Hlibok to Head FCC's Disability Rights Office

Gregory Hlibok, currently an attorney in the Federal Communications Commission's Disability Rights Office (DRO) in the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, has been named to head that office.

Hlibok has been instrumental on a wide array of disability matters in DRO since 2001. He is known nationally for his role as spokesperson for the Deaf President Now movement in 1988, which led to the selection of Gallaudet University's first deaf president. Gallaudet is the world's only university serving primarily deaf and hard of hearing students. At the FCC, he has taken the lead in several key rulemaking proceedings on telecommunications access for people with disabilities, including new initiatives on the National Broadband Plan.

In addition to its new duties in implementing the new 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, the Disability Rights Office has responsibility for a variety of disability-related telecommunications matters, including telecommunications relay service (TRS), access to telecommunications equipment and services by persons with disabilities, access to emergency information, and closed captioning. DRO also provides expert advice and assistance to other Bureaus and Offices, consumers, and industry, in order to support the Commission's goal of increasing the accessibility of communications services and technologies for persons with disabilities