> **Recommendations of the Consumer/Disability Telecommunications
> Advisory Committee**

1)  Strongly recommend that the Commission expands its ongoing outreach
    efforts. New approaches we encourage the FCC to take are as follows:
    sponsorship of Town Hall meetings, outreach at community events such
    as conferences and conventions, mass distribution of multilingual
    hard copies of materials, on-line distribution through consumer
    disability-related and industry links, submission of publications
    targeted to the mass media and consumer organizations and the
    disability community, Public Service Announcements (if appropriate),
    and press related opportunities with the Commissioners and through
    the FCC Web site. Additional efforts should include:

    a.  Make every effort for more active consumer participation in the
        regulatory process. The FCC has clearly demonstrated a
        commitment to providing meeting notices and other public
        documents in a variety of accessible formats. To further meet
        this commitment, the Commission should work with disability
        advocacy organizations to insure that the Electronic Comment
        Filing System (EFCS) is fully accessible to individuals with
        disabilities and is compliant with Sec. 508 of the
        Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as Amended. For example, the current
        practice of posting documents filed with the Commission in the
        Portable Document Format (PDF) is often inaccessible to users of
        screen reader technology.

    b.  Educate consumers regarding their rights and responsibilities in
        the complaint process. Steps in the complaint process should be
        clearly outlined to the consumer. A consumer should also be
        informed of his/her options at various stages of the complaint
        process, and the informal versus formal complaint processes
        should be clarified.

    c.  Respond publicly to issues that exhibit systemic problems or
        "pattern and practice" violations of the Act and/or regulations.

    d.  Develop stronger relationships with communities that have
        specific telecommunications needs or that face unique barriers
        in accessing telecommunications products and services, (e.g.,
        seniors, limited or non English speaking individuals, and
        individuals who are blind or visually impaired.) Build on
        existing relationships with communities that have unfinished
        regulatory business with the FCC, (e.g. people who are deaf and
        hard of hearing, Native Americans, etc.)

2)  Encourage the FCC to recognize and publicize best practices \-- in
    the consumer, business, and disability communities, serving or
    addressing consumer needs \-- and stressing efforts that increase
    participation and partnership between industry and consumers.

3)  Encourage the FCC to provide an expanded, more detailed report on a
    regular basis that highlights common consumer and disability
    complaints. This expanded report should analyze trends and highlight
    the nature of model solutions to complaints.

4)  Commend the FCC's plans to streamline the process to handle informal
    complaints. We strongly recommend that this streamlining should
    address the following: (a) timeframes for resolution of complaints,
    including giving consumers an FCC point of contact and expected
    timeframe for resolution at the time the consumer files a
    complaint; (b) appropriate web site links to other governmental
    agencies who might also be able to assist the consumer with a
    complaint.

5)  Encourage the FCC to maximize positive consumer experience with the
    CAMS network, by considering the following steps:

    a.  Increase training and interaction with the consumer and
        disability communities.

    b.  Address diversity in hiring, stressing knowledge of and
        experience with language, culture and disability.

    c.  Support continued use of Mystery Shopper and other strategies to
        assess service quality.

    d.  Use new and existing communications vehicles (including on-line
        tools, bulletin boards, newsletters, etc.) to: (1) promote
        continuing awareness of the telecommunications needs of various
        constituencies; (2) provide information about proceedings and
        rulemaking related to those constituencies; and (3) highlight
        CAMS' "best practices" and complaint resolutions.

    e.  Increase the capability of the FCC to handle complaints from
        select limited and non-English speaking consumers. Priority
        should be given to the Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin
        languages.

6)  FCC should require companies to provide a single point of contact
    for resolution of complaints involving captioning or video
    description. FCC should also examine the feasibility and need for a
    similar single point of contact for resolution of general consumer
    complaints. The single point of contact information should include a
    person's name, title, mailing address, email address, and numbers
    for phone, fax and TTY contact. In addition, the Section 255 point
    of contact list, currently posted on the FCC's web site, should be
    expanded and updated at least annually.

7)  Recommend that current complaint forms be reviewed to ensure that
    they effectively address specific consumer and disability access
    issues.

8)  FCC should provide assistance to consumers in framing complaints and
    should help identify appropriate solutions for special categories of
    complaints.

> Adopted June 28, 2002