But Dave Bolnick of Microsoft said something very important when he appeared before the FCC yesterday. We have to change the culture of the manufacturing community so that accessibility issues are dealt with in the design phase. Recently we saw the importance of this in the wireless industry. Many in the industry said that they couldn't make digital phones compatible with TTYs. We told them that they could, and that they must.
Accessibility has to become a part of the design culture.
It has to become second nature to the people who design these products. Our telecommunications industry is the one of the most innovative and creative industries the world has ever known. You give these brilliant engineers a problem and they will solve it. We need each other. But if cooperation breaks down, we have to be prepared to deal with that too.