COAT Affiliates Participate on FCC Consumer Advisory Committee

On December 4, 2009, representatives from several COAT affiliates -- ACB, CSD, HLAA, NVRC --  in addition to the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, participated in the last of this year's FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings. Meeting quarterly, this federal advisory committee is chartered to provide input to the FCC on topics such as the digital TV transition, consumer protection, disability accessibility, and the impact of new technologies on consumers.

This meeting's agenda focused on the National Broadband Plan and included a panel discussion on consumer complaint resolution difficulties in the broadband environment where there are numerous entities involved. Not only are traditional telephone and wireless companies selling more than phone service, but also Internet Service Providers (ISPs), cable and satellite TV distributors, radio and TV broadcasters, applications providers and other content originators selling products and services and connecting to many different types of equipment. For people with disabilities, high quality customer service that supports devices, services and applications can be quite challenging.

The all day meeting included reports from working groups such as on captioned phone service and on captioning generally. This federal committee includes members from other consumer-oriented groups. A benefit of this committee is that these groups learn about disability concerns and vice versa. A copy of the FCC's Public Notice describing the CAC and its membership is attached below.