36 CFR Part 1194 - Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Final Standards and Guidelines Jan. 2018 Amendments - Preamble

2. Amended TTY Requirements

As discussed in the preamble to the ICT Final Rule, the revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines feature significantly revamped organizational format and wording relative to their predecessor standards and guidelines. See 82 FR at 5790 - 91. The TTY-related accessibility requirements from the original 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines thus could not simply be reinserted into the revised standards and guidelines using their original wording and section numbering. Consequently, in this direct final rule, the TTY-related requirements from the original 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines have been modestly revised – in minor, non-substantive ways – so that they conform to the updated formatting and terminology used in the ICT Final Rule.

In summary, this direct final rule incorporates the original TTY-related requirements into the revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines as follows. The technical specifications for TTY functionality appear as a new subsection (412.8) to the section that collectively sets forth the technical requirements applicable to ICT with two-way voice communication. We retained the original wording of these reinstated TTY-related requirements to the greatest extent possible; some minor, non-substantive wording changes were needed for consistency with updated terminology used in the ICT Final Rule. Additionally, in the scoping provision for hardware covered by the 255 Guidelines (C204.1), a companion exception has been added that exempts 255-covered hardware from the accessibility requirements in new 412.8.3. This exception mirrors the existing scope of coverage under the original 255 Guidelines. Unlike the original 508 Standards, the original 255 Guidelines do not require the features addressed in 412.8.3 – namely, voice mail, auto-attendant, and interactive voice response telecommunications systems – to provide TTY functionality. Compare, e.g., 36 CFR 1193.51(d) (2016) (TTY-related compatibility requirements in original 255 Guidelines) with 36 CFR 1194.23(c), (e) (2016) (specifying, in original 508 Standards, that telecommunications systems for voice mail, auto-attendant, interactive voice response, and caller identification must be compatible with TTYs). Lastly, in consideration of technological advances, we have clarified that the requirements for TTY compatibility (412.8) cover software that provides TTY functionality, as well as stand-alone TTY devices and other hardware.

In Table 1 below, we provide a “cross-walk” that lists the TTY-related provisions added by the direct final rule and identifies their corresponding provisions in the original 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines.

Table 1 - Crosswalk of TTY Provisions in the Direct Final Rule and their Corresponding Provisions in the Original 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines