Key Laws that Impact Telecommunications
Access for People with Hearing Loss
The Basics You Need to Know Brenda Battat M.S
Outline of Workshop
Laws impacting telecommunications access
Provisions of the laws
Issues surrounding their implementation
Agency oversight of the regulations
How to file a complaint
Section 508: Rehabilitation Act
Laws impacting telecommunications access
Provisions of the laws
Issues surrounding their implementation
Agency oversight of the regulations
How to file a complaint
508 Requirements
Federal departments and agencies, including the U.S.Postal Service, must comply with accessibility requirements when procuring, developing, using or maintaining electronic and information technology
Unless doing so causes an undue burden (significant difficulty or expense)
Requirements Relevant to People with Hearing Loss
17 of 63+ provisions address interests of people with hearing loss
Telephones, TVs, videotapes, DVDs, multimedia websites; IVR systems, and information kiosks
Employees not required to disclose their disability
Accessible workplace through accessible equipment design
Removal of barriers to employment of people with disabilities
508 Enforcement
Complaints for non-compliance filed by the employee with the disability
Complaint filed directly with the federal department or agency
Complainant may file a civil action
Entitled to injunctive relief (not punitive damages) and to recover attorney fees
Federal Government Accountability
Section 508 coordinator in each agency
Information on compliance to U.S. attorney general
Status report to the President
Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act 1996
Telecommunications products and services must be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if readily achievable (without difficulty or expense)
If not readily achievable, equipment or service must be compatible with existing peripheral devices used by people with disabilities
Section 255
FCC called it the most significant opportunity for people with disabilities since the ADA in 1990
Requires access to a broad range of products and services – telephones, mobile phones, pagers, call-waiting, operator services
Sec 255 General Requirements
Access should be built into the design stage as early as possible
Access applies to:
Design and production of each product
Information, documentation and training
Requirements Relevant to People with Hearing Loss
Auditory information enhanced through increased amplification, signal-to-noise ratio.Volume control boost 20dB.
Non-interference with hearing aids and cochlear implants, wireless inductive coupling to hearing aids, IVR systems
TTY connectability and signal compatibility
Section 255 Enforcement
Access Board issued equipment guidelines 1998
FCC has jurisdiction in any enforcement
Informal complaint. Company has 30 days to resolve
Formal complaint Sec 1.720-1.736 of FCC rules
Company must have a 255 contact person
Sec 255 Complaints
One formal complaint from blind individual
Very few informal complaints from people with hearing loss
Requires the FCC to “establish such regulations as are necessary to ensure reasonable access to telephone service by persons with impaired hearing.”
Provide a greater degree of assurance that hearing aid users can have access to
hearing aid compatible telephones
HAC Requirement
Telephones manufactured after August 16, 1989 (Cordless 1991) must be hearing aid compatible
Starting April 1, 1997 all phones to be stamped with HAC
Wireless telephones are exempt
Volume Control Requirement
All telephones, including cordless, must include volume control after November 1, 1998.
12dB of gain min., up to 18dB gain max.
18 dB gain may be exceeded if automatic reset measured in terms of ROLR
Closed circuit telephones must be HAC and VC when replaced
HAC Requirements for Confined Settings
Hospitals, residential health care facilities for senior citizens, convalescent homes
Exempt are phones owned by resident or when alternative means of signalling in
an emergency is in place
HAC in the Workplace
Workplace non-common areas telephones required to be HAC by January 1, 2005
Headsets exempt unless acquired specifically for an employee with a hearing loss
After January 1, 2005, “rebuttable presumption” that all phones in the workplace are HAC
Other HAC Act Requirements
All coin-operated and credit-cared operated telephones must be HAC
All emergency telephones, where people may be isolated, must be HAC (elevators,
tunnels, highways, and workplace common areas.)
Hotels: 100% of guest rooms by January 1, 2004
What is HAC?
A phone is hearing aid compatible if it provides internal means to be used with hearing aids equipped with a telecoil
FCC’s technical standard for HAC is codified at 47 C.R.R. Sec. 68.316
Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988
GSA, in consultation with the Access Board and the FCC, shall issue regulations needed “to assure that the Federal telecommunications system is fully accessible to hearing-impaired and speech-impaired individuals…for communications with and within Federal agencies.”
Provisions
Federal government relay service
TTY directory
Design standard logo for TTY
Research an interstate relay system
Congressmen to get TTYs for their offices
Telecommunications for the Disabled Act of 1982
The FCC has a general obligation to “establish such regulations as are necessary to ensure reasonable access to telephone service by persons with impaired hearing.”
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Title I: Workplace
Title II: State and Local Government
Title III: Public Accommodations
Title IV: Relay Services
Title I ADA: Workplace
Qualified individual with disability
Reasonable accommodation
VC/HAC phone; TTY; VCO phone
Employee self-identifies and requests accommodations
Title II
State and local governments must ensure that communication with applicants and participants who are hard of hearing or deaf is effective
Covers 911 services
Courts, prisons, libraries, school systems, social service agencies, motor vehicle departments
Title III
Places of public accommodation (hotels, businesses, educational facilities, theaters, convention centers, museums, parks, zoos, health spas etc) must ensure effective communication
Exempt – private clubs and religious orgs
Title III: Telephones
Relays for general contact
TTYs for outgoing calls in hotels/hospitals
HAC/VC on security entry phones
Title III: New Construction and Alteration
Malls, Stadiums, Convention Centers one public pay TTY
One public pay TTY per bank of 4 telephones
At least one HAC pay phone per floor
ADA revised guidelines to come
Title III: Hotels New Construction
VC telephones
Accessible outlets for TTYs near hotel room telephones
Title IV: Telecommunications Relay Services
Telephone companies must provide local and long distance TRS
FCC regulations – minimum guidelines
“Functionally equivalent” to conventional phone service
