FCC is not at liberty to remove the "readily chievable" standard from its
regulations for Section 255. However, as a part of the implementation of the
21st Century Act, it is defining a new term called "achievable." This
provides far more flexibility to advocacy organization such as the American
Council of the Blind.
Pratik
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Claude Everett
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 12:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] FCC NPRMs on 21st C CVAA and a TRS NPRM
If the FCC removed "readily achievable", from any regulations it would go a
long way in mandating accessibility in commercially produced off the shelf
products.
Regards,
Claude Everett
Everyone has a disability, some are more aware of it than others.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our
freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pratik Patel
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 9:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] FCC NPRMs on 21st C CVAA and a TRS NPRM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MEDIA CONTACT:
March 3, 2011
Matthew Nodine, 202-418-1646
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
FCC PROPOSES TO UPDATE RULES ALLOWING ACCESSIBILITY TO ADVANCED
COMMUNICATIONS TO 54 MILLION CONSUMERS WITH DISABILITIES
Washington, D.C. - As part of its ongoing efforts to implement the
"Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010"
(CVAA), the Federal Communications Commission issued three Notices of
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs). The CVAA is considered the most significant
piece of accessibility legislation since the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act in 1990. The CVAA has modernized existing communications
laws to ensure that people with disabilities are able to share fully in the
economic, social, and civic benefits of broadband and other 21st century
communication technologies.
The first of the three FCC CVAA-related NPRMs approved by the Commission
seeks to ensure that the 54 million individuals with disabilities living in
the United States are able to fully use advanced communications services,
equipment and networks. Section 255 of the Communications Act now requires
telecommunications and interconnected VoIP manufacturers to provide such
access. The NPRM seeks to ensure that when Section 716 is implemented, it
will fully complement Section 255. Until now, people with disabilities
often have not had full access to the benefits of rapid technological
changes in advanced communications. Wireless handsets have evolved into
multi-media devices capable of accessing the Internet, sending e-mails or
text messages, and enabling video conversations.
The Advanced Communications Services NPRM seeks comment on the following:
. How should the FCC implement the requirements of Section 104 of the
CVAA, which creates new sections 716 and 717 of the Communications Act? It
is essential that the Commission ensure that manufacturers of "advanced
communications services" (ACS) equipment make their devices and products
accessible to people with disabilities. In certain cases where manufacturers
cannot achieve compliance by making their products or services accessible,
they must ensure that their equipment and services is compatible with
assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.
. Are there steps that the Commission should be taking to enhance its
enforcement and recordkeeping procedures for manufacturers and providers,
under Sections 255 and 716? The CVAA directs the Commission to implement
new procedures in this area under Section 717.
. With section 718 taking effect in 2013, what steps can the
Commission and stakeholders take to ensure that ACS manufacturers and
service providers are working to make mobile phone Internet browsers
accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired?
The FCC approved a second NPRM that seeks comment on reinstatement and
modification of the video description rules originally adopted by the
Commission in 2000. Video description is the insertion of audio-narrated
descriptions of a television program's key visual elements into natural
pauses in the program's dialogue. This feature makes television programming
more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired by providing
them with essential information that is otherwise conveyed to the audience
only visually.
This NPRM would reinstate the Commission's video description rules that were
previously overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals more than a decade ago.
The enactment of the CVAA in 2010 provided the Commission with ample
authority for the reinstatement of these rules.
As directed by Congress in the CVAA, the proposed rules would require:
* Large-market broadcast affiliates of the top four national networks and
large multichannel video programming distributors ("MVPDs") to provide video
description;
* These broadcasters to provide 50 hours per quarter of video-described
primetime or children's programming, with affected MVPDs providing the same
amount on each of the five most popular non-broadcast networks; and
* All network-affiliated broadcasters and all MVPDs to "pass through" any
video description included in network or broadcast programming they carry.
Live or near-live programming would be exempt from the proposed rules.
Finally, the FCC approved a third NPRM to implement Section 103(b) of the
CVAA, which mandates that the Commission extend participation in and
contribution to the Telecommunications Relay Service ("TRS") Fund to
interconnected and non-interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP")
service providers. Although interconnected VoIP service providers already
contribute to the Fund under Commission rules, this would statutorily codify
that practice, and further extend this obligation to non-interconnected
providers. The TRS Fund compensates TRS providers for the costs of providing
service to individuals with hearing and speech disabilities.
Contributions to the TRS Fund are calculated on the basis of annual
interstate end-user telecommunications revenues. There is a "safe harbor"
provision that permits interconnected VoIP providers to calculate their
contributions on the basis of actual revenues or a traffic study, or to rely
on a "safe harbor" provision that allows them to consider 64.9% of their
revenues to be interstate telecommunications revenues.
The TRS Fund NPRM seeks public comment on the following:
* Should the safe harbor provision extend to non-interconnected VoIP
providers?
* What revenues should be included in calculating TRS contributions, i.e.,
just revenues from interstate end-user calls or revenues from all sources?
* Should the FCC require VoIP providers that offer services for free and
have zero end-user revenues to make any contributions to the TRS Fund?
Action by the Commission March 2, 2011, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(FCC 11-37, FCC 11-36, FCC 11-38) respectively. Chairman Genachowski,
Commissioners Copps, McDowell, Clyburn and Baker. Separate Statements
issued by Chairman Genachowski and Commissioner Copps. Docket Nos. CG
10-213, MB 11-43, CG 11-47.
-FCC-
For more news and information about the FCC please visit:
www.fcc.gov<http://www.fcc.gov/>
Statement of
chairman julius genachowski
Re: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and
Video Accessibility Act of 2010, Section 103(b): Section 715 of the
Communications Act of 1934, CG Docket No. 11-47, Implementation of Sections
716 and 717 of the Communications Act of 1934, as Enacted by the
Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, CG
Docket No. 10-213, Amendments to the Commission's Rules Implementing
Sections 255 and 251(a) (2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as Enacted by
the Telecommunications Act of 1996, WT Docket No. 96-198, In the Matter of
Accessible Mobile Phone Options for People who are Blind, Deaf-Blind, or
Have Low Vision, CG Docket No. 10-145, In the Matter of Video Description:
Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act of 2010, MB Docket No. 11-43.
The central goal of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility
Act, signed into law last fall, is a profoundly important one in a world
where communications technologies are increasingly becoming central to
participation in our economy and our democracy: to ensure that people with
disabilities have access to 21st Century communications technologies.
The statute assigns the FCC a vital role in the implementation of this
landmark legislation, and as I've said before, we intend to work with
consumer, business, government and non-profit stakeholders to ensure that
the Act is implemented quickly and effectively.
We've already taken a number of significant steps:
* We launched a rulemaking to ensure that telephones and other devices
used with advanced communications services are compatible with hearing aids.
* We established and held the first meetings of the two Advisory
Committees required by the new law: the Video Programming Advisory Committee
and the Emergency Access Advisory Committee.
* We initiated a proceeding to implement a national equipment distribution
program that will bring assistive communications technologies to the
deaf-blind community.
* And we have been proactively gathering feedback on how best to set up
the clearinghouse of accessible products and services required by the Act.
Today the Commission took three additional steps to fulfill Congress's
vision by proposing accessibility rules for advanced communications
services, video description rules, and rules to extend participation in the
TRS Fund to non-interconnected VoIP service providers.
The rules proposed in the Advanced Communications Item will ensure that
individuals with disabilities have access to a wider array of IP-based and
other advanced communications services and devices. There's no longer a
dispute on this central point: access to technology means access to jobs and
full participation in our society and the global economy. With access to
broadband, an individual with disabilities can telecommute or run a business
out of her home; receive remote health and job-related support; or gain
access to online educational classes and digital books.
The proposed rules would give manufacturers and service providers
flexibility to implement innovative solutions at the development stage and
use third party applications so that they can make technology accessible in
the most cost-effective, efficient manner and so that disabled individuals
won't have to wait years or decades to use new technologies.
Building accessibility in early reduces the costs and burdens of compliance,
while increasing the benefits to the public.
Consistent with that spirit, the Advanced Communications notice also
proposes to allow for waivers and exemptions in appropriate cases for small
businesses and entrepreneurs that provide advanced communications services
and devices, in recognition of the significant value they add to the economy
and the fact that they may lack the legal, financial or technical capability
to incorporate accessibility features.
We approach this issue in the same spirit that we try to approach all
issues: in an effort to promote predictability and reduce uncertainty;
taking into account the benefits and costs of our actions and using the
best, most innovative and least burdensome tools for achieving the
regulatory ends set to us by Congress.
Video description will do for people who are blind or visually impaired what
closed-captioning has done for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. By
providing a verbal description of scenes in television programming that do
not have dialog, video description provides individuals who are blind or
visually impaired better access to TV programming and allows these
individuals to participate more fully in cultural and civic life.
Video description also offers broader benefits: for example video
description has been shown to benefit children with learning disabilities.
By reinforcing visual information with an audio description, this technology
makes it easier for video programming to capture the attention of children
with learning disabilities and enhance their information processing skills.
Finally, in the third item, we propose rules that would require
non-interconnected VoIP service providers to contribute to the
Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, an important fund that compensates
TRS providers for the reasonable costs of providing the service on an
interstate basis. These services allow individuals with hearing and speech
disabilities to engage in wired and wireless communications in a manner that
is functionally equivalent to the ability of individuals without such
disabilities. The Commission's rules have required interconnected VoIP
providers to contribute to the TRS fund since 2007, and the new
Accessibility Law mandates that non-interconnected VoIP service providers do
so as well.
Today, I am delighted to move closer to the day when the 36 million
Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing and the 25 million Americans who
are blind or visually impaired can enjoy all the benefits of new and old
communications technologies and services so that they too can participate
fully in the economic, civic and cultural life of the nation.
Statement of
Commissioner Michael J. Copps
Re: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and
Video Accessibility Act of 2010, Section 103(b): Section 715 of the
Communications Act of 1934, CG Docket No. 11-47, Implementation of Sections
716 and 717 of the Communications Act of 1934, as Enacted by the
Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, CG
Docket No. 10-213, Amendments to the Commission's Rules Implementing
Sections 255 and 251(a) (2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as Enacted by
the Telecommunications Act of 1996, WT Docket No. 96-198, In the Matter of
Accessible Mobile Phone Options for People who are Blind, Deaf-Blind, or
Have Low Vision, CG Docket No. 10-145, In the Matter of Video Description:
Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act of 2010, MB Docket No. 11-43.
One of the best parts of my job as Commissioner is the wonderful and totally
inspiring experience of working with numerous disabilities communities. I
was thrilled to watch the President sign the Twenty-First Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act into law last October. The
legislation tasks the Commission with quick and far-reaching action to
expand access and opportunity for persons with disabilities in the digital
age. With today's items, we continue our ambitious pace to fulfill the
mandates of this important new law and harness technological innovation for
persons with disabilities who want to be, need to be and indeed deserve to
be, fully participating, mainstream citizens in our society. In the three
Notices of Proposed Rulemaking we announce today, the Commission proposes
rules to make video programming more accessible to the blind and visually
impaired, to ensure the accessibility of advanced communications services
and devices, and to expand contributions to our telecommunications relay
services (TRS) fund. In particular, I am thrilled that we are moving
forward to implement Congress' clear mandate to reinstate the video
description rules. I do want to commend CBS, FOX, PBS, TCM and TNT for
providing this important service in the interim on their own accord. I look
forward to working with my colleagues and all stakeholders as we move
forward to implement these rules swiftly and open new doors of digital
accessibility for Americans with disabilities.
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
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Signoff: [log in to unmask]
Subscribe: [log in to unmask]
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
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Subscribe: [log in to unmask]
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