CEA Asks for Section 716 Waivers for Web Connected TVs and Video Players
The FCC should exempt Internet-connected TV sets and video players from rules it’s in the process of adopting to ensure accessibility of certain online content to people with disabilities, the CEA said in an ex parte letter to the commission filed this week. It wants Internet-connected TV sets, DVRs and DVD players to be exempt from rules laid out in Section 716 of the Communications Act, as amended by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which covers accessibility of “advanced communications services” (ACS), a term the FCC has yet to precisely define but which may include VoIP, electronic messaging and videoconferencing. Industry groups had sought a narrow definition of the term in initial comments in the FCC’s CVAA rulemaking (CD April 27 p8). The CEA waiver request doesn’t address accessibility of video programming on those devices, it said in a footnote to its letter.
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Instead, it’s seeking exemptions for such connected devices that may use apps to provide ACS features, beyond their primary purpose of displaying video programming, the letter said. “Without the requested class waivers, manufacturers may be forced to remove the ACS features and functions from the subject TVs and DVPs [digital video players] to avoid the expense and burden associated with section 716 compliance,” CEA said.
The waivers would also facilitate the goals of the National Broadband Plan and the FCC’s goals in the area of “the integrated display of Internet video content with video programming delivered via linear broadcast and non-broadcast channels,” CEA said. “The subject TVs and DVPs are beginning to address the challenge recognized in the NBP of combining Internet video with traditional TV viewing,” it said. “Granting the requested waivers would help ensure that the new ACS rules will not inhibit or delay such continued innovation."
But such waivers would leave people with disabilities stuck in the 20th century and unable to fully use these new class of devices, said Jenifer Simpson, senior director of government affairs for the American Association of People with Disabilities. “Consumers with disabilities -- like any other consumers -- expect to find electronic goods in the marketplace that are accessible to and usable by them,” she said. “Gaming the regulatory process to attempt to limit the scope or range of electronic goods available to consumers with disabilities is ridiculous,” she said. “Why should we be stuck using 20th century technologies while the rest of the marketplace benefits from Internet-enabled entertainment tools?"
In a separate letter to the FCC, CEA also asked the agency not to mandate interoperability for videoconferencing services under the CVAA. It said the video relay service rules are a bad model for advanced videoconferencing. Furthermore, the FCC lacks the authority to impose an interoperability mandate, CEA said. And using ancillary jurisdiction under Section 716 would “create a slippery slope that would allow the commission unfettered ability to establish mandates, ostensibly related to the accessibility goals of section 716, across all services,” CEA said. “Such an unbounded theory could be used to justify virtually any regulation as long as the regulation allegedly advances accessibility,” it said.