Here’s wishing you the best of the holiday season.
Dr. Z wishes you all a blessed holiday and being thankful for all the nice things that come with access to communication.
Dr. Z is joining Santa in spreading holiday cheer throughout the Internet with the help of Facebook and Twitter as well as this website.
Be back with you next week…look for Dr. Z’s resolutions around New Year’s Day for the New Year.
Dr. Z (and Santa) cares about your communication access.
Dr. Z is back in snowy Vermont…his associate is back in the Bay Area, California. We want to thank you all for attending our 10-Digit Numbering presentations.
We spoke to you all in over 50 cities coast to coast to over 2,000 of you folks. You asked wonderful questions that we passed back on to our folks at ZVRS who are working diligently to resolve your concerns about the service. Yes, we have a long way to go, but we feel rewarded having cleared up your misconceptions and confusion about the service.
We also want to thank the local Z Specialists who helped us with the town hall meetings and our logistics people in California and Florida who smoothed our way.
This effort will not stop. We plan to continue doing this in 2010 and we will let you know. Our mission is to continue working with you to enhance your video relay experience. There are a lot of exciting things coming in the pipeline and look for them!
Once again, many thanks to you all–a wonderful audience.
Dr. Z (and his associate) cares about your communication access.
The first person every week who guesses the location of where Dr. Z correctly will receive a $5 Starbucks or Target gift card. We will post the name of the winner every week on this site. There was a correct guess for Episode #23. The place was Bryce Canyon in Utah. The winner is in the process of being notified. For this episode, you need to identify the landmark . Dr. Z has updated the previous weeks winners. You can click the link below.
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The FCC today hosted a workshop (December 17th) on VRS reform.
Dr. Z was presenting in Tennessee while the FCC workshop got underway. He was able to go over to a Starbucks to watch the second half of the workshop and the video was not that great–it stuttered a lot so some of the content did not come through. Thanks to Kelby Brick of Purple who tweeted the proceedings live on Twitter which helped fill the gaps.
It is too soon for Dr. Z to express his thoughts until he has a chance to review the FCC post of the video of the workshop on its website (link to video) (The first 5 or so minutes are not captioned.)
Based on what Dr. Z has seen so far and reading the tweets, not everything that we had hoped that would be covered was covered. But–the FCC is allowing people to file ex parte comments on its website (link to post comments). After linking to the page, click “Submit a Filing”, then enter “03-123” for Proceeding Number and under “Type of Filing”, click “Notice of Ex Parte” and fill out the rest of the form and click “Continue” to type your comments. So if after reviewing the video, you have thoughts you want to share with the FCC–Post away!!!
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
The FCC on December 4th announced they will host a workshop on December 17th on VRS reform.
The following is the third of 3 agenda items:
Mechanisms for combating waste, fraud and abuse, addressing service rules, and addressing technical matters such as interoperability, ten-digit numbering, and emergency call handling.
This means that the FCC is asking for everyone’s thoughts on how various aspects of the VRS service should be addressed. Dr. Z has his thoughts on each of them below…
Mechanisms for combating waste, fraud and abuse
Dr. Z would go along with the proposal submitted by CSDVRS (ZVRS) n this matter. He does not agree with some parts the proposal submitted by Sorenson as they restrict the ability of deaf and hard of hearing people using the service.
Interoperability
Simply stated, just follow the standards set by international bodies–do not set de facto standards like what Sorenson is doing with missed calls and caller-id. Any attempt at crippling interoperability gets in the way of achieving functional equivalency and when that happens, makes deaf and hard of hearing people second class citizens.
Ten-digit numbering
Thanks to the FCC, it is starting to work very well and starting to be a level playing field. But confusing messages from the dominant player in the field is causing heartburn and creating the need for all other providers to redouble their outreach efforts. The FCC and the constituents of the VRS industry will need to get their act together on the 800 numbering situation to avoid the mess that occurred in November.
Emergency access
Thanks to emphasis on this subject by the FCC, it is starting to make inroads. As Dr. Z travels, he finds that consumers are not up to speed on this issue so further outreach is still needed for another year or so.
Let’s hope for a fruitful workshop this Thursday.
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
The first person every week who guesses the location of where Dr. Z correctly will receive a $5 Starbucks or Target gift card. We will post the name of the winner every week on this site. There was a correct guess for Episode #22. The place was London Bridge in London, England. The winner is in the process of being notified. For this episode, you need to name the official name of the landmark and the state it is located in. Dr. Z has extended this for another week as there were some technical problems with this episode.
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The FCC on December 4th announced they will host a workshop on December 17th on VRS reform.
The following is the second of 3 agenda items:
A fair, efficient, and transparent compensation methodology
This means that the FCC is asking for everyone’s thoughts on how the VRS service should be funded. The current rates have been frozen for 3 years and this time around, in the spring, the rates will be up for review. Dr. Z is hopeful that the FCC will review the rates with the help of NECA to insure all VRS providers are compensated fairly and appropriately. Since there is a dominant player in the market and using the old mechanism for calculating rates can be affected by the skew of a larger provider. Dr. Z is asking the FCC to be wary of this and not let the dominant provider skew the rates when they propose the rates. Since there are efficiencies of scale, Dr. Z feels a tiered rate structure is going to be appropriate once again. If the rates are too generous for the dominant provider, it only serves for them to become larger and in effect getting towards a monopolistic position. Dr. Z is hopeful that the FCC will take all of this into consideration when they perform the rate setting process for 2010 and beyond.
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
The FCC on December 4th announced they will host a workshop on December 17th on VRS reform.
The following is the first of 3 agenda items:
The most efficient way to deliver VRS, particularly whether the service should remain a competitive service or be provided via competitive bidding
This means that the FCC is asking for everyone’s thoughts on how the VRS service should be provided. One extreme calls for competitive bidding with one provider doing all the VRS calls while the other extreme calls for competitive service like what we have today.
Dr. Z is of the opinion that we should have competitive service. If we were to have one provider with the lowest bidder, we will be stuck with their interpreters, with little control over the quality of the service, being at the mercy of some decisions the lowest bidder has. We in some way have a situation today with a dominant provider who is trying to call the shots and not working very well with the rest of the providers and we end up having a service that is not 100% functionally equivalent. It is Dr. Z’s hope that the FCC will continue the competitive service we have with more controls in insuring that the service is 100% functionally equivalent–things like missed calls and caller ID which are still not perfectly compatible today to be made compatible.
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
The FCC on December 4th announced they will host a workshop on December 17th on VRS reform.
This is an attempt by the FCC to review all aspects of VRS as a service. It can result in some changes but the bottom line is that we won’t lose VRS service. At the workshop, we need to be sure our needs and views are heard. The workshop will cover three areas (as copied verbatim from the FCC announcement):
1) The most efficient way to deliver VRS, particularly whether the service should remain a competitive service or be provided via competitive bidding;
2) A fair, efficient, and transparent compensation methodology; and,
3) Mechanisms for combating waste, fraudand abuse, addressing service rules, and addressing technical matters such as interoperability, ten-digit numbering, and emergency call handling.
Dr. Z will comment on each of the 3 areas in editorials in the forthcoming days to come (prior to the workshop.) These issues are important and it is time for the FCC to look into this. It is Dr. Z’s hope that the end result will be a better VRS service for us all.
It will take place from 2-5 pm and will be open captioned on the web using this address http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio. You may want to test it and download your copy of Real Player to be prepared.
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
Today the FCC issued a temporary 4-month waiver for toll free numbers (including 866 numbers). This means any relay provider who has removed 866 numbers from their data base has to put them back. This includes Sorenson which is a major provider and caused gallons of Pepto Bismol to be consumed by the deaf and hard of hearing community, the VRS industry and the FCC in dealing with the 866 issue. Dr. Z tips his hat off to the FCC for listening to our concerns. While this is temporary, this gives us time to discuss our thoughts, exchange our views and come up with a resolution for toll-free numbers that works for us all. (Link to FCC order)
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
P.S. The makers of Pepto Bismol can now restock the shelves of the stores selling them.