An Update on the Disability Rights Office, FCC

By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: The FCC's Disability Rights Office is concerned with all telecommunications issues that affect people with disabilities. The following report is a great overview of the issues that are currently on the table. Thanks to Cheryl Heppner and NVRC for more great reporting and for permission to share this information. If you'd like to share it, please see the credit at the end of this article.

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Tom Chandler, Chief of the Disability Rights Office at the Federal Communications Commission gave a wide-ranging presentation at the TDI Conference in New Orleans on July 11, 2005. Tom said that at the last TDI Conference in Las Vegas, the weather posed challenges and that Claude Stout "was a much better man than I" who became one of his heroes for playing golf in 118-degree heat. Tom joked that he didn't even think of bringing his golf clubs this year; he could just picture Claude doing a round as hurricane Dennis passed by, talking about how much longer his drives were in the 100 mph tailwind.

Tom touched on the changes he's seen in the two years since the last conference in July 2003:

- Internet Protocol (IP) Relay has seen explosive growth.

- The TRS Fund payments for various relay services have grown from $25 million per year to $115 million per year, and a few weeks ago another huge jump was approved for the next year.

- The CapTel phone was not yet available in July 2003; now it gets a growing portion of the TRS Fund.

- In July 2003, the reimbursement rate for Video Relay Services (VRS) was reduced to $7.75 per minute with all sorts of doom and gloom predicted; two years later VRS continues to flourish and has a new rate of $6.64 per minute. More important than this, the FCC is interested in not just the size of the Fund but the services it provides.

- A few days before the last TDI conference, the FCC adopted an order requiring digital cellular phones to be hearing aid compatible, with the first benchmark set for September 2006. Just recently, another order by the FCC rejected a number of challenges to this benchmark.

- In June 2004, a caption quality petition was filed with the FCC by TDI; it is now on the agenda for the FCC's July 14, 2005 Open Meeting.

- Visual access to emergency information on TV was established by FCC regulations in effect since August 2000; the first enforcement actions were taken in February 2005 and May 2005, affecting three TV stations each time. The FCC is well aware of the importance of this regulation in the post-9/11 world.

Tom said that he appreciates the many people who have come to the FCC, pounding them on the issues. He also noted that many challenges remain. Among the recent changes at the FCC was the appointment of a new Chairman, Kevin Martin. His commitment to disability issues is made clear by the disability issues which fill the July 14 Open Meeting agenda.

The Disability Rights Office has been very busy. Some people work mostly on captioning issues, others on telecommunications relay services. One of the staff works on emergency preparedness issues, where attention is being given to the communication needs of people who are deaf and hard of hearing before, during and after emergencies.

Telecommunications relay services (TRS) have some of the most interesting challenges. There's been a shift from a system based on copper wires, but regulations were established when TRS was done over the landline phone network. A distinction was made in interstate and intrastate calls (calls within a state and calls made to other states). This distinction is now becoming moot with the growing number of TRS calls being made over the Internet.

A lot of people have spent the past three years on TRS issues, and many of those issues are still unresolved. On some issues there is no right or wrong way to make a decision; the FCC is just stuck until Congress sorts it out and gives the FCC direction.

States would be thrilled if they didn't have to pay for relay calls, and TRS providers would enjoy not being stuck with a bunch of different bills for different states. But the FCC is bound by the language of the ADA's Title IV, which says that states pay for intrastate calls and the interstate calls are paid at the federal level.

In writing the ADA, the idea for TRS in Title IV was that if you were a telephone company, you would also have to offer relay calls. It would be like a hotel having to make rooms accessible for some of its guests. Relay calls using the Internet brought a whole new set of issues.

Some of the standards established for the early relay services have been waived for IP Relay and Video Relay services. Should they continue to be waived? How do we ensure access to emergency services? Does the recent E-911 order by the FCC show the way? All of these are not easy questions to answer.

Two weeks ago, the FCC chose to reject the Video Relay Service rate proposed by the National Exchange Carriers Association. It was the smoothest process in the time Tom has been involved.

In March 2005, some IP Relay issues were resolved. The FCC ruled that reimbursement from the TRS Fund couldn't be withheld as a penalty for not complying with all the rules. But providers should not think that they can offer services without meeting the standards.

The FCC continues to flesh out what is meant by the ADA's requirement of functional equivalence in relay services. In January 2005, a declaratory ruling and public notice were issued; these said that providers can't use financial incentives to get people to make TRS calls when the funding comes from the TRS fund, and cannot contact people to encourage them to make calls. In February 2005, an order on three-way calling was issued to comply with their rule and clarify a previous order.

Still to come are decisions about:
- Cost reimbursement issues from last year
- Interoperability
- VRS and IP separation of cost (who pays?) and a broader issue to discuss whether there should be a whole different cost recovery method for VRS
- Certification regulation for VRS and TRS providers -- companies want to get in the market; how will there be oversight, regulation and certification of national-level services?
- Should VRS be a mandatory service -- and what does it really mean to be a mandatory servuce?

IP Relay fraud has also been an issue the Disability Rights Office has wrestled with. In a large number of IP Relay calls, the communication assistants recognize fraud, but they are required to be transparent. The FCC has met with staff of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI to try to find a way to resolve the problem. Communication assistants don't like it, IP Relay providers don't like it, and merchants don't like it. If a merchant blocks all relay calls to try to prevent fraud, a complaint against the merchant can be filed under Title III of the ADA, which is enforced by DOJ.

Tom said it's an exciting time at the FCC with new leadership. He is eager to see how TRS will look in two more years at the next TDI conference. But he said he will still leave his golf clubs home.

Q: Does the FCC have a process for filing complaints on video?
A: There is no exact answer -- keep badgering us on this issue.

Q: Continued funding of TRS is a concern; why should only telephone companies contribute and not others like cable or other Internet providers?
A: This is a recurring question. Currently interstate TRS providers are required to pay into the TRS Fund. This issue will most likely be raised and resolved. It could be addressed by a clear definition of what a telecommunications service means.

Q: Is the FCC receiving enough comments on VRS rules?
A: When we don't feel we have enough, we can ask for more, as we did on the issue of speed of answer. It is important for people to comment if they have an interest in the issues. But comments are not counted like an election, where a 60-5 vote would win.

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(c)2005 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), www.nvrc.org. When sharing this information, please ensure credit is given to NVRC