STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
Re: Amendment of the Commission’s Rules Governing Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile 
Handsets, WT Docket No. 07-250.
Today we take important steps in our ongoing effort to ensure that Americans with 
disabilities have access to modern communications technology.  This is part of our broader 
mission to bring the benefits of broadband and other modern communications to all Americans.  
It is almost befitting of our recent celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, an act that has sought to achieve full integration, independence and self-
sufficiency of all persons with disabilities in our democracy, our economy and in other facets of 
our society.  
This item addresses the challenges faced by the 8 million Americans who use hearing 
aids.  The Commission’s actions today will help Americans with hearing loss have meaningful 
access to the most exciting and innovative wireless communications devices on the market.
We adopt today an unprecedented agency Statement of Policy that emphasizes to 
developers of new technologies the necessity of considering and planning for hearing aid 
compatibility at the earliest stages of the product design process.  For too many years, Americans 
who have hearing loss have faced the uphill battle of attempting to obtain hearing aid 
compatibility long after essential communications devices completed their development cycle and 
went on the market.  By turning the collective focus to the development stage, innovators and 
entrepreneurs can account for compatibility issues before devices are produced.  This is an 
important change, which will result in real benefits to Americans with hearing loss.
To ensure our policies will yield real-world results, I am pleased to announce that the 
FCC will convene a roundtable of industry and disability group leaders to renew the collaborative 
process to address the challenges of hearing aid compatibility up front in the development 
process.  
Today’s item does something else.  It sets the stage for some of the latest wireless phones 
– such as the iPhone – to meet hearing aid compatibility standards.  It does so in a way designed 
to incentivize the broadest possible innovation and investment.  As a result of positive discussions 
with both industry and the hearing loss community, the Commission has refocused the de minimis
exception to our hearing aid compatibility rules on the small companies and new entrants it was 
originally designed to protect, while creating appropriate transition periods and an alternative 
route to compliance for larger manufacturers who develop innovative devices.  
The bottom line: what we do today will ensure as quickly as possible that a wider range 
of smartphones will be usable by people with hearing aids.
I thank the staff for their hard work and collaboration on this item, and my colleagues for 
working together to tackle this important issue.