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Date Posted: 07:02:14 06/04/07 Mon
Author: JFA
Subject: Gains in Phone Services


Brand New Accessibility Coalition Scores Gains in Phone Services

Coalition of Organizations
for Accessible Technology_____________________________________

For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mark Richert (AFB) 202-408-8071
Jenifer Simpson (AAPD) 202-467-0046

Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT)
Applauds FCC's New Disability Accessibility Requirements

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) adopted a Report and Order, "Disability Access Requirements
Extended To VoIP Services" at its monthly open meeting. The FCC
Order levels the playing field so that interconnected Voice Over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers must meet similar
requirements for providing access to people with disabilities that
wireline and wireless providers currently meet.

"We applaud this significant step forward in making sure persons
disabilities will not be left behind or left out of the next
generation of phone services using Internet technologies," says
Jenifer Simpson, of the American Association of People with
Disabilities (AAPD), a cofounder and spokesperson for the
Coalition.

The Order does three things for persons with disabilities. It
extends the accessibility and usability requirements of Section
255 of the Communications Act to VoIP service providers. It
requires VoIP providers to contribute into the Interstate
Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund. It also requires
VoIP service providers to meet the same TRS obligations that
traditional phone companies must meet, such as connecting relay
service users via 711, the nation's free access number to reach a
relay service center.

"Companies using new phone technologies should make their products
and services accessible and usable for people with vision loss.
Why should I have to ask someone to place a phone call for me just
because some company forgot to design phone services with my needs
in mind?" asks Mark Richert of the American Foundation for the
Blind (AFB), another co-founder of the disability coalition
supporting the FCC action. "And, if we can't get our telephone
bills in Braille, how do they expect us to pay them?"

"New contributors into the relay services fund are important
because the number of traditional phone customers is continuing to
decline," explains Karen Peltz Strauss of Communication Service
for the Deaf (CSD, Inc.), also a founder of the new disability
coalition. "Relay services are absolutely essential for people
with hearing and speech disabilities."

"The 1996 Telecommunications Act required phone companies and
manufacturers to make services and products disability
accessibility and usable," adds Jenifer Simpson. "Here we are,
eleven years later and some companies still forget to design at
the front end for the needs of people with all kinds of
disabilities, leaving them behind as the rest of the population
gets to use all kinds of new and exciting communication
technologies. Everyone's getting pretty fed up with not being able
to use these innovative gadgets and services. This FCC action is a
good step forward, but it's time for the whole communications
industry to take a giant step forward. We want to see
accessibility in all products and services in the marketplace."

COAT is a new coalition of disability organizations, launched in
March 2007, to advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards
that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to
evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet
protocol (IP) technologies. The Coalition of Organizations for
Accessible Technology, or COAT, consists of over 67 national,
regional, and community-based organizations dedicated to making
sure that as our nation migrates from legacy public switched-based
telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and
other communication technologies, people with disabilities will
benefit like everyone else. More information about the disability
coalition is available at website http://www.coataccess.org

SOURCE: AAPD
________________________________________________________________

For more news issues, see:
http://www.aapd.com/docs/news.php

#

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