>-----Original Message-----
>From: Justice For All Moderator <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 5:41 PM
>Subject: Telecom Victory! Congratulations!
>
>
>
>                        Justice For All
>
>                        [log in to unmask]
>
>              Telecom Victory!  Congratulations!
>
>The FCC listened to your call for telecommunications access for all.
>Congratulations to all who wrote, called, faxes and emailed.  You won!
>
>Vice President Gore made this statement regarding the FCC's announcement
>that it will make telecommunications services and equipment accessible
>for people with disabilities:
>
>"When President Clinton and I fought for the Telecommunications Act of
>1996, we wanted to ensure that all Americans -- including the 54 million
>Americans with disabilities -- would have the opportunity to be full
>participants in the Information Revolution.
>
>"That is why I am pleased that today the Federal Communications
>Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Bill Kennard, announced that
>it will help make telecommunications services and equipment accessible
>for people with disabilities.  Telecommunications can allow people with
>disabilities to lead more independent lives, and increase their
>employment opportunities -- but only if these technologies are designed
>with their needs in mind.
>
>"I want to thank those in industry and the disability community who found
>common ground on this important issue.   I am confident that America's
>innovative telecommunications companies will rise to this challenge, and
>will develop accessible technologies that will amaze and delight us.  By
>working together, the FCC, industry and the disability community will
>help ensure that our newest technologies reflect our oldest values."
>
>For more info call 202-456-7035.
>
>--
>
>And some media coverage of the telcom victory:
>
>Making Cell Phones Disabled-Friendly
>By John Schwartz Washington Post Staff Writer
>Wednesday, July 14, 1999; Page E1
>
>"Cellular phones that provide clear sound over hearing aids or "speak"
>usage instructions to the blind could become commonplace under rules that
>federal regulators plan to enact today.
>
>The new rules to be ordered by the Federal Communications Commission
>would require that new telecommunications products and services be usable
>by people who are physically disabled, and could ultimately transform the
>telephones and services used by every American, said FCC Chairman William
>E. Kennard.
>
>"This action represents the most significant opportunity for people with
>disabilities since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of
>1990," Kennard said, calling the new regulation "the ADA for the
>information age."
>
>The communications industry is largely on board with the new rules.
>Objections that some companies raised at the draft-rule stage were worked
>out, several industry representatives said.
>
>Disabled people have long complained that many of the mass-market
>products sold by the telecommunications industry are useless to them.
>People who use hearing aids, for instance, often have trouble talking on
>cell phones because the electronics in the two devices conflict. Simple
>modifications could make usable the high-tech devices that have become
>common in daily life for many Americans.
>
>Many of these features could come about simply by tweaking the software
>in today's phones, said Gregg C. Vanderheiden, a professor of industrial
>engineering at the University of Wisconsin.
>
>For example, the small screens that are showing up on more and more
>phones could be engineered to provide readouts for a text transmission
>system used by the deaf. Some of the benefits, such as voice commands for
>people unable to use their hands, would be enjoyed by anyone using the
>upgraded equipment, Vanderheiden said -- in the same way that television
>closed captions are used by people who want to watch TV with the sound
>off.
>
>Vanderheiden has created a prototype cell phone with special
>diamond-shaped button that allows users whose fingers might bump unwanted
>keys to select the buttons they want and then confirm the choice. That
>button can also be programmed to make the phone speak the function of the
>other buttons, so that the phone can be more easily used by the blind.
>
>Rather than mandate specific features and "micro-manage" manufacturing,
>Kennard said, the new rules will require companies to meet with advocates
>for the disabled and design access into phones from the start.
>
>Kennard said any added expense of creating these features will be more
>than offset by increased sales.
>
>The costs of implementing the features should not raise prices greatly,
>agreed Al Lucas, a vice president with cell-phone maker Motorola Inc. who
>is responsible for designing the company's products so they will be
>accessable to the disabled.
>
>Cellular companies are ready to comply with the new rules, Lucas said.
>"We are totally, 100 percent behind it," so long as the FCC does not
>require onerous record-keeping requirements for companies to prove that
>they are considering disability issues, Lucas said.
>
>Brian F. Fontes of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association
>said the FCC won't require that every phone and pager support every
>feature: "If every single product had to accommodate a variety of
>disabilities . . . some of those features may in fact be in conflict with
>each other," Fontes said.
>
>Instead, the FCC is calling for features that are "readily achievable,"
>and will decide whether companies are living up to their obligations on a
>case-by-case basis.
>
>The FCC is pushing the industry in a direction it has already chosen,
>said Bradley A. Williams, an analyst with securities firm Legg Mason Wood
>Walker Inc. "You don't have to be disabled to have desires to seek room
>for improvement in terms of design and features and functionality," he
>said.
>
>The benefits of the new rules could extend far beyond the traditional
>ranks of the disabled, said Jeff Kramer, legislative representative for
>the American Association of Retired Persons. "For our membership, it's an
>important issue" to have phones for those whose vision and sight might be
>fading with age.
>
>But "it's not just for people who are in their seventies and eighties,"
>Kramer said -- "we're finding people who are reaching their fifties are
>having more problems than they had in the past" with hearing loss,
>possibly because of exposure to loud music in their youth."
>
>
>--
>
>Congratulations!
>
>Fred Fay
>Chair, Justice For All
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.jfanow.org
>
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