FCC To Improve Ability for Deaf To Make Calls
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency will take steps within the next year to improve the ability of the deaf to make phone calls. But a company that provides Video Relay Services (VRS) to the deaf said Wheeler’s proposal would improve only one way for the deaf to make calls. To bring further improvements, six VRS providers last week urged the agency to accept their joint proposal dealing with the remaining issues of a two-year dispute with the agency.
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Wheeler in a blog post Tuesday said the agency will be constructing an app that can be used on any fixed or mobile operating system with a video camera to allow the deaf to call participating federal agencies and companies. The callers would be able to choose from participating entities and be connected to someone able to communicate with them in American Sign Language (ASL), according to the post. The effort builds on a video-equipped ASL Consumer Support Line the agency has been operating since June 2014, in which ASL users can sign with someone at the agency able to use sign language, Wheeler said in the post. He encouraged other federal agencies like the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, plus companies with large numbers of deaf or hard-of-hearing customers to follow suit and offer direct ASL video calling.
“Hiring an ASL signer to respond to direct video communication from these customers makes all the sense in the world,” he said on the blog. “Not only will this facilitate communication access; if the individuals hired have a disability themselves, this will also increase their employment opportunities.”
The move helps, but doesn't resolve all issues involving communications for people who are deaf, said Mike Maddix, Sorenson Communications director-government and regulatory affairs, in an emailed statement Wednesday. The company produces communications products and services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
With VRS, a deaf person uses a videophone or a mobile application to sign with an interpreter using ASL, who then relays over the phone what’s being communicated to a hearing person. In comparison, the video system being developed by the agency wouldn’t allow the deaf to communicate with individuals or companies that don't have the video equipment.
Sorenson challenged VRS reforms approved by the agency in 2013, requiring calls to be answered more quickly while cutting compensation providers receive through the interstate TRS fund. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last September upheld the rate reduction set to kick in July 1, but sent the requirement for the faster answering of calls back to the agency to determine if the faster standard would increase providers' costs and if so, whether that justified higher rates (see 1409040053).
Sorenson and five other VRS providers jointly proposed April 9 an eight-month trial in which providers would be required to answer calls faster than the current requirement but not as fast as adopted in the order and rejected by the court, a news release by the providers said. In return for the tougher requirements, the providers proposed the rate cut be canceled, the release said.
The 2013 order would have required 85 percent of VRS calls be answered within 30 seconds, instead of the current requirement that 80 percent of calls be answered within 120 seconds. The providers proposed a requirement that 80 percent of calls be answered within 45 seconds. At the end of the trial, the providers would provide data for the agency to use to set permanent requirements. “VRS providers cannot meet more stringent service standards while compensation rates continue to decrease,” the release said. The agency didn't comment on the proposal.
Wheeler in the blog post acknowledged the direct platform being developed by the agency “won’t eliminate the need for third-party sign language interpretation … but for those government agencies and large companies with a high volume of callers who are deaf, hard of hearing and speech-disabled, [following the agency's lead] should be a no brainer. One government agency, for instance, handled 3.1 million minutes of interpreted (VRS) calls last year. One telephone company handled 1.3 million minutes from people who use ASL last year,” Wheeler wrote.