NEWSReport No. DC 95-90 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE June 22, 1995 NEGOTIATED RULEMAKING COMMITTEE REACHES FULL CONSENSUS ON PROPOSED FCC RULES FOR WIRELINE TELEPHONE HEARING AID COMPATIBILITY AND VOLUME CONTROL (CC DOCKET NO. 87-124) An FCC advisory committee has reached agreement on new rules to govern wireline telephone hearing aid compatibility and volume control. This Committee, including employer, health care, and hotel/motel representatives, as well as representatives from the disability community and telephone equipment manufacturers, deliberated only two months to reach full consensus on this new proposal. The FCC now will submit the proposed rules for public comment in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Chartered in April, the 18-member Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) Negotiated Rulemaking Committee last week concluded two months of negotiation by proposing to the Commission rules that, in general, provide that eventually all wireline telephones in the workplace, in confined settings (e.g. hospitals, nursing homes), and in hotels and motels be hearing aid compatible. In addition, those telephones eventually also will have volume control. No testing or retrofitting of existing workplace telephones is required. The Committee noted that the volume control feature would be of assistance to many telephone users, whether they have hearing disabilities, and whether they rely on telephones that are hearing aid compatible. A volume control feature refers to the telephone's acoustic capabilities, while hearing aid compatibility refers to a telephone's ability to generate a magnetic field that is detectable by many hearing aids. "This is a real success story, " said FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. "The Commission brought these parties together, in one room, around one table, and we avoided a protracted paper process. They worked around that table and through these issues until they reached an agreement, and they did it in record time. This is truly a new way of doing the people's business in the public interest." This is the Commission's fourth negotiated rulemaking committee since the Negotiated Rulemaking Act was passed in 1990. Current FCC rules require hearing aid compatible wireline telephones for emergency telephones (elevators, tunnels), common areas (reception areas, libraries) and for the use of employees with hearing disabilities, such as a telephone in an employee's private office. In addition, ten percent of hotel and motel guest rooms must be hearing aid compatible. (over) -2- A major issue before the HAC Committee was whether to extend the requirement to all non-common area telephones in the workplace, confined settings such as hospitals and nursing homes, and hotel/motel guest rooms. An additional issue was whether to require that these wireline telephones have a means to control the sound volume coming through the handset or headset. A previous set of hearing aid compatibility rules, adopted by the Commission in 1992 pursuant to the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 (HAC Act), were suspended in 1993 when establishments found them difficult to implement. The HAC Committee set aside the suspended rules and came up with entirely new approaches. Workplace Under the proposed rules, most workplace telephones would be required to be hearing aid compatible by January 1, 2000. Because some establishments purchased telephones in the years just before the HAC Act was enacted in 1988, workplace establishments with telephones purchased between 1985 and 1989 are given until January 1, 2005 to make those telephones hearing aid compatible. In harmony with the provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, establishments with fewer than fifteen employees would be exempt from the requirements. Until the applicable date for the telephones to be hearing aid compatible, employees with hearing disabilities would be given access to hearing-aid- compatible emergency-use-only telephones, such as wireless telephones. Headsets are exempt unless specifically needed by an employee with a hearing disability. At all times, however, replacement telephones would have to be hearing aid compatible and, one year after the effective date of the regulations, to have volume control. An employer is allowed to presume that a replacement telephone taken from an establishment's inventory of telephones that existed before the effective date of these new rules is hearing aid compatible. Although the HAC Act requires telephones manufactured or imported for use in the United States after 1989 or 1991, depending on the type of telephone, to be hearing aid compatible, it is not always clear, without testing, whether a specific telephone is hearing aid compatible. Under the HAC Committee proposal, employers are not required to test or retrofit their inventory of telephones, as they would have had to do under the suspended rules. Instead, after the applicable date for having hearing aid compatible telephones, employers are allowed to presume that their telephones are hearing aid compatible. In turn, an employee or a guest of the establishment can challenge this presumption with a good faith request for a hearing aid compatible telephone. The employer then has fifteen working days to provide a hearing aid compatible telephone. This gives the employer a period of time to replace a particular telephone that turns out not to be not hearing aid compatible. The volume control requirement is proposed to apply only as telephones are replaced. Although the Committee suggested that the volume control requirement for replacement telephones apply one year after the effective date of the new rules, the Committee asked the Commission to develop specifications, rules and a time table that would allow manufacturers sufficient time to provide telephones with volume controls. -3- Confined Settings For confined settings, the Committee recommended that establishments with fifty or more beds comply by making their telephones hearing aid compatible within one year of the effective date of the new regulations, while those with fewer than fifty beds comply within two years. Telephones in all establishments are exempt if there is an alternate signalling device that is available, monitored and working, or if a resident brings in and maintains his or her own telephone equipment. As with workplaces, replacement telephones must be hearing aid compatible, and volume control is required pursuant to a schedule and specifications to be set by the Commission. The rebuttable presumption attached to workplace telephones does not apply to confined settings. Hotels and Motels The Committee recommended that hotels and motels with eighty or more beds be required to provide hearing aid compatible telephones within two years, while those with fewer than eighty beds have three years to do so. Telephones purchased between 1985 and 1989 are given additional time to be replaced with hearing aid compatible telephones. The Committee also recommended that, upon the effective date of the new regulations, twenty percent of the guest rooms must be hearing aid compatible. Finally, the Committee recommended that replacement telephones, and telephones that undergo significant repairs, or are in newly constructed or renovated rooms, be required to be hearing aid compatible whenever the changes are made, and to have volume control according to a schedule and specifications to be set by the Commission. The rebuttable presumption attached to workplace telephones also does not apply to hotels and motels. The Committee did not address wireless telephone hearing aid compatible issues, because those are being addressed by the Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. -FCC- News media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet, (202) 418-1573. Common Carrier Bureau contact: Greg Lipscomb at (202) 634-4216.