FCC Bureaus OK VTCSecure Waiver for TRS Numbering Access, Request for VRS Ruling
FCC staff granted VTCSecure's petition for a waiver to allow it, as a provider of direct video calling customer-support services, to get access to the telecom relay service (TRS) numbering directory. The Wireline and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureau chiefs…
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also approved a VTCSecure "request for a declaratory ruling that video relay service (VRS) providers must route and connect all direct voice, video and text calls" between phone numbers in the TRS directory. "Allowing VTCSecure access to the TRS Numbering Directory will enable individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have a speech disability to move closer to obtaining the functional equivalency Congress envisioned in enacting Title IV of the [Americans with Disabilities Act]," said the bureaus' order in docket 10-51 listed in Thursday's Daily Digest. VTCSecure's petition said its direct sign-language support service allows the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with certain customer-service personnel fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), rather than going through sign-language interpreters who relay communications to hearing customer-service personnel (see 1607070003). Deaf advocates and Gallaudet University backed the petition, while VRS providers opposed it (see 1608180036 and 1609020033). "We agree with Gallaudet University that, “[w]ith direct video communications, especially if the call takers are members of the deaf community themselves, the risk for mistranslations between ASL and English is eliminated, and thus the risk for costly and frustrating misunderstandings is also greatly reduced, if not eliminated," said the bureau order. FCC Republicans and Sorenson Communications, the biggest VRS provider, didn't comment.