REMARKS BY FCC CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
AT THE DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
WASHINGTON, DC
OCTOBER 16, 2017
On behalf of the Commission, I would like to thank each of you for your participation in 
this committee and your hard work on its behalf.  The Disability Advisory Committee has 
become an invaluable resource to the Commission, and is so important in ensuring equal access 
to communications for people with disabilities.  
The Commission takes seriously its commitment to accessibility.  Over the past year, the 
FCC has been busy implementing new rules, improving existing rules, and providing important 
information and assistance to advance communication access.
When I spoke to you in March, I noted that the Commission was about to vote on an 
order to improve VRS interoperability, quality, and efficiency.  I am happy to say that this order 
has since been released, and we have made several other important strides since then.
As you know, one of our goals is to ensure that people with disabilities have access to the 
communications networks, including new or advanced technologies. And at our upcoming 
Commission meeting on October 24, we will vote on an order to apply hearing aid compatibility 
requirements to wireline phones using Voice over Internet Protocol. The order also would 
require volume control on cell phones – something the community has requested for over a 
decade. This would help ensure that people using hearing aids—as well as those without such 
aids – are better able to select cell phones that meet their communication needs.  In particular, 
this is sure to benefit our growing population of seniors.
In order to expand direct communications for deaf callers, we also are continuing our 
efforts to educate government agencies on the federal, state and local levels about Direct Video 
Calling.  The ability to call direct, rather than through a third party, ensures better accuracy, 
privacy, and call efficiency.  In addition to pointing out the accessibility benefits of this valuable 
service, we go the extra mile in providing valuable technical guidance on how these government 
entities can provide Direct Video Calling within their individual call center environments.
Finally, people who are blind or visually impaired are gaining better access to television, 
program guides, and menus because of the Commission’s accessible user interface rules, which 
went into effect just this past December.  And because of the new video description rules that the 
Commission adopted in July, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to access a 
lot more television programming beginning July of 2018.  These rules expand the required 
amount of video description that each of the covered broadcast and non-broadcast networks must 
air by 75%, the maximum allowed by the CVAA. 
I understand that today you will be considering important recommendations on how to 
accelerate the integration of real-time text by public safety answering points, on the challenges of 
supporting compatibility between real-time text and refreshable Braille displays, and on metrics
to ensure high quality IP captioned telephone relay services.
I want to thank the subcommittees for all your efforts to bring these recommendations to 
the full committee.  I look forward to learning more about these recommendations, and others to 
come, as we work together to continue improving accessibility in 21
st
century communications.