SPEECH BY REED HUNDT CHAIRMAN FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION ACCESS TO THE NEW FRONTIER CPB/WGBH NATIONAL CENTER FOR ACCESSIBLE MEDIA MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1995 NEW YORK, NEW YORK (AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY) Two Meanings of FCC: Fostering Community Through Communications and Furthering Closed Captioning It is a pleasure to be with you today. I want to thank Larry Goldberg, Director of the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, and Annette Posell, Project Director of Captioning a New Frontier for inviting me to join this symposium. For millions of Americans, closed captioning is probably the most important item on the FCC's agenda. I often say FCC should stand for fostering community through communications. To build community, it should also stand for furthering closed captioning. Let me tell you about a letter that Phil Bravin, President of the National Captioning Institute, shared with my staff. It is from a widow who is deaf, and who depended on her husband to help her understand what was happening on television. The letter says: Since my husband's death three years ago, there is nothing that has improved the quality of my life as [much as] closed captioning has. No longer is there someone to nudge and ask "What did he say?" But thanks to [closed captioning] I can now read it...It fascinates me to know that dogs are barking, music playing...and lines spoken...I spread the word about captioning at every chance I get. The FCC has a twin mission: We are for private competition in communications, and for public benefit from communications. As to private competition, this is the most deregulatory, procompetitive, rules- simplifying, market oriented FCC in the history of the agency. As to public benefits, we are the most demonopolizing, consumer-aware, family-friendly FCC in history. We want to be the most effective FCC ever in making sure people with disabilities share in the communications revolution. Our great challenge as a society is to ensure that everyone benefits from the wonders of the communications revolution. The extent to which we succeed will define us as a society. Will we be caring or uncaring? Inclusive or exclusive? We need to work together for the greater good. And that's why all of our efforts are so important. So let's talk about how to stimulate market forces that will serve all Americans, including the 49 million Americans with disabilities. Let's talk about what rules and incentives will make sure the information revolution reaches the twenty-three million people who have hearing disabilities, and the over 8 million who have visual disabilities. Equality of opportunity through communications is a crucial pocketbook issue for people with disabilities. People with disabilities are one of the lowest income groups in the United States. More than 60% are unemployed. Six percent of all school-age children have disabilities. That's 4 million kids. So let's focus especially on kids. Let's see the world from their perspective. They need to have every opportunity we can provide so they, too, can be part of the American dream. Will they be excluded from or included in the world? The choice is up to us -- the adults. We need to make the right choices for them. For example, you may have heard we are trying to get more educational TV for Americans on free over the air broadcast. But we also want that programming to be closed captioned. We also want all classroom networked -- in order to revolutionize education for all children, especially for kids with disabilities. PC should not stand for personal computer, but for personalized computer. The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 was a watershed event. Its goals are to "assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self- sufficiency." These are the FCC's goals, too. And the FCC may be the single government agency with the greatest ability to help people with disabilities to participate in our society. Why? Because we are becoming an information economy and an information society, and most of those industries are in our bailiwick. Let's talk a little about the history of partnership among the FCC and PBS and WGBH. In making television accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In the 1970s, the FCC authorized PBS to conduct experimental transmissions using closed captioning. So, in the late 1970s, through a marriage of computers and TV, WGBH and PBS engineers helped usher in a great step toward access to TV: closed captioning. They captioned Julia Child's "French Chef," and not long after that they captioned Richard Nixon's inaugural address on a delayed basis. The world of free entertainment and free access to political debate is the world that we want the deaf and hard of hearing to participate in with complete equality. And they can't participate in our society without access to TV and computers. The information gurus tell us that TV and computers are merging, but for now television is the dominant vehicle on the information superhighway. A recent Roper Study found that: -- 9 out of 10 Americans watch TV on a regular basis. -- American households spend an average of over 7 hours per day watching TV as a means of entertainment and relaxation, and as a source of news and information. -- 72% of Americans list TV as their primary news source. But while most prime-time commercial TV shows and nearly 100% of nationally broadcast public television are closed captioned, the exploding communications revolution is by no means guaranteed to serve people with disabilities. Consider this: Only 4% of basic cable programming, and only a third of premium cable programming, is closed captioned. And what will the statistics be when video comes into so many homes over satellite, wireless cable, and telephony? It would be tragic and silly to win the war for closed captioning on a few channels and to lose it on the 500 channels of the quickly approaching future, or the video programming that will come to us over the Internet? The challenges abound. The technological solutions will be there. The choice we face now and will continue to face is whether we want to guarantee to all Americans -- especially to Americans with disabilities -- that all lanes of the information highway are there for them to ride. Think about the kids: I say again, what message do you want to give to children with disabilities? That this is the country of true equality? According to the Commission on the Education of the Deaf, closed captioning is the "most significant technological development for persons who are deaf." A more recent and equally significant innovation intended to assist people with visual impairments is video description, which provides audio descriptions of a program's key visual elements that are inserted during the natural pauses in the program's dialogue. The FCC has a historical commitment to ensuring that the communications revolution will benefit Americans with disabilities. For example: -- In 1970, we urged TV licensees to take steps to make it easier for them to hear and see programming. -- In 1976, the FCC adopted rules providing that line 21 of the vertical blanking interval of the television signal be primarily used to transmit closed captioning. That same year, the FCC adopted a rule requiring TV licensees to transmit emergency messages in a visual format. -- In 1991, to implement the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990, the FCC required all television broadcast receivers with screen sizes of 13 inches or larger to display closed captions. -- In 1992, the FCC required common carriers offering telephone voice transmission services to provide telecommunications relay services (TRS) for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities. This service is still growing at 2% a month, making it the fastest growing telecommunications service in the country. -- To enable persons with disabilities to communicate directly with the FCC, I established an FCC site on the Internet. We now get some 14,000 hits a day on our Web page. I also had PCs and an electronic network installed at the FCC so all of us can communicate with each other. And, nothing of course, we can be reached by TTY. -- In October, the FCC established a new policy for its open meetings -- they will all be closed-captioned. -- Just last week, the FCC voted unanimously to propose telephone/hearing-aid compatibility rules. This will increase access dramatically by people with hearing disabilities to telephones in workplaces, nursing homes, hospitals, and hotels and motels. -- And in March of this year I created the Disabilities Task Force, and designated myself Disabilities Issues Commissioner. The purpose of the Task Force is to monitor developments in all fields regulated by the FCC and to ensure that new technologies are available to the broadest range of Americans, including the millions of people with disabilities. The Task Force is one of the FCC's most important tools to ensure that our country does not become a nation of information haves and have-nots. Both the Senate and House have passed bills which would require the FCC to adopt regulations to ensure that video programming be accessible to people with hearing disabilities through closed captioning. That would benefit the 23 million people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In addition, both bills would require the FCC to study the use of video description. The House bill further provides that the FCC "may adopt regulations it deems necessary to promote the accessibility of video programming to persons with visual impairments." This legislation is part of the most sweeping telecommunications legislation since the Communications Act was passed in 1934. Whether it will become law depends on the resolution of grand clashes between titans like the Bell Companies and the long-distance companies over the terms and conditions of competing in each other's businesses. But I hope Congress does not neglect, now or ever, the need to give a clear mandate to the FCC that we should always and predictably take actions to include everyone in the communications revolution. The FCC has repeatedly demonstrated its sensitivity to the needs of people with disabilities, and our record shows it. But we will never rest on our laurels. In fact we are getting ahead of the process. I am pleased and proud to announce today that on Friday the Commission unanimously agreed to issue a Notice of Inquiry -- an NOI for short -- regarding closed captioning and video description of television programming. The purpose of this notice is to send a clarion call to the media and the disabled: In the fair America of the 21st century information society, we will find the ways to guarantee participation by all Americans. So let's roll up our sleeves, examine the problem, and crank out the solutions. This NOI will provide the FCC with a head start in laying the groundwork for implementing the language that I hope will be part of the Telecommunications Reform bill. This NOI asks, for the first time, the key questions: -- What are the facts about the availability of closed captioned and video description television programming transmitted by non-broadcast, non-cable providers, including wireless cable, satellite master antenna systems, direct-to- home satellite services, and video dialtone services? -- How can advanced digital technologies be used to make available closed captioning and video description? -- What is the cost of closed captioning and video description, and the current sources of supply and funding for these services? -- What, if any, measures should the Commission take to promote closed captioning and video description? Assuming that marketplace forces do not guarantee widespread availability of closed captioning and video description, what rules should we pass to guarantee this right to all Americans? -- What fair rules should be placed on the producers or distributors of programming, those who actually deliver the programming, or both? -- If rules and policies are necessary, should technical and quality standards be part of the package? -- What are appropriate timetables for implementing any closed captioning or video description requirements that may be imposed? -- What are reasonable actions to ask broadcasters to take? For example, if we require buildings to be wheelchair-accessible, and phones to be hearing-aid compatible, should broadcasters be required to make programming accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing? -- How much children's educational and entertainment programming -- whether carried by commercial broadcasters, public television stations, cable systems, or other providers -- is closed captioned/video described? -- How many households have stereo TV receivers, a VCR, or television adaptor capable of receiving the Second Audio Program channel, and thus are able to receive video description when it is available? We expect full comment by everyone here on this NOI. Don't let us down! To the extent that commercial networks are captioning on a voluntary basis, there is no assurance that in a competitive environment they will continue to do so. According to the legislative history of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act (TDCA), in 1990 it cost approximately $2,500 and required 20 to 30 person-hours to close caption a one-hour program. More recent Congressional testimony indicates that the cost of video description runs from $2,000 to $5,000 per hour of programming. The FCC needs more information on the current costs of closed captioning and video description, and the NOI will help provide it. We can't settle for just talking about guaranteeing access; we have to find assured ways to pay for it. In an America that is true to the American dream, we should all share the burdens of guaranteeing access to the information superhighway for each of us. All of us will be better off economically and spiritually if we hold to that commitment. The public interest, which is the guiding principle of the FCC, requires equal access to the information superhighway for all Americans. We have no higher responsibility and no greater calling than making sure that people with disabilities share in the communications revolution. The opportunities of the communications revolution are limitless. There should be no limits on who has those opportunities. Through forging cooperation between public and private interests we can ensure that all of us have the ability to travel the information superhighway as it leads us into the new frontier. Thank you. -FCC-