National Association of the Deaf

Two leading deaf advocacy organizations, the National Association of the Deaf and TDI, send letter to government in support of open standards and interoperability in instant messaging (IM)

On July 26, 2000, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and TDI sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for support for interoperability and open standards for Internet instant messaging (IM). The NAD and TDI work in partnership to safeguard the technology and telecommunications accessibility rights of 28 million deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, and deaf-blind consumers.

Unlike email, IM detects the presence of a user on the Internet, and allows for consumers to use their keyboards to converse in real-time online, somewhat like using a TTY to talk over the phone. Users can also set up conferences with several people online at the same time. Right now though, users of one system often can't talk with those who use a different system.

In the letter, the NAD cites a resolution in favor of IM interoperability that was passed by a formal vote of conference delegates at the 45th Biennial Conference of the NAD held in July 2000 in Norfolk VA. "Instant messaging represents a potential breakthrough in communications opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people," said NAD Executive Director Nancy J. Bloch. "We anticipate innovations for wireless devices such as pagers and cell phones, which enable real-time communications to become easy and compelling. We are concerned that this sort of innovation won't happen if each provider uses a different protocol."

The letter also contains several statements from members of the NAD Telecom Advocacy Network (NAD-TAN) on the value of instant messaging for deaf and hard of hearing people, including:

    "I feel this method of communication has become a valuable tool for me, as a deaf individual. I find it to be effective, and more importantly, functionally equivalent to what people with normal hearing experience over the telephone. I use it to talk with business associates on a daily basis. This allows me to multi-task and stay competitive in the business world, without using the [telephone] relay service." -- TAN Member from California

    "With IM, all I have to do is click on the names of all the people I want to invite to a chat session. I conduct regular, weekly meetings utilizing this method with my staff, who are spread all over the nation. This is far better than setting up a voice conference call where I, as a deaf person, have to contend with the lag time of a sign language interpreter and all that it entails. With IM being such a valuable tool, it is consternating that there are several different protocols used for IM, all being incompatible with the others. This is akin to having several different standards for emails or phone calls. If this were the case in America today, businesses would be at a competitive disadvantage with those overseas. IM most certainly will evolve to be another medium of communication-both among deaf and hearing people. With a fragmented IM-user community, not only would the effect be to frustrate people attempting to communicate with others, but it would serve to isolate people and businesses from one another." -- TAN member from South Dakota

"TDI endorses the position taken by the Council of Representatives at the National Association of the Deaf Conference on the instant messaging interoperability issue," says Executive Director Claude L. Stout. "TDI calls for review and appropriate action to make instant messaging interoperable as well as accessible to all people with or without disabilities. We have various options to pick certain carriers for long distance and/or local phone service, and make calls to others that are with similar or different carriers. Thus, we must experience the same kind of flexibility and opportunities in instant messaging."

In making IM interoperability a priority for their constituents, the NAD and TDI join a number of leading Internet and technology companies who are calling for open access in Instant Messaging.

NAD/TDI Letter to the FCC
(includes text of NAD resolution)

TDI -- http://www.tdi-online.org/

For more information, click on the links provided below; or use your favorite search engine and search on "Instant Messaging"

Stories/sites that provide background on IM incompatibility:

Instant messaging companies gather to talk strategy (May 23, 2000)
http://news.cnet.com/news//0-1005-200-1931328.html?tag=st.cn.sr.ne.2

AOL vs. Microsoft -- In this week's skirmish over online messaging, who's on the consumer's side? (July 1999)
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/1999/07/24/aol_microsoft/index.html

http://www.freeim.org/

Sites that provide information on various IM services:

CNET Reviews the Top Instant Messengers (April 4, 2000)
http://www.cnet.com/internet/0-4023-7-1591649.html?tag=st.cn.sr.inet.2

http://directory.netscape.com/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Chat/M...

Individual IM services info sites:

AOL: http://aim.aol.com/

ICQ: http://web.icq.com/

Jabber: http://jabbercentral.com/

MSN: http://messenger.msn.com/

ScreenFIRE: http://www.screenfire.com/(deaf-owned)

Yahoo!: http://messenger.yahoo.com/messenger