EAAC Fails to Agree on TTY Transition Issues as Group Nears Report Deadline
The FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) heard reports from various working groups Friday as it tries to wrap up a final report by March 11 on communications by the disabled in a next-generation 911 world. The EAAC has been unable to reach consensus on some key issues related to a possible move away from text telephone (TTY) for emergency communications.
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In January, the FCC extended EAAC’s charter by six months as it works to finish its work (CD Jan 14 p5). EAAC was charted by the FCC to make recommendations on policies and practices for achieving equal access to emergency services by those with disabilities, as a part of the migration to next-generation 911.
EAAC member Gunnar Hellstrom presented a report on TTY, explaining problems with the service used by more than 100,000 deaf people in the U.S. “TTY enables limited functionality for intermixed voice and real-time text,” Hellstrom said. “It has a limited character set. It only allows limited text and overview. You need to type only in one direction at a time. … But some important features are not yet provided with any other widespread solution in the U.S.” A solution still needs to be found that can be used with VoIP and wireless, he said. “Many are just keeping their TTYs because of their 911 call need,” he said.
But EAAC members disagree on what recommendation the EAAC should make for TTY replacement. EAAC tentatively agreed to meet again Friday to take up TTY transition issues one more time.
Karen Peltz Strauss, deputy chief of the FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, encouraged the group to wrap up its final report by March 11, but also said meeting that deadline isn’t absolutely necessary. “Sometimes a deadline does achieve a consensus and, obviously today, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said. “It would be very helpful to have something. … I'm really encouraging you not to do nothing.”
"It is just as useful to the FCC to know that there is not consensus on something as it is to arrive at consensus and deliver that,” said Laura Flaherty, who represents the U.S. Department of Transportation on the advisory group. “The sense of urgency seems a little artificial.”
Strauss said EAAC should hold one additional public meeting before its charter expires this summer. EAAC was originally formed as a requirement of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010. Strauss said once the report is wrapped up EAAC is through as a mandate of the CVAA, but the group could be rechartered by the FCC in another form.
Also at the meeting, EAAC member Donna Platt of the Speech & Deafness Center, laid out proposals that Subcommittee 3, Media Communication Line Services (MCLS), will make as part of the final report. The working group will call for the establishment of MCLS centers to take calls from those with disabilities, standard operating protocols for those centers, and standards and training for sign language interpreters and others in the centers, Platt said.