DHHCAN Meeting Minutes
January 3, 2007
Present: Jerald Jordan (USADSF); Barbara Raimondo (CEASD, ASDC); Katie Canfield (GU); Claude Stout (TDI); Arvilla Rank (NCOD); Rosaline Crawford (NAD); Sam Sonnenstrahl (GUAA); Fred Weiner (GU); Ron Nomeland (DSA); Gerald Miller (NBDA).
Chair Stout called the meeting to order at 1:10 pm. The minutes of the December meeting were approved as distributed.
Officers Reports
Mr. Stout received a request for donations letter from Dr. Bob Segalman. Dr. Segalman wanted DHHCAN to help by donating to his new organization, Speech Communications Assistance by Telephone, Inc.
He then talked about his feedback via email to Daryl Crouse re: RID comments to the FCC on the VRS rate methodology issues. Mr. Stout basically reiterated DHHCAN's position to Mr. Crouse, similar to what he gave to Ms. Mary Lightfoot in the recent DHHCAN meeting on December 6.
Mr. Stout then covered his recent discussion with Ron Burdett of Sorenson Communications on making plans for a VRS demonstration on Capitol Hill on March 1. TDI will be the main sponsor for this event and it is inviting NAD and DHHCAN to join as co-sponsoring organizations for the event. Sorenson is coordinating the planning for this event, and Mr. Stout had asked that Sorenson get all the other VRS vendors to support the event. It will be strictly a demonstration of how it is to use VRS, and to comment briefly on its empowering benefits and impact on the quality of life for those who use this service. Mr. Stout said he would appreciate a formal action from today's meeting to accept the invitation to co-sponsor. Tentative program details involve Nancy Bloch as an emcee, and there will be brief remarks from Messrs. Stout and Burdett. The program will be presented at three different times during the event to key Congressional staffers and also hopefully some U.S. Senators, and U.S. House Representatives.
Secretary-Treasurer Jordan reported a balance of $28,808.00 in our treasury.
Telecommunications Report:
Mr. Stout announced that Monica Desai is no longer the Chief of Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the FCC. She is being replaced by Ms. Catherine Seidel, who recently served as Deputy Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
National Council on Disability has released a report titled "The Need for Federal Legislation and Regulation Prohibiting Telecommunications and Information Services Discrimination." This report was primarily authored by Karen Peltz-Strauss. Stout said this report was well written, and thoroughly addressed our access needs with Internet-enabled technologies that are not covered by past Congressional legislative mandates. Here is the link to the NCD report: http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2006/discrimination.htm
On December 20, the FCC announced that it adopted a Declaratory Ruling finding that Internet Protocol (IP) captioned telephone service (IP CTS) is a type of telecommunications relay service (TRS) eligible for compensation from the Interstate TRS Fund (Fund).
The Federal Communications Commission released a Public Notice on December 29, 2006 which clarifies its regulations on accessibility to emergency information. It reverses its August 7, 2006 position. Most of the language in the December 29 Public Notice mirrors what DHHCAN and other organizations have asked for. For the first time, this Public Notice gives examples of steps that can be taken to ensure captioning is obtained quickly:
(1) Enter into arrangements or contracts with services that are capable of generating closed captions on very short notice to ensure the prompt availability of these services in the event of an emergency;
(2) Establish internal policies that add the requirement to immediately contact the above closed captioning services to the station’s check list of top priorities for exhibiting emergency information;
(3) Maintain visible postings on television sets in the newsroom to remind employees or other designated staff who are responsible for initiating action for the production of emergency programming to contact the designated closed captioning service immediately at the onset of an emergency and include the telephone number for the captioning service on such postings;
(4) Maintain a labeled speed-dial button on telephones in the newsroom with a direct connection to the captioning service;
(5) Distribute an emergency visual presentation policy to all employees on a regular basis;
(6) Train employees regarding visual presentation policies.
The FCC has continued to work on the Internet Relay fraud issues. We just learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has looked into these issues via its Office of Investigative Justice (OIJ). It may take a number of years before this OIJ office releases its findings on this topic.
Ms. Crawford added to the above report:
Accessible emergency information – FCC just issued a Public Notice about the obligations of TV program distributors to caption or present visually by some other method emergency information. The FCC consulted with and adopted virtually all of the changes and language suggested by consumer group reps (Heppner and Crawford) and Peltz-Strauss. Link to PN and more info at http://blogs.nad.org/advocacy/.
IP relay misuse – FCC appears under pressure to do something to curb IP relay misuse. NBC aired reports featuring two former communication assistants during its morning news program and recently again in its nightly news program. Several teleconference/meetings and individual conversations have taken place between the FCC, relay providers, and consumer reps. Meanwhile, consumers continue to be adversely impacted by businesses not accepting or not doing business via relay calls of any kind. Consumer’s first choice remains FCC/FTC/BBB/DOJ outreach and education of businesses about preventing commercial fraud/scams, along with the importance, benefits, and legal obligations to conduct business by relay. Nonetheless, it appears the FCC is leaning towards consumer registration and/or approving/increasing IP relay providers’ measures to block international/suspect misuse calls and to intervene in suspect misuse fraud/scam calls.
Note -- Some of the pressure surrounding IP relay misuse may be coming from an Inspector General oversight investigation into TRS funds that began some time ago and just completed its first phase (risk assessment). It appears phase two of the investigation will be a limited survey audit and phase three may be in-depth audit of select relay providers.
Captioned movies – The Arizona AG has filed lawsuits against AMC (8 theaters) and Harkins (22 theaters) in Arizona. Negotiations may still be underway with one or two other movie theater chains with a couple of theaters in Arizona (i.e., Regal, Century, and/or Carmike). Suit was brought under Arizona state disability discrimination law (not federal ADA claims). Difference from similar actions taken by New Jersey and New York AGs – AMC theaters in Arizona are already equipped with one Rear Window system each (about what was accomplished by the NJ and NY actions) . . . and the Arizona AG says that is not enough. A “choice” of one movie is not a choice at all. On the other hand, only one or two Harkins theaters, the largest chain in Arizona, have only limited showings of InSight Cinema open-captioned movies. The AG is seeking a “sufficient” number of movie theater screens equipped to display captions for both AMC and Harkins. Recommend encouraging deaf and hard of hearing Arizona residents to become educated and experienced with movie caption display systems to express informed opinions and become involved to the extent possible in these actions. The Arizona Center for Disability Law is actively engaged in this process. More information will be shared soon.
Transportation Report:
Mr. Jordan had nothing further to report.
Education Report:
Ms Raimondo: The National Association of State Directors of Special Education has been putting together state training in conjunction with its educational guidelines for deaf and hard of hearing students, which were released this summer. The training sessions each will last two days. Attendees are expected to be state and local education agency personnel, general and special educators, parents, consumers, and others involved in the education of deaf and hard of hearing students. There will be four levels of training, depending on the level of expertise in deaf education in the state. All states who take the training, whatever their level, will be expected to develop a plan of action for improvement of deaf education within the state.
New Business
It was moved, seconded and passed that DHHCAN be a co-sponsor of the VRS demonstration on Capitol Hill March 1.
The meeting adjourned at 2:15 pm.
The next meeting will be held in Room 150 of Hall Memorial Building on February 7 at 1:00 pm.
Jerald M. Jordan
Secretary-Treasurer
