ACTION ALERT: Share Your Comments on Wireless
Phones
Captioning Providers to Form Trade Association
ACTION ALERT: Share Your Comments on Wireless
Phones
TDI is a member of the TTY Forum, sponsored by the Alliance for
Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS). The TTY Forum was
established in 1997 in response to the Federal Communication Commission's
(FCC) e911 regulations, which required that digital cellphone handsets be
able to call 911 using either voice or TTY. It took five years, and
the first TTY compatible digital handsets rolled out on June 30, 2002.
ATIS has asked consumer organizations to report to the next TTY Forum,
scheduled for October 8, 2002, to make reports on the roll-out status of
digital wireless service for TTY users. TDI would like for you to
report any experiences you have had with using digital handsets with a TTY.
If you have any positive or negative experience, please consider addressing
the following questions:
Have you tried to call 9-1-1 with your cell phone using a TTY?
Using the Relay?
What is your experience in buying a cellphone that is TTY
compatible? Was the sales rep helpful? Did the packaging and
informational documents clearly indicate that the handset was TTY
compatible? Did the sales rep provide instructions on how to hook up
a wireless compatible TTY using a 2.5mm connection?
If you bought a digital handset, why did you purchase that model?
How did you learn about it?
What additional issues should the TTY Forum look into? Hearing
aid compatibility? Marketing/Outreach?
Please send your comments to info@tdi-online.org
no later than 10/6/02.
For more information about the TTY Forum, go to www.atis.org
and click
on "TTY" in the menu on the bottom of the home page.
The FCC has a fact sheet on TTY/wireless compatibility at:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/ttywireless.html
There is a link to a PDF document "What You Should Know About Wireless
Phone Service" - FCC's general consumer information in the left column
at:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/
Captioning Providers to Form Trade Association
Editor's note: TDI is a participant in this effort.
Since its early years, TDI has been advocating on behalf of consumers for
access to media. We at TDI are pleased and support the collaborative
efforts by the captioning industry to further improve captioning quality and
look forward to working with the new trade association.
CAPTIONING COMPANIES MEET, VOTE TO CREATE TRADE ASSOCIATION
Representatives of 18 different captioning companies from around the
country met on September 14 in Fairfax, Virginia, with 30 consumers of
captioning to hold the first-ever Caption Quality Initiative (CQI)
Conference. It was the largest gathering of captioning professionals
ever, and the first time in 8 years that more than 5 companies have met to
discuss industry issues.
At the end of a full day of discussions and sharing information about the
problems that service providers and consumers face in the preparation and
delivery of captions, the group voted overwhelmingly to support the creation
of a trade association. It is not yet clear whether this association
will be independent or may be a separate interest group under the auspices
of an existing association. There has never been a formal association
representing the television captioning industry, which is now officially 30
years old (dating to the formation of The Caption Center at WGBH-TV in
Boston).
Conferees were asked to recommend and then vote on possible next steps that
the industry can take to solve the problems that affect the quality of
captions consumers receive. The top three recommendations were:
1) create a trade association to serve the captioning industry, 2) encourage
the FCC to be more proactive in ensuring compliance with its rules affecting
program access, particularly those rules regarding emergency news reports
and scheduled-program captioning, and 3) define a single point of contact
for consumers and program providers when they have questions or concerns
about captioning.
22 captioning service providers had been invited to attend the Conference
and to bring with them their consumer advisors who already have a deep
understanding of the issues confronting the captioning industry. A
total of 79 people attended the historic event. Although most
participants were either service providers or consumers, there were a few
special guests who participated in the Conference. These included
Traci Randolph of the FCC's Disability Rights Office; Mark Golden, Executive
Director of the National Court Reporters Association; and Dr. Judith
Harkins, Director of Gallaudet's Technology Access Program. The
co-chairs of the Conference were Jo Ann McCann from the U.S. Department of
Education and Jeff Hutchins, former owner of VITAC and a veteran of three
different captioning companies over the past 29 years.
Sincerely,
Jim House, Director
TDI Member Services & Public Relations
8630 Fenton St., #604
Silver Spring, MD 20910
jimhouse@tdi-online.org
TTY 301-589-3006
Voice 301-589-3786
FAX 301-589-3797
AOL IM haus7hill
For more info: www.tdi-online.org
"Promoting Equal Access to Telecommunications and Media for People
Who are Deaf, Late-Deafened, Hard-of-Hearing or
Deaf-Blind"
