# Presentation: 098162

## FCC VoIP Solutions Summit

- Friday, May 7, 2004
- Brenda Battat M.S.
- Self Help for Hard of Hearing People

## The Need

- 54 m Americans with disabilities (1out of 5)
- 1 trillion $ disposable income
- Hearing Loss the largest disability
- 28 m in U.S (1 in ten of population)
- People losing their hearing earlier
- One baby boomer every 7 seconds turns 50

**Notes:**
Between 1990 and 2050 the number of Americans with hearing loss will increase at a faster rate than the total US population. Hearing loss the most prevalent chronic condition for people over 64

## VoIP Opportunities

- Convergence of telephony, video and data
- Redundancy becomes a reality
- Phone service can be cheap

**Notes:**
VoIP proliferating at a rapid rate. 40% of all US phone calls by 2009 will be made via VoIP. VoIP is here and here to stay. Inherent opportunities in VoIP for relatively easily introducing access features.
Redundancy offers users different ways to make a phone call through the same system. Because of inherent functional efficiences that enable companies to keep their costs down, consumers get cheap phone service with a rich feature set.

## Features that People who are Hard of Hearing Need for Access

- Clear, strong, high quality signal for speech intelligibility
- Adequate volume control easily manipulated
- Telecoil compatibility without interference
- Simultaneous voice and text display with adjustable text sizes
- Audio output jack with sufficient power for neck loop, headset, or other couplers for two-ear listening

## Features - Continued

- High quality video optimized for speech reading (30 frames per second, or faster)
- Simultaneous video and audio to combine speech reading and audio signal
- Ability to add text to voice call in midstream of incoming calls
- Ability to initiate three-way calling at any time, for both incoming and outgoing calls

## Features - Continued

- Emergency services made accessible in realtime through video, voice, and text
- Ability to connect Internet relay services to the call at any time
- Compatibility with user’s own speech recognition software (enable hearing callers to use their own speech recognition software to transcribe their speech)

## Barriers to Access

- Existing hardware not accessible
- Lax enforcement of telecommunications laws
- Uncertainty where VoIP fits in the telecommunications structure
- Need for standards to meet the access goals

**Notes:**
Most of this can be done through software innovations. However, the hardware used with VoIP can create
barriers for people who use hearing aids and cochlear implants. For example, when you sign up for Vonage you use it with the phones your currently own. People find that attaching cordless phones is practical when you want phones in more than one room – especially extended cordless systems.  Cordless phones have “gone digital” and cause interference and are not HAC.
This challenge is exacerbated by lax enforcement of the HAC Act and Sec 255. Even if VoIP is regulated will it be enforced? Enforcement of telecommunications regulations is of major concern today.
Where does VoIP fit into the existing TC structure? Will existing laws extend to VoIP? E.g. Section 255. There is no motivation for companies to work on making their system accessible  - without regulations innovation is geared to profit, not the public good. So unless the FCC moves quickly we will see a repeat of a scenario that is all too familiar to people with disabilities – innovative telecommunications services and products rolled out that are inaccessible.

## Recommendations

- Capitalize on inherent and unique features of VoIP
- Wipe the telecommunications slate clean
- Remain committed to public interest objectives
- E911 be a major focus

**Notes:**
Lets devise totally new and improved ways of making and receiving phone calls for people with hearing loss. Lets not try to ‘fit” relay services, VCO phones, CapTel, TTYs to work with VoIP. Lets see what we can do with configurations of voice, video, and text to take us to new heights.