Accessibility for the Disabled

The Federal Communications Commission announces the opening of the nomination period for the Ninth Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (“Chairman’s AAA”). The nomination period opens on Aug 3, 2020 and continues through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sept 4, 2020.

One of the many things we take for granted in life is the ability to make a simple phone call.  For tens of millions of individuals who were deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or had a speech disability thirty years ago, that was not always the case.  This all changed with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) enacted on July 26, 1990.

When it comes our August meeting’s main attraction, repurposing C-band spectrum for 5G, we feel the need — the need for speed. I circulated final draft procedures for a C-band auction to be held on Dec 8, 2020, and we will vote on them at our August meeting. They spell out the many details of the auction — competitive bidding procedures, application requirements, and deadlines governing participation in Auction 107. To spur the deployment of ultra-fast, world-leading 5G networks, we need to make C-band spectrum (among other spectrum bands) available as quickly as possible.

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission announces the anticipated renewal of its Disability Advisory Committee and solicits applications for membership on the Committee, subject to renewal of the Committee’s charter. Applications for membership are due by 11:59 P.M. EST on August 13, 2020. The mission of the Committee is to make recommendations to the FCC regarding disability issues specified by the FCC.

The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted conditional certification to MachineGenius to provide Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) using only automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. This is the first such grant and provides an opportunity for advanced technology to meet the FCC’s high reliability standards in providing captioned telephone service for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Thursday, April 23, 2020, which is scheduled to commence at 10:30 am. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and related agency telework and headquarters access policies, this meeting will be in a wholly electronic format and will be open to the public on the Internet via live feed from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live and on the FCC’s YouTube channel. 

Regarding Steven Davidoff Solomon’s “Berkeley Schools Leave Every Child Behind” (op-ed, April 3), Solomon should know that under federal law public schools (unlike his first daughter’s private school) cannot just plow ahead with a structure that excludes free access to any student, whatever the special need and without threat of serious legal challenges with financial consequences to the district and the district taxpayers.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 23, 2020:

As we continue our important work directly related to COVID-19, the Federal Communications Commission will also continue our work confronting the longer-term challenges that have been highlighted by pandemic. In particular, at our upcoming meeting on April 23, we will be voting on major initiatives to expand wireless connectivity and further close the digital divide.