The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a Public Notice seeking comment on whether to update its rules implemented under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA).
The CVAA ushered in new accessibility rules for advanced communication services, including, among others:
- Voice over Internet Protocol,
- Electronic messaging, and video conferencing,
- Internet browsers on mobile phones,
- Internet-protocol closed captioning,
- Video user interfaces,
- Video description, and
- Emergency information.
With this broad scope, the FCC’s rules implementing the CVAA touch almost every sector of the telecommunications, media, and technology industry.
Specifically, the FCC asks all stakeholders “to provide input on aspects of the Commission’s CVAA implementation that are working well, on specific areas in which commenters believe improvements are needed, and on requirements that may not be serving their intended purpose or have been overtaken by new technologies.” Importantly, the Commission also asks whether it could undertake new accessibility initiatives using other existing sources of statutory authority, such as the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990.
Comments are due May 24, 2021, and reply comments are due June 21, 2021.
