on and off, controlling volume
and select programming). The section contains requirements for (1) audio
output where on-screen text menus are used to control video programming
functions, and (2) a conspicuous means of accessing closed captioning and
video description, including a button on remote controls and first level
access to these accessibility features when made available through on-screen
menus.
Sec. 205. Access Video Programming Guides and Menus - This section requires
multichannel video programming distributors to make their navigational
programming guides accessible to people who cannot read the visual display,
so that these individuals can make program selections.
Warmly,
Marlaina
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