FCC Disability Panel Recommends RTT Rulemaking, Emerging Technology Focus
The FCC should open a real-time text (RTT) rulemaking and cultivate emerging technology that can benefit persons with disabilities, the agency's Disability Advisory Committee recommended Thursday. The committee adopted a resolution that noted the emergence of real-time text services and…
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recommended the FCC "begin a rulemaking to explore if RTT is a solution that meets or exceeds the objectives" of existing wireless text-telephony (TTY) rules, and particularly whether RTT "better meets the communications and emergency access needs of today's consumers, including individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or speech disabled individuals, than does TTY." The resolution also recommended the commission explore, in the same rulemaking, whether other next-generation text-based communications technologies could be viable replacements for TTY. The committee suggested the FCC consider numerous specific issues and questions in the rulemaking to facilitate "a smooth transition from TTY to RTT and other next-generation solutions" while ensuring that consumer needs are met and wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers can carry out their obligations. AT&T has asked for a rulemaking aimed at replacing TTY with RTT and recently was granted a temporary waiver to offer RTT service (see 1510060026">1510060026). The committee also adopted a resolution recommending the FCC undertake various efforts to understand and promote the use of emerging technologies to improve communications access for persons with disabilities.