Rosenworcel Pledges to Make Accessibility a Top Issue
Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the Disability Advisory Committee Thursday that communications for people with disabilities will be a priority for her. At the reconstituted DAC's first meeting, members said problems remain, a year into the pandemic.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
As a Senate staffer, Rosenworcel worked on the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act and has a copy on the wall outside her office, she noted during the virtual meeting. “We can’t rest on our laurels,” she said: “Accessibility and functional equivalency cannot be afterthoughts. We need to give meaning to those notions in everything we do.”
Rosenworcel announced that the FCC extended May waivers to help telecom relay service and video relay service providers offer quicker access to subscribers amid concerns over longer wait times during COVID-19 (see 2005140056). TRS “has evolved, given the extraordinary circumstances,” she said. “It has been an especially hard period for TRS providers because the pandemic has made it difficult for them to fully staff their call centers due to social distancing requirements and other safety restrictions affecting the availability and working conditions for communications assistance.”
The FCC later posted the order in docket 03-123. “We find good cause to extend all previously granted COVID-19 waivers through August 31,” it said: “Although the previously granted extensions were of shorter duration, we conclude that a six-month extension is appropriate. Evidence indicates that circumstances TRS providers face at this time will likely be ongoing for at least the next several months.”
Let the FCC know about “other issues in communications” that “present problems for functional equivalency during this pandemic and beyond,” Rosenworcel said: “We want to help address them.”
The importance of accessible communications and connectivity during the pandemic “cannot be overstated,” said Patrick Webre, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau chief. “Without accessible videoconferencing and communication technologies, an effective telework or learning environment would not be possible.” Webre urged the DAC to “identify where there may be gaps to be filled in providing accessible communications” during the pandemic. “Many still experience barriers,” said Suzy Rosen Singleton, Disability Rights Office chief.
DAC members said the coronavirus crisis made clear how many challenges remain on accessible communications. COVID-19 “brought many facets of life into a remote access situation, where they either were partially or not at all before, and it has raised the imperative for disability access,” said co-Chair Brian Scarpelli, ACT|The App Association senior global policy counsel.
DAC should look at how to reach people who need IP captioned telephone services under pandemic conditions, said Michael Strecker, ClearCaptions vice president-regulatory and strategic policy. Many customers are older adults, he said. “Because they are a high-risk group, they have stayed home more.”
The Hearing Loss Association of America has “a lot of consumers coming to us talking about captioning on videoconferencing platforms,” said Lise Hamlin, director-public policy: "It just doesn't happen. There's a lot of missing information, either it’s not there at all, or it’s poor quality.” When state officials provide updates on the pandemic, it's often “not captioned, or it is poorly captioned and not understandable,” she said.
Videoconferencing accessibility emerged as a big issue as work becomes more virtual, said Sarah Malaier, American Foundation for the Blind public policy and research adviser. “Some functions may be accessible, but not all functions, and often we find that a lot of the challenges remaining are on presentation modes or sharing screens.”