WASHINGTON-Lawmakers and disability groups are turning up the volume of criticism of mobile-phone firms and federal regulators over the lack of progress in making digital wireless communications accessible to hearing-impaired Americans.
In addition to asking the Federal Communications Commission to reopen a 1995 proceeding in which the agency was asked to mandate compatibility between digital mobile phones and hearing-aids, the hearing-impaired community is concerned with government plans to phase out analog cell phones and to auction frequencies on which assisted listening devices (ALDs) operate.
Analog phones, unlike most digital handsets, do not interfere with hearing aids and are compatible with text telephone (TTY) machines. 911 wireless service for the hearing impaired is also a work in progress. Under FCC rules, wireless manufactures must have 911 TTY software available by the end of December. Mobile-phone network operators have to implement 911 TTY service by June 30, 2002.
On other aspects of wireless 911 implementation-such as call-back and location-the mobile-phone industry has missed deadlines and sought FCC waivers. The agency has complied in some cases.
“In six years, they [industry] haven’t managed to move anything on wireless access,” said John Flanders, children’s rights advocate at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing.
Industry claims the picture for the hard of hearing, who look to disability laws and the 1996 telecom act for access to telecommunications and other services, is not at all bleak.
“I think there was a breakdown in communications,” said Andrea Williams, assistant general counsel at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
Williams said the during the lull following negotiations between industry and hearing-disabled stakeholders in the late 1990s-discussions that dissuaded former FCC chairman Reed Hundt from pursuing a regulatory solution-progress was being made in electromagnetic research at the University of Oklahoma.
More recently, Williams stated, an industry standard was approved for testing compatibility that produced data to help consumers match which mobile phones work best with particular hearing aids. How the program is rolled out has not been determined. Williams said it would require lots of education for mobile-phone firms, the hard of hearing and hearing-aid manufacturers.
Representatives from the wireless industry and the hearing-impaired community plan to meet next month to discuss telecom access issues, Williams said.
An FCC official said the request to re-examine compatibility between hearing aids and digital mobile phones-which was filed by a coalition of disability organizations last October-still is pending at the bureau level.
The various issues are converging as impatience over lack of telecom access grows among the nation’s 28 million hearing-impaired citizens and 6 million wearers of hearing aids in the United States.
Now, Congress is stepping in.
On Friday, Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), James Jeffords (I-Vt.), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) sent letters to FCC Chairman Michael Powell and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to urge against the auction of spectrum in the 216-217 MHz band because it would hurt low-power assisted listening devices used by hard-of-hearing school children.
The FCC last November, responding to 1993 and 1997 budget laws that freed up government frequencies for FCC sale to the private sector, proposed putting the 216-220 MHz band and other ex-government frequencies on the auction block. However, the agency indicated early on that potential interference from commercial wireless operators-like radio dispatch companies that have shown interest in the band-to ALDs could make the 216-217 MHz inappropriate for auction.
But, with the FCC proposal alive, the hearing-impaired community remains on edge. Lawmakers want the 216-217 MHz band off the table.
“We want to assure the commission that Congress did not intend for the reallocation of government spectrum to cause hardship to the public, and that we are adamant that there is no impairment of the benefit of ALDs to the 28 million hard-of-hearing Americans,” stated the lawmakers.
Flanders said Sens. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have shown interest in protecting the rights of hearing-impaired citizens and also may send letters to the FCC on the 216-217 MHz issue.
How the FCC responds is uncertain.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, more so than his two predecessors, strongly embraces free-market economics. Indeed, Powell has admitted his distaste for government intervention. However, in a speech last Thursday, Powell said there are exceptions. “There are some areas the market often will not effectively address. In section 255 [of the 1996 telecom act], Congress recognized that perhaps the most significant is in the area of persons with disabilities. We have a concerted focus on how technology can improve access for this community.”
Powell made no mention of wireless access issues affecting the hearing disabled in his remarks.
