[fcb-l] Fw: [Nfbf-l] Fw: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility toAdvanced Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
Patricia A. Lipovsky
plipovsky at cfl.rr.com
Tue Mar 8 02:03:15 GMT 2011
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carlos J MontasAS" <carlos.montas at gmail.com>
To: "NFB of Florida Listserv" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 6:54 PM
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Fw: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility
toAdvanced Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
> FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility to Advanced
> Communications to 54 Million Consumers with DisabilitiesJust passing this
> information along.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: White House Disability Group
> To: carlos.montas at gmail.com
> Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 4:58 PM
> Subject: FCC Proposes to Update Rules Allowing Accessibility to Advanced
> Communications to 54 Million Consumers with Disabilities
>
>
> Please circulate so everyone will have a chance to participate in the
> process.
>
>
> Washington, D.C. – As part of its ongoing efforts to implement the
> “Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010”
> (CVAA), the Federal Communications Commission issued three Notices of
> Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs). The CVAA is considered the most significant
> piece of accessibility legislation since the passage of the Americans with
> Disabilities Act in 1990. The CVAA has modernized existing communications
> laws to ensure that people with disabilities are able to share fully in
> the economic, social, and civic benefits of broadband and other 21st
> century communication technologies.
>
>
> The first of the three FCC CVAA-related NPRMs approved by the Commission
> seeks to ensure that the 54 million individuals with disabilities living
> in the United States are able to fully use advanced communications
> services, equipment and networks. Section 255 of the Communications Act
> now requires telecommunications and interconnected VoIP manufacturers to
> provide such access. The NPRM seeks to ensure that when Section 716 is
> implemented, it will fully complement Section 255. Until now, people with
> disabilities often have not had full access to the benefits of rapid
> technological changes in advanced communications. Wireless handsets have
> evolved into multi-media devices capable of accessing the Internet,
> sending e-mails or text messages, and enabling video conversations.
>
>
> The Advanced Communications Services NPRM seeks comment on the following:
>
> • How should the FCC implement the requirements of Section 104 of
> the CVAA, which creates new sections 716 and 717 of the Communications
> Act? It is essential that the Commission ensure that manufacturers of
> “advanced communications services” (ACS) equipment make their devices and
> products accessible to people with disabilities. In certain cases where
> manufacturers cannot achieve compliance by making their products or
> services accessible, they must ensure that their equipment and services is
> compatible with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.
>
> • Are there steps that the Commission should be taking to enhance
> its enforcement and recordkeeping procedures for manufacturers and
> providers, under Sections 255 and 716? The CVAA directs the Commission to
> implement new procedures in this area under Section 717.
>
> • With section 718 taking effect in 2013, what steps can the
> Commission and stakeholders take to ensure that ACS manufacturers and
> service providers are working to make mobile phone Internet browsers
> accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired?
>
>
> The FCC approved a second NPRM that seeks comment on reinstatement and
> modification of the video description rules originally adopted by the
> Commission in 2000. Video description is the insertion of audio-narrated
> descriptions of a television program's key visual elements into natural
> pauses in the program's dialogue. This feature makes television
> programming more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired
> by providing them with essential information that is otherwise conveyed to
> the audience only visually.
>
>
> This NPRM would reinstate the Commission’s video description rules that
> were previously overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals more than a decade
> ago. The enactment of the CVAA in 2010 provided the Commission with ample
> authority for the reinstatement of these rules.
>
>
> As directed by Congress in the CVAA, the proposed rules would require:
>
> * Large-market broadcast affiliates of the top four national networks
> and large multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) to provide
> video description;
> * These broadcasters to provide 50 hours per quarter of
> video-described primetime or children’s programming, with affected MVPDs
> providing the same amount on each of the five most popular non-broadcast
> networks; and
> * All network-affiliated broadcasters and all MVPDs to “pass through”
> any video description included in network or broadcast programming they
> carry. Live or near-live programming would be exempt from the proposed
> rules.
>
>
> Finally, the FCC approved a third NPRM to implement Section 103(b) of the
> CVAA, which mandates that the Commission extend participation in and
> contribution to the Telecommunications Relay Service (“TRS”) Fund to
> interconnected and non-interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol
> (“VoIP”) service providers. Although interconnected VoIP service
> providers already contribute to the Fund under Commission rules, this
> would statutorily codify that practice, and further extend this obligation
> to non-interconnected providers. The TRS Fund compensates TRS providers
> for the costs of providing service to individuals with hearing and speech
> disabilities.
>
>
> Contributions to the TRS Fund are calculated on the basis of annual
> interstate end-user telecommunications revenues. There is a “safe harbor”
> provision that permits interconnected VoIP providers to calculate their
> contributions on the basis of actual revenues or a traffic study, or to
> rely on a “safe harbor” provision that allows them to consider 64.9% of
> their revenues to be interstate telecommunications revenues.
>
>
> The TRS Fund NPRM seeks public comment on the following:
>
> * Should the safe harbor provision extend to non-interconnected VoIP
> providers?
>
> * What revenues should be included in calculating TRS contributions,
> i.e., just revenues from interstate end-user calls or revenues from all
> sources?
>
> * Should the FCC require VoIP providers that offer services for free
> and have zero end-user revenues to make any contributions to the TRS Fund?
>
>
> Action by the Commission March 2, 2011, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
> (FCC 11-37, FCC 11-36, FCC 11-38) respectively. Chairman Genachowski,
> Commissioners Copps, McDowell, Clyburn and Baker. Separate Statements
> issued by Chairman Genachowski and Commissioner Copps. Docket Nos. CG
> 10-213, MB 11-43, CG 11-47.
>
> For more news and information about the FCC please visit: www.fcc.gov
> <http://www.fcc.gov/>
>
> The White House · 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW · Washington DC 20500 ·
> 202-456-1111
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