Remarks by William E. Kennard
                                Chairman
                    Federal Communications Commission
                American Foundation for the Blind and the
                      American Council of the Blind
              1998 Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute
                             Washington, DC
                                    
                              March 8, 1998
                                    
                                    

     Thank you for inviting me to speak at your annual leadership conference, and thank
you, Carl, for that generous introduction. 

     The story of how an obscure teacher at Boston's School for the Deaf named
Alexander Graham Bell changed the world with his invention is pretty well known, and no
wonder. 

     Some of it is pretty dramatic.

     The most famous event is that moment when Mr. Bell spilled some acid and said,
"Watson, come here, I want you" and Watson was stunned to hear the words coming through
clearly on the new machine.

     There was a lot of skepticism about whether Bell's gadget would work.  In London,
stockbrokers couldn't figure out why somebody would want to send messages over a
machine.  It seemed so impersonal, they said, when you could use messenger boys.

     In fact, the story of Bell's invention is a story of persistence in the face of obstacles.
Its success not only took others by surprise. It surprised him, too.

     Much later in life, he told Helen Keller, "the more I look at the world, the more it
puzzles me.  We are forever moving towards the unexpected."  That is so true.

     Certainly, even Bell never expected the world we have today: one where somebody in
Paris can pick up a cell phone the size of a wallet and talk to somebody in Washington.  Or
where we can open up a laptop on a train and e-mail a speech or letter to twenty friends at
once.

     It makes you realize how powerless we are to predict the future.

     Still, whatever lies ahead, there is no doubt that as we approach a new century and a
new Millennium, extraordinary changes in technology lie ahead.


     But as those advances take place, one of the challenges will be to benefit all
Americans.

     For how does it profit a country to build the best airplanes, or automobiles -- or
telephones -- if those inventions can't benefit every citizen?

     Nobody knows this better than the members of the American Foundation for the Blind
and the American Council of the Blind.  Scott Marshall, Alan Dinsmore, Paul Schroeder and
all of your officers and members work tirelessly to make sure that telecommunications
services that would amaze even Alexander Graham Bell are available to people with
disabilities.  The American people are indebted to you.  Personally, I want to thank you for
your efforts -- coming to the FCC, filing comments, and providing guidance on these issues.

     We need to make telecommunications better. And we need to make society more
inclusive.

     Today I want to talk about how we should move ahead on both fronts.

     I bring a special perspective to this twin responsibility. 

     For those of you who cannot see me, I'm African American. I bring up my heritage
because I have been profoundly influenced by, and benefitted from, the struggles that people
of color have waged to promote equal opportunity in this country.  Nobody handed African
Americans the rights we enjoy today.  Those rights were won.  In the courtrooms and the
classrooms, on picket lines and cafeteria lunch lines, on Freedom Rides across the South and
polling places across America, pioneers of the civil rights movement in this country fought
for those rights.  They fought for equal opportunity.

     And here I stand, today, on the shoulders of those pioneers, with the same message of
equal opportunity for leaders in the disability rights movement.  
 
     We cannot ignore the needs of those with disabilities.  We cannot create a society that
leaves out the 26 million Americans with hearing disabilities or the nine million with sight
disabilities or the 2.5 million Americans with speech disabilities.

     It's just too much a part of America.  

     It's too important a segment of the American family. 

     As we look into the future, we must strive to ensure that advances in technology
benefit everyone.

     Along with the other FCC Commissioners, I recently got a glimpse of what that
future means.

     At one of our meetings we decided to show an example of what accessible
telecommunications can mean.  We saw a demonstration of speech-to-speech relay services --
a service that allows persons with speech disabilities to use the telephone. 

     But it wasn't the technology that kept us mesmerized. It was Dr. Bob Segalman.  Bob
is a speech-to-speech pioneer.  We watched Bob sit in front of us and, with his quiet breaths,
whisper into a phone while a trained communications assistant relayed those words to his
mother three thousand miles away.

      We all understood Bob's point: that while his way of communicating might be
different, his need for telephone access is no less important than anyone else's.  Without
speech-to-speech relay, Bob can't talk to his mother on the phone -- or anyone else -- which
for most of us is something we probably don't think twice about.  Seeing what he needed to
do -- what all of us on the Commission take for granted -- reaffirmed the awesome
responsibility we have. 

     It is a responsibility that must be fulfilled in two important areas: access on the one
hand; education and training on the other.

     Those are the two areas I want to discuss with you.

     First: access.

     Service providers and manufacturers no longer have the option of choosing whether to
provide access to telecommunications equipment and services for people with disabilities.

     It must be done.

     That was mandated by Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

     It is a broad mandate. 

     Given the fundamental role that telecommunications has come to play in today's
world, Section 255 represents the most significant opportunity for people with disabilities
since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

     And at the FCC we intend to fully implement it.  And I am committed as Chairman
to devote the resources necessary to make it work.

     To be unable to use telecommunications makes it next to impossible to get an
education, to get a job -- even to call 911. It forces those without access to be dependent on
the rest of society.

     For those reasons alone, the failure to ensure access for people with disabilities comes
at great cost.

     But there are other reasons, too.

     After all, doesn't limiting the access for 49 million Americans deprive this country of
a wealth of ideas and ability? And haven't we seen that products designed initially for
consumers with disabilities also turn out to appeal to the rest of America?

     Of course we have.  

     There are countless examples.

     Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone with the intention of creating a device
that would assist his wife and his mother, who both had hearing disabilities.  

     The typewriter -- developed in Italy over 200 years ago for people who are blind. 
For the next 50 years, no one else was interested.  But eventually, it became an everyday
business tool.  Over 100 years ago, a man named Herman Hollerith, who had a learning
disability, was determined to organize information in a way he could understand.  So, he
devised the Hollerith Tabulating Machine.

     The U.S. Government used the Hollerith Tabulating Machine to complete its 1890
Census; in 1924, Hollerith changed the name of his company to International Business
Machines --  IBM -- and the rest is history. 
 
     We've seen a similar result made recently with closed captioning.  At first designers
saw it only as a tool for people with hearing disabilities.  

     Now, it's an educational tool used to improve reading comprehension. Immigrants use
it to learn English.  We see captioning in the gym, in airports, and even on the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange. 
 
     Speech recognition devices were originally designed for  fighter pilots.  Now you can
buy them off-the-shelf.  And the software is an important access tool for persons with spinal
cord injuries and repetitive stress injuries. 

     All this is why, when we announce our implementation plan for Section 255, one of
the things I want to do is provide incentives for industry to consider disability issues at the
front end of the development and design process -- and on an ongoing basis.

     Industry must be a partner in providing access. It will do that best when it has the
flexibility to be innovative.

     In fact, we're seeing one example of that at this conference: the test of Pocketalk by
Motorola and CONXUS.

     Pocketalk is a talking pager that receives completely private messages -- in the
caller's own voice.

     Its a great convenience.  No need to find a telephone to call back and check messages
-- not any more. That's a boon not only to people with visual disabilities, but also to those
who have trouble getting to a telephone. 

     You know, for many years, people who wear hearing aids couldn't use telephones.
  
     The solution to this problem was relatively simple: insert a T-coil in the handset.  But
it took an Act of Congress to require all telephone manufacturers to install this simple feature
in all handsets -- the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act.

     Why should we need legislation in a case like that?  My hope is that Section 255 will
encourage manufacturers and engineers to install accessibility features voluntarily
and at the design stage.  That's their job.

     But how do we know that industry is doing its job?

     For that matter, how do we know government is doing its job?

     That's where you come in.

     The telecommunications industry already relies heavily upon consumer and disability
policy organizations such as yours to provide guidance on the design of accessible
telecommunications services and equipment. Organizations such as the Association of Access
Engineering Specialists, for example, are now working on design and development issues.

     I urge you and others in the disability community to continue working with the
industry.
 
     And I hope that you'll continue to work with the FCC as well.  A lot of people at the
Commission are working hard on that implementation plan.  We need your insight and
suggestions.  

     As the FCC moves to implement 255, we're moving to make some additional changes
that will help make it easier for people with disabilities to contribute. 
 
     Soon, the Commission will begin allowing electronic comments to be filed in FCC
rulemakings, using the World Wide Web and electronic mail.  I want to mention the
electronic filing proceeding, because I know that electronic documents (in ASCII format) are
often compatible with the various assistive technologies that people with disabilities use.  In
addition to breaking down print barriers that prevent persons with disabilities to fully
participate in our rulemaking process, electronic filing will also reduce the costs and
complications from paper filings.  I am eager to see the Commission find more ways to make
our processes more accessible to you, as well as to all Americans.

     One other issue that I would like the Commission to explore is video description.  As
you know, video description can help television come alive for people with sight disabilities. 
I believe that the Commission should explore whether providing video description services
should be an element of broadcasters' public interest obligations. 
 
     The FCC is immeasurably aided in this work by the Disabilities Issues Task Force,
whose current Director is Meryl Icove, and Deputy Director is Pam Gregory.  Meryl is out
of town today, but Pam Gregory is here.  For those of you who don't know Pam and Meryl,
I hope that you will get to know them.  They work tirelessly on your behalf and the
Commission and I rely on them immensely.

     My predecessor, Reed Hundt, created the Disabilities Issues Task Force in 1995. 
Reed fought hard to ensure that people with disabilities gained a voice at the FCC.  He
forged a strong relationship with the disability community. And I am proud to continue this
partnership with the disability community and with your organizations. 

     The Task Force is made up of representatives in every Bureau and Office within the
Commission so that the priority of access for persons with disabilities will permeate in all
our processes.  And, it really makes a difference.  But one of my goals as Chairman is for
all of the FCC staff -- and not just the Task Force members -- to initiate access concerns
automatically.  Thinking about these issues should become second nature to everyone
working at the FCC.  Our work must expand well beyond our dedicated Task Force
members.  That is my goal as Chairman.  

     I want the FCC to become a more accessible, more user-friendly place for people
with disabilities.  I want advocates for the disability community to feel at least as welcome
and knowledgeable about the FCC as the lobbyists for large telecommunications companies
do.

     That's why our Task Force reaches out so aggressively to disability organizations. We
want you to find it easy to express your concerns to the Commission.  And we want to meet
those concerns.

     So far, I've talked about access.  Access to the Commission.  Access to the
rulemaking process.  And access to telecommunications.

     Now I want to talk about education and training.

     There is simply no industry in America with the opportunity for well-paying jobs like
telecommunications.

     None.

     The U.S. needs 1.3 million new workers in information technology by 2006.  The hi-
tech industry was the single largest industry in the United States in 1996.

     People with disabilities can and should fill many of those jobs. 

     After all, is there any doubt -- any at all -- that they can compete, and are even
pace-setters, in the world of science and technology?  Whether  Stephen Hawking, perhaps
the world's most famous scientist -- who has Lou Gehrig's disease, or Vint Cerf, the father
of the Internet -- who has a hearing disability, or thousands of less-known examples, that
myth has been disproved long ago. 

     The fact is, that if we do things right, the burgeoning world of telecommunications
should make it easier for those with disabilities to have meaningful, well-paid jobs.  More
and more, people will not have to hop in a car and drive twenty miles to the office.  They'll
be able to work at home.

     More and more, the jobs in the 21st Century will belong not to those who use their
brawn but their brain.

     Some colleges have already recognized what's coming.  More and more universities
offer computer science and engineering programs with classes in universal design.  They
know the opportunity this offers to those who until now have been shut out.  

     In fact, in order for Section 255 to be effective, the industry must have engineers and
product designers ready to meet the demands of Section 255. What better opportunity can
there be for engineers with disabilities -- people with firsthand knowledge about the problems
we urgently need to fix? 

     Access.

     Training.

     Education.

     Issues of vital importance to this country.

     Sometimes people can forget that the decisions made in government offices influence
lives.

     But that's the most rewarding thing that we do.


     We help people like Susan, a high school student with quadriplegia who has become
adept at surfing the Internet through an eye gaze laser that acts as a mouse. Susan can't pick
up a book physically.  But she can select any book she wants.  She can turn the pages
herself. She can skip to the back of the book to see how it ends. And the Internet can take
her to places that she could not otherwise visit.

     And we help people like Scott, who is blind, and attends a high school in Georgia for
gifted students.  Scott used to spend hours every day studying Spanish. But then, his school
connected to the Internet. Now he uses assistive technologies to access on-line
Spanish-English dictionaries.  That has reduced his time studying Spanish to 25 minutes a
day.  Now Scott can use that extra two and a half hours to conquer Shakespeare, physics,
and international affairs. 

     That is the meaning of our work.  And for me, the legacy of my years as Chairman
will be how many  thousands of people like Susan and Scott we can help.  And I need your
help.  You must help us make decisions.  You must serve as our conscience.  
     
     Helen Keller once wrote, "It is as easy to look at stars as at cobblestones." 

     Of course, she could see neither.  But that never limited her imagination or
constrained her intelligence. 

     My grandfather was a brilliant man.  He was gifted in arts and literature.   He wrote
beautiful prose.  And he was self taught.  He could recite the works of Shakespeare.  He had
a wonderful mind.  And he had endless potential.  But do you know what he did for a living? 
He was a janitor.  His barrier to access to greater opportunity was the color of his skin.

     I often think of him.  I think of how much more he could have contributed to his
society if only his society had allowed him to reach the fullness of his own potential.  I think
of how different his life might have been had he been born a generation later.

     But even today, in our generation, the potential of millions of Americans is wasted
because they are denied access -- access to technology; to opportunity; to education.  The
law gives us tools to unlock this great potential.  I have talked about some of those legal
tools today.

     But let us never forget that our mission is not only to change regulations.  We know
that it takes more than a regulation to compel people to see past differences and disabilities --
to see the inherent value in every person.

     So our job is not only to change regulation, it is to change minds; to change attitudes;
to change perceptions.  It is to work toward a world in which all of our fellow citizens
embrace diversity and recognize the potential and ability and value of every human being.


     That is our mission.  I feel very honored and privileged that as Chairman of the FCC
I can join you in this mission.  And I am here to promise you today, that so long as I am
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, your voices will be heard.

     Thank you.