Video Captioning, Real-Time Text Questions Raised at FCC DAC Meeting

Ron Bieber, co-chairman of the Video Programming Subcommittee, complained about captioning concerns. “I'm a foot soldier at the front lines of a battle I did not start,” he said. “So often I see [uncaptioned] content on third-party platforms that I know was previously captioned; I saw it the night before.” The deaf complain, “but nobody will talk to us,” he said. “When they see us coming, they scatter …They don’t believe that we come in peace.”

Bieber, who represents consumers on the DAC, said he tried to find out why captions disappear from so much content and sought to contact engineering staff. “I've asked the NAB, NCTA liaisons to reach out to their constituents and we keep getting turned down,” he said. “The only response we get is we are very busy, we don't have the bandwidth to devote to you.” Everyone talks about the digital divide, he said. Bieber said he has broadband but can't access much content because it's not captioned.

“I was not expecting this at the meeting today,” said Josh Pila, who represents NAB on DAC. “I’m a little surprised to hear that you say nobody has spoken to you because I do know there have been several people who have offered to speak to the group.” Some of the issues Bieber raised are outside the jurisdiction of the FCC, Pila said. “The subcommittee is not meant as an investigatory body. The commission asked for what our thoughts might be and we provided some of them from the industry side.”

Al Sonnenstrahl, DAC member from Deaf Seniors of America, said industry’s attitude is changing on closed captioning. “Just a few years ago, there was some pushback,” he said. “Instead of saying that they couldn’t do certain things, they’re now saying how can we do these things.”

The FCC can’t necessarily impose rules, but the subcommittee was tasked with developing best practices, said Karen Peltz Strauss, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. “Nothing is binding,” she said. “The development of best practices is just that.” DAC and similar committees have looked at similar areas that go beyond FCC jurisdiction, she said.

DAC also heard about concerns on real-time text, which the FCC is pushing as a way for the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate as an alternative to text technology (TTY) (see 1612150048). DAC members noted RTT in many cases works only when a subscriber is an area with LTE or better coverage.

David Furth, deputy chief of the Public Safety Bureau, said the process has to be seamless for consumers. “If I'm in an emergency situation and I’m going to need to text, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to check the bars on my phone, decide which button to push,” Furth said. “I would think that would be an area to focus on.”

Carriers have worked hard on RTT, said Matt Gerst from CTIA. But the RTT transition is still in progress and in areas where it’s not available, consumers can still use TTY, he said. “People with disabilities should be able to communicate with 911 emergency services in whatever way is most comfortable.”

The meeting is timely given Tuesday’s M-Enabling summit (see 1806130021), Pai said. The summit highlighted “the stakes of the work that you’re doing,” he said. The issues raised at DAC can seem “abstract,” but what’s happening is real, he said. Pai said he saw this week several innovative products, “one of which was so hot off the assembly line that I'm not allowed to talk about it.” The agency will keep an active agenda on disability issues, Pai said: “We need to keep pushing progress further and at the FCC we are doing exactly that.” DAC next meets Oct. 3.