Innovation That Leaves No One Behind
From: Business Week - 05/17/2004
By: Suzanne Robitaille

As Internet technology becomes more of a core component for national
communications infrastructure, the FCC is looking at mandating accessibility
for disabled people: The Commission's Internet Policy Working Group (IPWG)
held a summit in early May that showed the potential of new Internet-capable
technologies to improve access. The sales of voice over Internet protocol
(VoIP) devices have surpassed those of traditional phones, according to
research firm Gartner, and the multimedia capabilities are especially a boon
for hearing- and visually-impaired people. Though traditional
telecommunications providers have been required since 1996 to operate relay
services to disabled users, new Internet communications firms say imposing
similar regulations on their nascent industry could stifle innovation and
prevent the release of helpful products; the VoIP industry has fiercely
opposed telecommunications-type regulation, but disabled advocates such as
the American Foundation for the Blind called for VoIP to be designated
telecommunications at the recent IPWG summit. T-Mobile USA offers a good
example of how Internet technologies can increase communications access: The
company's Sidekick cellular PDA service offers Web, email, voice, and text
messaging and says about 10 percent of subscribers are hearing-impaired.
Similar devices in the future could offer "total conversation" capabilities
where disabled users could use keyboards, Braille devices, audio jacks for
hearing implants, video screens, and other communications media
simultaneously. Santa Clara, Calif., firm 8x8 offers such a service for
Internet-connected home PCs, but President Barry Andrews says
telecommunications regulation would bury his company. Suppressing helpful
technologies, however, is not the goal of disabled advocates, according to
American Foundation for the Blind vice president Paul Schroeder. 

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2004/tc20040517_7342_tc116.htm

