CTIA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and Microsoft urged...

to assist the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau in preparing its biennial report to Congress on the CVAA. FCC rules allow innovation “by avoiding overly prescriptive regulations and setting reasonable compliance deadlines that provide industry time to research break-through solutions,” said Microsoft (http://bit.ly/1zJw1OB). CTIA and TIA said members have worked to make their products more accessible, urging the agency to avoid prescriptive regulations. “Regulatory uncertainty is inversely correlated to investment and innovation,” said TIA (http://bit.ly/1zJxRyZ). Along with flexible rules, the FCC can help the wireless industry improve accessibility by “making more spectrum available for wireless services,” said CTIA (http://bit.ly/1tS7y9l). The commission should especially maintain flexibility on CVAA recordkeeping requirements, TIA said. The commission should consider that products intended to be accessible for either blind or hearing-impaired consumers often remain inaccessible for consumers with both sight and hearing impairments, said the American Association of the Deaf-Blind (http://1.usa.gov/1oYwqal). Devices that replace text with audio or audio with captions don’t work for its constituents, the consumer group said. It said that makes it hard for them to participate in the FCC rulemaking process, a problem it said the commission should address.