FCC Seeks Nominations for Access Advisory Committees

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking nominations for membership on two new advisory committees, the Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) and the Video Programming and Emergency Access Advisory Committee (VPEAAC). Both Committees are being established to implement the provisions of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.

The EAAC will conduct a national survey of individuals with disabilities to determine the most effective and efficient technologies and methods by which to enable access to emergency services by individuals with disabilities and will develop and submit to the FCC recommendations to implement such technologies and methods. For the EAAC, the FCC is seeking nominations of persons with disabilities and advocates associated with organizations representative of persons with disabilities, emergency responder and emergency management representatives, elected and appointed officials of state, local or tribal governments and subject matter experts that are interested in participating on the EAAC.

The VPEAAC will develop recommendations for the provision of closed captioning of Internet programming previously captioned on television, video description of television programming, accessible emergency information for people with vision disabilities, compatibility of accessibility features and new video programming devices, and accessible user interfaces on video programming devices. For the VPEAAC, the FCC is seeking nominations of persons with disabilities, advocates associated with organizations representative of persons with disabilities and senior citizens, captioning providers, distributors and providers of video programming or national organization representing such distributors, vendors, developer, and manufacturers of systems, facilities, equipment and capabilities for the provision of video programming delivered using Internet protocol or national organizations representing such interests, manufacturers of consumer electronics or information technology equipment or national organizations representing such manufacturers, video programming producers or national organizations representing such producers, representatives of the broadcast television industry or national organizations representing broadcasters, other individuals with appropriate technical and engineering expertise.