Videogame and IP-DVR, TV Disabilities Waivers Called Overbroad by Deaf Advocates
The scope of proposed waivers for videogames and Web-enabled TVs and DVRs is too broad, say some advocates for people with hearing problems who plan to oppose the advanced communications services (ACS) exemption requests when the FCC takes comments. National Association of the Deaf, and Telecom for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. officials said they're among the groups concerned about what the CEA and Entertainment Software Association seek. Exempting the wide array of consumer electronics from ACS disabilities’ access rules the commission is implementing under a 2010 law would hurt the deaf too much to warrant OK, and they're not specific enough about the need, NAD and TDI lawyers said. The CEA said the waiver it wants for Internet Protocol-enabled TVs and DVRs isn’t broad.
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Last week’s CEA and ESA requests may cover so many potential communications functions of videogame software and hardware and online networks that they shouldn’t be approved, the groups representing the deaf told us. They said those with problems hearing and with other disabilities shouldn’t have to wait until 2016, as the CEA waiver requests, and eight years, as ESA sought, to be able to use the ACS functions in videogames and IP-enabled DVRs and TVs (CD March 26 p6). Advocates for the deaf said the waivers run afoul of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, while the CEA noted the law envisioned ACS waivers. The CVAA’s “fundamental purpose” is to ensure the disabled can “fully utilize” ACS, said NAD attorney Andrew Phillips.
The CEA’s waiver request is limited in duration and scope, Vice President Julie Kearney said. “Congress intended for some flexibility where the primary purpose of the device is not to access the advanced communications service of the component, and industry is still working with this advanced technology that is new,” she said. “Congress recognized the value of balance between making devices accessible and being able to innovate for all consumers.” An ESA spokesman declined to comment.
NAD believes “these broad waivers will leave millions of people with disabilities unable to access important types of mainstream advanced communications services, whether” for videogames or IP video devices, Phillips said. “People with disabilities have been waiting for years to access many forms of ACS. And the importance of accessing ACS increases with each day as ACS becomes more and more integrated with our daily lives.” CEA and ESA don’t seem to “realize the full impact of their petitions” in denying those with hearing disabilities “the right to experience large and important segments of both markets on equal terms with their hearing peers,” said TDI lawyer Blake Reid of Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation.
People with hearing disabilities shouldn’t be “segregated by design and cut off from other players” of videogames, TDI spokesman Jim House said. “I can play the game by myself, but to get the maximum enjoyment out of playing the game with others, I need a reliable and accessible way to communicate with my fellow players. Not everyone -- deaf or hearing -- want[s] to be limited to audible communications due to access or language barriers. But some also want to be able to text back and forth in environments where silence must be maintained. To the extent that the networks can support it, I see no reason why video communication cannot be used.” Showing it’s “not hard to make games more inclusive,” Valve Software is making games accessible by captions (http://xrl.us/bmzhzq), House said. The company had no comment.
The rarity of publishers captioning sound on games outside of regular dialogue is a “problem,” said Director Christian Vogler of Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program. “They don’t only contribute to the immersion, but also can provide vital clues, such as in the case of a monster sneaking up behind a player. Doom was especially frustrating in this respect.” Jedi Outcast is among the games that “become unplayable because of the lack of captions,” though many role-playing games including some made by Bioware and Bethesda Softworks have subtitles, Volger said. Fallout 3 by Bethesda is one of the few games with “subtitles on background conversations and comments that are not part of the main player-controlled dialogue,” he noted.
CEA and ESA’s waivers “are so broad and non-specific” it’s “unclear how the FCC could reasonably evaluate them,” Reid said: ACS functionalities like VoIP and videoconferencing “will take center stage in the rapidly converging world of consumer electronics over the next several years.” The requests’ assumption that all ACS functions for videogames and IP-DVRs and TVs are too incidental to require accessibility are “unduly speculative,” Reid said. “The petitions provide very little indication that making ACS features of video games and IP video products accessible would be difficult or burdensome, demonstrating a disappointing unwillingness on the part of the CEA’s and ESA’s members to work towards achieving the accessibility mandates of the CVAA.”