The FCC should extend a deadline for comments on TV captioning wa...
The FCC should extend a deadline for comments on TV captioning waiver petitions, said 7 deaf and disabled advocacy groups and a captioning company. Aberdeen Captioning wants an extension of at least 60 days from a Nov. 27 deadline…
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(CD Nov 9 p18). Some religious programmers filed waiver requests with the FCC because they said captioning costs would place an “undue burden” on their budgets. Aberdeen and the advocates said more time was needed to review the hundreds of waiver requests. “Never before has the FCC put on public notice such a mass filing of petitions,” Aberdeen said: “The petition submittals are uneven in providing evidence to support granting an exemption on the basis of undue burden.” Advocates asked for a March 26 deadline, saying they need more time to review each petition. “The combination of an unprecedented and dramatically larger number of requests and a significantly shorter comment period makes it impossible for petitioners and members of the public to respond meaningfully,” said groups including American Assn. for People with Disabilities, Hearing Loss Assn. of America and Telecom for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing. Commenting on the potential for new captioning rules, USTelecom said the FCC should shorten the complaint process and use a standardized complaint form. “New regulations would be particularly burdensome on USTelecom’s smaller members,” the filing said: “Our members are distributors… and therefore lack control over non-technical quality aspects of closed captioning.”