DAC Calls for Waiver of Emergency Dynamic Image Audio Description Requirement
The FCC should waive for five years its Section 79.2(b) emergency information accessibility requirement that dynamic image crawls used during breaking news and emergencies be conveyed aurally since there’s no good technology for broadcasters doing so today, its Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) said Wednesday. Instead, voluntary best practices put together by broadcasters and advocacy groups "is the best and only way to pursue this," said NAB Associate General Counsel Larry Walke.
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Legacy broadcasting technology is the probem, and eventual widespread adoption of ATSC 3.0 broadcasters opens the door to an app overlay that would help in describing such dynamic video components in news or breaking news segments, American Council of the Blind (ACB) Director-Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Tony Stephens said before DAC voted to adopt the waiver recommendation that came from its video programming subcommittee. Walke said even with a five year deadline extension, broadcasters will keep working with technology vendors on possible solutions. "We just haven't had any luck yet," and don't anticipate any in the near future, Walke said.
In addition to the best practices to be used by news organizations in improving emergency descriptions, ACB and broadcasters also anticipate putting on a training webcast or webinar to be held this summer aimed at newsrooms, Walke said.
DAC spent considerable time going back and forth over a unsuccessful proposal to shorten that waiver to four or three years, with Helena Mitchell, Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Communications Policy executive director, asserting the pace of technology change makes a five-year waiver overly long. She and National Federation of the Blind Presdent Everette Bacon -- who also had voiced support for a shorter waiver -- voted against the five-year waiver recommendation, though other blind community avocates backed it.
Gallaudet University's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center is sponsoring different real-time texting testing efforts covering issues such as carrier interoperability and 911 calls via RTT, Gallaudet Technology Access Program Director Christian Vogler said. He said results so far show interoperability working well but some challenges such as interface glitches when people type simultaneously. Vogler said wireless carriers with which it's working -- Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile -- are aware of the issues and are trying to address them. Vogler said RTT-to-text technology "works beautifully" and added use of similar gateway tech should be a model for companies to adopt even though it's not required.
Verizon Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Ian Dillner said there had been debates inside Verizon about to go with an app or native handset approach for RTT impmllentation, with similar debates likley having gone on in otehr carriers since FCC rules allow don't mandate an approach. He said Verizon worked with LG and Apple to incorporate RTT capabiliteis in the devices instesad of going the app route, since it felt the FCC longterm was interested in native incorporation in devices, though the app route also has merits. AT&T Public Policy Director Susan Marzui said it opted in the short term for an free app approach to assuage consumer fears about needing to buy new devices, though it will be switching to devcies that have RTT capability built in fairly soon. She said AT&T also has changed its billing system to include unlimited voice, since RTT service counts as a voice call and it didn't want the service to penalize people with a hearing loss or speech disability.
The FCC has talked with a variety of federal agencies about their interest in the agency's Ace Direct open-source call-routing platform, and it has talked with also with New yOrk City and the state of Virginia, agency Telecommunicatiosn Relay Service program fund coordinator David Schmidt said. He said the agency is in the final steps of putting up a beta version of Ace Direct.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, in remarks to DAC, raised red flags abotu the agency's Title II rollback as possibly crushing accessible services if they conflict with services provided by ISPs.