APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE
DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
February 23, 2016
Recommendation
of the Video Programming Subcommittee 
to the FCC Disability Advisory Committee
WHEREAS, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 
1990, and the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 
authorize and require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promulgate and 
enforce rules regarding the accessibility of video programming including for example,
rules regarding the provision of captions and audio description and the capability to 
render captions and description on apparatus;
WHEREAS, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires places of public 
accommodation and state and local government entities to ensure accessibility pursuant 
to regulations promulgated by the Department of Justice (DOJ);
WHEREAS, the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 contains provisions requiring airline 
accessibility pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Department of Transportation 
(DOT) as well as pending regulations contemplated by the DOT regarding captioning of 
in-flight entertainment;
WHEREAS, the FCC Disability Advisory Committee has members who have personally 
routinely encountered problems accessing video programming via captions and video 
description in hotels, hospitals, airport facilities, aircraft, and other places of public 
accommodation and consumers generally comment to our members that they face 
similar problems;
WHEREAS, the FCC Disability Advisory Committee is concerned that consumer 
complaints regarding these problems may be left unresolved by the FCC, DOJ, and DOT;
WHEREAS, resolution of these complaints may be impeded by confusion among 
consumers and agency staff at the DOJ, FCC, and DOT about the extent to which the 
FCC’s, DOJ’s, and DOT’s jurisdiction and regulations cover and overlap in the context of 
the accessibility of video programming provided in hotels, hospitals, airport facilities, 
aircraft, and other places of public accommodation;
WHEREAS, the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee firmly believes that people who are 
deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or deafblind should be able to access 
video programming in hotels, hospitals, airport facilities, aircraft, railway stations, trains, 
and other places of public accommodation to the greatest extent required by law;
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC convene an interagency workshop with the DOJ and DOT 
to develop an understanding of accessibility problems with video programming in hotels, 
hospitals, airport facilities, aircraft, railway stations, trains, and other places of public 
accommodation and consensus around solutions to those problems;
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC develop a shared understanding with the DOJ and DOT of 
the jurisdictional overlap and boundaries between the FCC, DOJ, and DOT for those 
problems;
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC develop protocols with the DOJ and DOT to redirect 
misdirected consumer complaints about those problems to the appropriate agency with 
a minimum of consumer involvement;
APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE
DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
February 23, 2016
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC discuss with the DOJ and DOT the procedural and 
jurisdictional parameters of taking enforcement action if future consumer complaints 
cannot be resolved through other means;
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC undertake educational and outreach efforts with the DOJ 
and DOT to inform consumers of information regarding video programming in hotels, 
hospitals, airport facilities, aircraft, and other places of public accommodation and 
avenues for quickly resolving problems.
RECOMMENDED, that the FCC update the Committee on these efforts within one year.