Law Bars Rules on Some Areas FCC Disabilities Committee Couldn’t Resolve, CEA, Others Say
The FCC lacks authority for disabilities accessibility rules in areas where a committee of representatives of industry and those with problems seeing couldn’t agree, three associations said. CEA, NAB and NCTA were the only initial commenters by a 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline in dockets 12-107 and 12-108 on a Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee report on areas including device and user interface accessibility and getting emergency information. The associations said that just because the VPAAC couldn’t achieve consensus doesn’t mean regulation’s needed or lawful.
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Some recommendations in the report shouldn’t be pursued by the commission on areas like requiring shows delivered by Internet Protocol to have video descriptions where action scenes lacking dialogue are narrated, CEA said. Pay-TV providers shouldn’t need to include on remotes buttons for closed captioning, NCTA said. NAB said a notice of inquiry on video description, as disabilities members of the VPAAC wanted, isn’t needed. Disabled groups want the FCC to resolve some issues where they and the TV and consumer electronics industries couldn’t agree (CD April 27 p5).
The subjects the committee reviewed aren’t “coextensive” with the FCC’s narrower authority, NCTA said (http://xrl.us/bnatt6). “The failure to gain consensus on certain issues raised in the VPAAC Working groups does not mean that those issues are ripe for Commission resolution in its upcoming rulemakings,” the group said. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 that spurred the committee’s creation “carefully delineated the scope of the Commission’s authority,” NCTA said. The agency issued video description rules for broadcasters and pay-TV providers before a report was finished, so the FCC’s work is done in that area except for an upcoming rulemaking on devices’ capability of providing the narration, the association said.
There shouldn’t be another future rulemaking on captioning controls on remotes, NCTA said in separate comments on VPAAC recommendations (http://xrl.us/bnatxd). “Such a solution may satisfy the statutory requirement, but it is not the only way to do so,” it said. “If a blind or visually impaired cable customer requests a device that provides audible accessibility, cable operators must provide it free of charge but it need not be in the form of a set-top box or similar ‘navigation device.’ Operators can opt to make available software, a peripheral device, equipment, service or other solution that provides audible access."
CEA said some VPAAC recommendations need changing because they don’t fully account for CE manufacturing. Tactile feedback shouldn’t be required, and it’s not needed as shown “by the popularity of touch-screen devices among the blind and visually impaired,” the association said (http://xrl.us/bnat3q). It wants the FCC to “strive to preserve industry flexibility” on captioning and video description. A committee report’s mention of IP video description requirements shouldn’t be addressed, CEA said. “The Commission lacks the authority to adopt video description requirements for video programming delivered via Internet protocol."
The video description NOI disabled advocates on the committee sought, but industry members opposed, shouldn’t be issued, the NAB said (http://xrl.us/bnat38). “Such an Inquiry would be premature, given that the affected programmers and distributors are still preparing to begin implementing video description, and would raise serious First Amendment concerns governing artistic judgments.” Instead of regulation, the association asked the agency “to work with all interested parties in promoting best practices and identified resources of the Video Description Report.”