NEWSReport No. DC 95-135 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE November 28, 1995 COMMISSION PROPOSES RULES TO MAKE WIRELINE TELEPHONES HEARING AID COMPATIBLE (CC DOCKET NO. 87-124) The Commission today proposed rules that would increase access dramatically by persons with hearing disabilities to telephones in workplaces, nursing homes, hospitals, and hotels and motels. The proposed rules eventually would extend technology for hearing aid compatibility and volume control to all telephones in these establishments. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted by the Commission was based on recommendations of the Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. The Committee, whose members included organizations and individuals affected by the proposed rules, met for two months and reached full consensus on a report that was presented to the Commission on August 3, 1995. This is the fourth time that the Commission has used negotiated rulemaking procedures. The proposed rules eventually would ensure that all wireline telephones in the workplace, in confined settings (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes), and in hotels and motels would be hearing aid compatible. The proposed rules would require no testing or retrofitting of existing workplace telephones. Instead, the proposed rules set deadlines that are beyond the normal life-cycle times for the telephones in these establishments to be replaced. The proposed rules also would require volume control for newly acquired and replacement telephones in workplaces, confined settings, and hotels and motels, once the Commission's technical standards and implementation rules for volume control are in place. The Notice states that the volume control feature could assist many telephone users, whether they have hearing disabilities, and whether they rely on telephones that are hearing aid compatible. Replacement or retrofitting for volume control would not be required, and existing inventories of telephones would not be affected by the volume control requirement. For a telephone to be hearing aid-compatible, its receiver must contain an electro- magnetic coil that emits a magnetic field. This magnetic field, in turn, can be detected as sound by many hearing-aid wearers whose hearing aids have a similar electro-magnetic coil, called a tele-coil. About thirty percent of hearing aids have this feature. (over) - 2 - The Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 requires that this magnetic coil be included in wireline telephones manufactured or imported for use in the U.S. after 1989, or after 1991 for cordless telephones. Previous 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 because they were found to be extremely difficult to implement. The HAC Committee concluded that these suspended rules should be set aside. Instead the Committee developed entirely new approaches. 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, the proposed rules would give workplace establishments with telephones purchased between 1985 and 1989 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 these requirements. In non-exempt establishments, until the date their telephones must 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 would be exempt unless specifically needed by an employee with a hearing disability. Replacement telephones generally would have to be hearing aid compatible. One year after the proposed regulations setting volume control standards become effective, replacement telephones also must have have volume control. The proposed rules would allow an employer to presume that a replacement telephone taken from an establishment's inventory of telephones that existed before the effective date of these new rules was hearing aid compatible. The HAC Act requires telephones manufactured or imported for use in the United States after 1989 or 1991, depending on their type, to be hearing aid compatible. Without testing, however, it is not always clear whether a specific telephone is hearing aid compatible. The proposed rules would not require employers 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 could presume that their telephones were hearing aid compatible. In turn, an employee could challenge this presumption with a good faith request for a hearing aid compatible telephone. Upon receipt of such a request, the employer would have fifteen working days to replace any particular telephone that turns out not to be hearing aid compatible. In addition, employers are relieved from liability for inadvertently having non-hearing aid compatible telephones. This rebuttable presumption would apply only to workplace telephones. (over) - 3 - For confined settings (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes), the proposed rules would require that establishments with fifty or more beds make their telephones hearing aid compatible within one year of the Commission's implementing Order, while those with fewer than fifty beds would have to comply within two years. Telephones in all establishments would be exempt if alternate signalling devices were available, monitored and working, or if a resident brought in and maintained his or her own telephone equipment. As with workplaces, the proposed rules would require that newly acquired and replacement telephones have both tele-coil compatibility and volume control. The proposed rules, if adopted, would ensure that hotels and motels with eighty or more guest rooms be required to provide hearing aid compatible telephones within two years of the Commission's implementing Order, while those with fewer than eighty guest rooms would have three years to do so. Hotels or motels with telephones purchased between 1985 and 1989 would be given additional time to replace those phones with hearing aid compatible telephones. Upon the effective date of these proposed rules, twenty percent of guest rooms must have telephones that are hearing aid compatible. The proposed rules also would require that replacement telephones, and telephones that undergo significant repair, or are installed in newly constructed or renovated rooms, be hearing aid compatible whenever the repair or construction is completed. Both tele-coil compatibility and volume control would be required for newly acquired or replacement telephones. The proposed rules do not address wireless telephone hearing aid compatible issues, because those are being addressed by the Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Action by the Commission November 28, 1995 by NPRM (FCC 95-474). Chairman Hundt and Commissioners Quello, Ness, Chong and Barrett issuing a statement. -FCC- News media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet at (202) 418-1500. Common Carrier Bureau contact: Greg Lipscomb at (202) 418-2340.