Telecommunications Products and Services Workshop

Editor: We weren't able to make the SHHH convention in Cherry Hill, NJ, this year, but we're hoping to get to the Seattle convention in 2002. Fortunately, Cheryl Heppner of NVRC did her usual outstanding job of reporting, and she's given us permission to pass along her articles. Here's her report on Telecommunications Products and Services.

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Telecommunications Products and Services

SHHH Board of Trustees member Pamela Ransom, head of Common Ground Solutions, moderated this program with presentations by representatives of Verizon and Motorola.

Pam provided background on regulations and laws that address telecommunications accessibility, which have set a direction for manufacturers.

1982 regulations required all "essential" phones (ones that would be used in an emergency) to be hearing aid compatible.

1988 brought a new requirement that all phones must have a built-in telecoil chip. This covers wireline phones. Wireless and cordless phones had 3 years to meet the regulations. SHHH went to the Federal Communications Commission and asked for a negotiated rulemaking. As a result, phones in the workplace, hotels, motels, hospitals and prisons had to be hearing aid compatible and have volume controls.

The Americans with Disabilities Act focused mostly on access to pay phones and a requirement for Telecommunications Relay Services.

Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required that all manufacturers of telecommunications products and providers of services must make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities when "readily achievable" to do so.

Section 508 goes into effect June 25, 2001, requiring the federal government to purchase only accessible equipment for electronic technology.

MONICA HAWKINS, VERIZON (Director of Strategic Alliances)
- Verizon's marketing department finds that people with disabilities are increasingly demanding telecommunications services because it improves their quality of life and self-sufficiency.
- People with disability are spending more time on the Internet (average 30 hours per week) and on e-mail (average 17 hours per week).
- Section 255 is often not being taken into consideration by Congress as new policies and legislation are discussed.
- Verizon's policy is to have universal design throughout its products and services, for customers, shareholders, employees and suppliers.
- Section 255 provides the legal right to demand a company provide accessible products and services.
- For New York, New England and Hawaii, Verizon has a Center for Customers with Disabilities, to provide solutions and support by people specially trained in assistive technology.
- Among the special products and services offered for deaf and hard of hearing people are accessible web site, caller ID/call waiting, flash hookup, distinctive ring, 911 notification, online bill viewer, TTY intercept messages.
- Verizon is working on a training package that would make all the staff more aware of the needs of people with disabilities.

AL LUCAS, MOTOROLA Vice President, Office of Access Excellence (561-739-2505; Al.Lucas@motorola.com -has background in engineering, 36 years at Motorola)
- Section 255-related activities have resulted in steps to make information available to customers. All Motorola call centers have TTY and e-mail access and people are being trained to better respond to needs of customers.
- Products get smaller but the manuals to explain them get bigger. Manuals are now being offered in Large Print.
- Motorola found that many audiologists it worked with did not understand hearing aid compatibility of telephones.
- Some of the "easier-to-use" features Motorola products have for deaf and hard of hearing people: vibrating alerts, 2-way messaging, ability to increase volume, selection of different ringer tones with different patterns and frequency, hearing aid compatibility, TTY compatibility.
- Motorola has done a lot of work on compatibility of TTYs with digital phones. The problem is a conflict with the signaling technology. The TTY uses old technology developed in the 1930s that is distorted by today's digital technology so the TTY on the other end can't recognize the tones. The FCC mandated that by December 31, 2001 all digital equipment available must be measured for compatibility and by June 30, 2002 steps to reach compatibility must be implemented.
- Motorola is also very involved in the problem of hearing aid interference caused by digital telephones. The magnetic energy digital phones give off can turn the amplifier on the hearing aid on and off because the hearing aid is not designed to reject this. A new tool was recently developed to measure the radiation emitted. Hard of hearing consumers are reporting that telephones using CDMA have a better chance of success.
- Two-way pagers such as Motorola's T900 offer a great tool, but consumers have to know what each carrier offers -- all offer different services.

Q: Are new digital hearing aids better at handling cell phone interference?
A: They are potentially better because of the way they amplify, but it's not certain that they will be immune. Some hearing aid manufacturers may not have incorporated changes in design, just adapted an old one.

Q: I use a phone with CDMA and it is flawless; can't all digital phones switch to that?
A: That would be unrealistic; GSM is used worldwide and that is not going to change just for hearing aid compatibility.

Q: Are hearing aid manufacturers working with wireless companies?
A: Yes, they collaborated on developing the standard to measure radiation emitted.

FCC regulations prohibit volume controls in cell phones from going higher than 20 dB. Audex and Nokia have worked together to develop one with an add-on feature that can go up to 30 dB. Wireline phones are now able to boost up to 50 dB after filing a request for a waiver with the FCC.

-- Cheryl Heppner