What are the major provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 with regard to disability access?
Two provisions of the Telecommunications Act focus entirely on access by persons with disabilities: Sections 255 and 713. Section 255 of the Act requires all manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and providers of telecommunications services to ensure that such equipment and services are designed and developed to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if readily achievable. The FCC will undertake a rulemaking proceeding to implement this provision. Section 713 aims to ensure that video services are accessible to individuals who are hearing impaired and/or visually impaired. It requires the FCC to study the level at which video programming is closed-captioned, and then to establish a timetable for closed captioning requirements. (The FCC is authorized to exempt programming for which the provision of closed captioning would be economically burdensome.) Section 713 also directs the FCC to study the use of video description in order to assure the accessibility
