National Association of the Deaf

On June 25, the United States Senate confirmed Julius Genachowski as the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He is a former FCC staffer and entrepreneur, and has spent the last decade in the private sector.

The U.S. Senate also approved the nomination of Robert McDowell for another term as an FCC commissioner. That same day, President Barack Obama nominated Meredith Atwell Baker as another FCC commissioner. Also pending is the nomination of Mignon Clyburn. The Senate is expected to act on these nominations soon.

Michael Copps, who has served as FCC interim chairman, will return to his commissioner position. The NAD appreciates his leadership and looks forward to working with the new chairman and the full slate of commissioners to make sure that deaf or hard of hearing individuals have equal access to the telecommunications infrastructure.

The FCC has oversight over telecommunications relay services, which include traditional TTY relay services, video relay services, IP relay services, and captioned telephone services. The FCC also regulates closed captioning on television/cable programming.

The NAD places among its top priorities the functional equivalency of telecommunications relay services to voice telephone services, increased and high quality television captioning, greater access to broadband, and related technology and telecommunications issues of importance to the deaf and hard of hearing community.