FCC Takes Strong Action to Ensure Access to Moblie Phones

On August 4, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission announced they “took important steps to ensure that the latest wireless phones are hearing aid-compatible, expanding access to mobile networks and services for the 8 million Americans who use hearing aids. [These] actions encourage innovation and investment and foster an environment that enables Americans with hearing loss to have meaningful access to 21st century mobile technology by allowing industry the flexibility to devise a range of solutions that meet consumers’ needs.”

Policy Statement
The Commission’s adopted a Statement of Policy that encourages development of new technology and emphasizes that hearing aid compatibility should be addressed at the “earliest stages of product design process. By focusing on the development stage, innovators and entrepreneurs can account for compatibility issues before their first device is ever produced.”

Report and Order
The Second Report and Order adopted by the Commission had these key actions:

• Clarification that the hearing aid compatibility rules cover customer equipment that contains a built-in speaker and is designed to be held to the ear.
• Change in an exception to the rule; all large entities will now be required to offer at least one hearing aid compatible model after a two-year initial period.
• Expansion of the rules to include handsets sold through all distribution channels, a step up from the previous requirement that covered only ones sold through wireless service providers.
  

Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
The Commission’s vote included issuing a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comments on:

• Extending the hearing aid compatibility rules to customer equipment over any type of network.
• Offering consumers in-store testing of hearing aid compatible phones in sites beyond retail stores.
• Permiting a user-controlled reduction of power to meet HAC requirements in legacy air interfaces.

Roundtable of Industry and Disability Group Leaders
Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the FCC will convene a roundtable of industry and disability group leaders. The goal is to renew the collaborative process to address the challenges of hearing aid compatibility up front in the development process.

In his statement at the Commission meeting, Chairman Julius Genachowski noted, “We adopt today an unprecedented agency Statement of Policy that emphasizes to developers of new technologies the necessity of considering and planning for hearing aid compatibility at the earliest stages of the product design process. For too many years, Americans who have hearing loss have faced the uphill battle of attempting to obtain hearing aid compatibility long after essential communications devices completed their development cycle and went on the market. By turning the collective focus to the development stage, innovators and entrepreneurs can account for compatibility issues before devices are produced. This is an important change, which will result in real benefits to Americans with hearing loss.”

Commissioner Michael Copps added, “Our decision will ensure that the hearing loss community has far greater access to the newest and most popular smartphones. And, I am particularly pleased that the outcome we reach today was shaped in no small measure by the input and contributions of the Hearing Loss Association of America and others from the hearing loss community. If I have learned one thing from my years of fighting for greater inclusion for persons with disabilities, it is that accessibility must be addressed at the earliest stages of both product design and agency rule-making. It is far more efficient and cost-effective to have these communities present at the creation of new products and services and new government regulations than it is to retrofit after it’s discovered that something wasn’t properly designed or considered.”

HLAA is pleased to have been part of the process that we anticipate will result in consumer access to more mobile phone handsets that are hearing aid compatible. We applaud the Commission for their work on these issues. We are also encouraged by the efforts of the wireless industry in their committment to working with the community of people with hearing loss, and in their creative solutions that show their commitment to producing products that are hearing aid compatible while at the same time fostering the kind of innovation that we all want to see. We look forward to continuing our ongoing work with the wireless industry to ensure that consumers have the greatest access possible to hearing aid compatible mobile phones.