FCC Fully Committed To Make Communications More Accessible for Those With Disabilities, Wheeler Says
Chairman Tom Wheeler said the entire FCC is committed to improving communications for the deaf and blind and others with disabilities, during a commission panel Thursday on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the fifth anniversary of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). “This is an agency that has so many people that are believers in the kinds of concepts embodied in the ADA and the CVAA,” Wheeler said. The theme of many speakers was that communications have improved markedly since the ADA was passed in the aftermath of the “Deaf President Now” protests at Gallaudet University in 1988.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The FCC was the first federal agency to use broadband video for American Sign Language (ASL) “so people could call in and sign with someone here at the FCC,” Wheeler said. “We have been evangelizing with other federal agencies and with the administration to say, ‘Hey, this ought to what’s going on with every federal agency.’” The FCC also wants to lead the federal government in deploying those with disabilities, he said. “This is only the beginning.”
“I commit to you that we will not rest on our laurels, that we will continue to listen, and that we will continue to advocate for better and improved access for persons with disabilities,” said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. The ADA and the CVAA are “phenomenal pieces of legislation,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who worked on the CVAA as a Senate staffer. Rosenworcel quoted President George H.W. Bush when he signed the ADA: “Let the shameful walls of exclusion finally come tumbling down."
Various speakers acknowledged that Karen Peltz Strauss, now deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, played a big role in the writing of the ADA as an advocate for the disabled. Wheeler said her name came up last week at a celebration of the ADA at the White House. “We all know how fast technology changes and we are working to keep up and make sure people with disabilities are not left behind,” Strauss said. The FCC also wants to make sure that “cool new products and services” for those with disabilities “continue to come onto the market,” she said.
Strauss said that when she worked at Gallaudet in the 1980s, the tools available to the deaf to communicate were cumbersome, especially the text telephone (TTY) devices then in use. “You had to press return at every line, like the old typewriters,” she said. “Technically, they could transmit but typically they didn't. More often than not, the words were garbled and some of the words disappeared in the printed out message.”
Claude Stout, longtime executive director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI), said communications for those with disabilities has improved markedly in the last 20 years. “There are so many wonderful things going on out there,” Stout said. “We not only can make TTY calls to 911 centers, we can text 911 in many locations. With next-generation 911, the possibilities are endless.” Wheeler is scheduled to address a TDI conference next month in Baltimore.
Eric Bridges, with the American Council of the Blind, recounted everything that modern communications for the blind allowed him to do on his way to the FCC Thursday. “I ordered a car,” he said. "I got in. I looked at six or seven e-mails during my trip here and I responded to, I think, three. … I also texted my wife and texted my dad. I did a Google search. It did not take me an hour to get here. It took maybe 15 minutes, but I was able to do all of these things with one device. I was able to do them quickly.”