Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C

Before the
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of

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PN Comments – Accessibility of Communications Technologies
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CG Docket No. 10-213
To: Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau

COMMENTS OF MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Accessibility is a business imperative for Microsoft, as both a matter of compliance and an area ripe for innovation. We are investing in design principles and natural user interfaces that help individuals of all abilities,¹and innovating in touch, gesture, and speech recognition that can be used to improve communications services available to people with disabilities. Some of our innovations were not designed exclusively for accessibility, such as the work we’ve done on the Windows touch interface, or Bing’s voice-activated search for our Windows Phone digital personal assistant Cortana. Other innovation is focused on helping people with disabilities, such as Microsoft’s partnership with the UK non-profit “Guide Dogs for the Blind” to enable better independent mobility, which we discuss below.
In implementing the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (“CVAA”), the Commission has left space for such innovation to occur by avoiding overly prescriptive regulations and setting reasonable compliance deadlines that provide industry time to research break-through solutions. For a company like Microsoft, that is already investing

¹Microsoft, Digital Inclusion and Natural User Interface Technology: A Policy Framework,

http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/1/A/C1AA2411-C3AE-4D21-8C46- F33CE49BBFCF/Digital-Inclusion-Natural-User-Interface-Technology.pdf.

in accessibility solutions and offers a multitude of devices, software and services to a wide range of customers around the world, that space is key for us to best use our technological know-how to deliver accessibility advancements that benefit people with disabilities.
As the Commission prepares its biennial report to Congress regarding the accessibility of telecommunications and advanced communications services, the Commission can attest to the benefits it has achieved by enabling a cycle of innovation which will continue to pay dividends as technology advances.

I.

MICROSOFT IS DELIVERING ACCESSIBLE, INNOVATIVE

SOLUTIONS WHILE ALSO ADVANCING THE OBJECTIVES OF THE CVAA.

Microsoft has long been committed to reducing usage barriers including for people with disabilities. Our ongoing work demonstrates the benefits of maintaining a regulatory atmosphere conducive to the development of new and innovative accessibility solutions.
Microsoft is advancing core touch, gesture, and speech recognition technologies in ways that offer additional choices for individuals with disabilities. For example, Microsoft has previewed Cortana, a voice-based intelligent personal assistant, in beta on the Windows Phone. Skype, Microsoft’s Voice over Internet Protocol service, recently integrated Cortana on the Windows Phone so users can now start a Skype call by telling Cortana, “Skype, get Mom on the screen.” ²Over time, technologies like Cortana will enable hands-free interaction modes that benefit individuals with limited manual dexterity, situational impairments, and other disabilities. Likewise, advances in the Windows touch interface have unlocked new possibilities to use eyetracking technology. Microsoft’s partner, Tobii, recently released the EyeMobile, which

²For more information, see CNET, Now Microsoft's Cortana can help you place a Skype call,

(June 26, 2014), http://www.cnet.com/news/microsofts-cortana-virtual-assistant-comes-to-skype- on-windows-phone.

2connects to Windows 8 tablets to enable full functionality of the tablet – including advanced communications services installed on the tablet – using eye gaze.³The technology was optimized to work with the Microsoft Surface, mirroring the functions of Windows 8 designed for touch – such as swiping, tapping, and scrolling. Microsoft is also partnering with the UK nonprofit Guide Dogs for the Blind and Future Cities Catapult (UK Government) and other transport providers, retailers, entertainment venues, and policy makers to deliver pilot technologies to enable a new level of independent mobility for people with blindness or partial sight. The pilot project aims to narrate a visual environment through an earpiece connected to a mobile device using Microsoft applications.⁴In the future, these new technologies may provide more accessibility than any particular hardware or software solution that we can envision today.
The Commission’s regulatory approach best fosters this kind of innovation when it focuses on outcomes, rather than prescriptive regulations. For example, in the closed captioning context, the Commission wisely chose to implement CVAA requirements related to accessing closed captioning by focusing on the ease and simplicity of use, rather than prescribing a particular hardware or software solution.⁵These policies encourage innovation in new technologies, such as gesture and voice commands, to provide solutions. Today, Microsoft Xbox customers can use the controller or voice commands to activate closed captioning. Voice and

³Daniel Hubbell (Microsoft), Using Windows 8 with Eye Tracking Technology, (Sep. 19, 2013)

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/accessibility/archive/2013/09/19/using-windows-8-with-eye-tracking- technology.aspx.

⁴For more information, see Ollie Barton, Microsoft CityNext: Helping Guide Dogs support people with sight loss, (Jan. 15, 2014)

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukgovernment/archive/2014/01/15/microsoft-citynext-helping-guide- dogs-support-people-with-sight-loss.aspx.

⁵Accessibility of User Interfaces, and Video Programming Guides and Menus, Report and Order

and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 28 FCC Rcd 17330 (2013), ¶ 79. See also 47 C.F.R. §§ 79.109(a), (b).

3gesture commands also enable programs such as the Exergamers NYC project, which encourages exercise for low-vision seniors using Xbox Kinect technology.⁶In addition, advances in speechrecognition technology across Microsoft products such as Xbox and Surface have improved the lives of individuals with mobility impairments.⁷
The advantages of providing industry flexibility in complying with accessibility requirements are also evident with respect to advanced communications services. When the Commission provided that either built-in solutions or third-party assistive technology available to users at a nominal cost would satisfy CVAA requirements, Microsoft responded by offering its customers a range of choices. For example, Office for Windows users with visual impairments can now elect to use either Narrator, the built-in screen reader available with Microsoft Windows, or AI Squared’s highly regarded Window-Eyes screen reader, which ordinarily retails at $895 or more in the U.S. but that Microsoft makes available at no charge.⁸In addition, Microsoft helps to maintain a robust ecosystem of third-party assistive technology solutions by leading and contributing to international accessibility standards such as the ISO/IEC 13066-series. Such efforts further facilitate assistive technology interoperability and consumer choice.

⁶Danielle Hubbell (Microsoft), Blind and low-vision seniors dance and bowl with Microsoft

Xbox games, (Feb. 6, 2014) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/accessibility/archive/2014/02/06/blind-and- low-vision-seniors-dance-and-bowl-with-microsoft-xbox-games.aspx.

⁷For example, see Paul Nyhan and Aimee Riordan, Surface Pro, Xbox help Washington man

overcome life-changing injury, (July 1, 2014) http://www.microsoft.com/en-

us/news/features/2014/jul14/07-01surfacepro.aspx.

⁸For more information, see National Federation of the Blind Commends Microsoft and GW Micro for Groundbreaking Accessibility Partnership, (Jan. 14, 2014)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/national-federation-of-the-blind-commends-microsoft-and- gw-micro-for-groundbreaking-accessibility-partnership-2014-01-14.

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II.

THE COMMISSION’S FLEXIBLE APPROACH IS REQUIRED BY THE

COMPLEXITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY.

By fostering a flexible policy environment conducive to the development of new and innovative solutions, the Commission has helped ensure that industry resources are applied to solutions that deliver the maximum benefit to consumers with disabilities.

1. Microsoft delivers communications services in a complex ecosystem.

As the Commission has acknowledged, “[a]dvanced communications services are delivered within a complex and evolving ecosystem.”⁹Microsoft faces unique challenges due to the breadth of our products and services. Our portfolio of devices and services spans the wide range of accessibility issues that the Commission regulates—from communication offerings like Skype and Outlook.com, to enterprise tools such as Office 365 and Exchange Online, to closed captioning on the Xbox Live service.
Microsoft provides services that run on multiple combinations of platforms, browsers, apps, and services. For example, a single Microsoft app often runs on several desktop platforms (e.g., Windows and Mac), mobile platforms (e.g., Surface, iPad, Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Kindle), and might have an online version available via multiple browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox) that themselves are available in multiple versions. Furthering the complexity, each of these combinations can access a variety of services (e.g., mobile and fixed broadband services offered by different providers). These experiences must each be separately engineered, tested, and updated to improve accessibility.

⁹ACS Report and Order 26 FCC Rcd 14577 (2011), ¶ 67.
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Moreover, as a global company, Microsoft must comply with accessibility regulations around the world. International regulations that diverge from one another complicate Microsoft’s efforts to deliver accessibility solutions.

2. Microsoft meets these challenges through a significant company-wide emphasis on accessibility.

In order to navigate this landscape, Microsoft maintains a significant company-wide emphasis on accessibility. Dedicated professionals, both centrally and embedded within product and engineering teams throughout the company, focus on accessibility issues. Microsoft also provides a unique specialized customer service option, the Disability Answer Desk, where customers can receive assistance via chat, email, or phone from support technicians specifically trained in assistive technologies and assisting persons with disabilities.¹⁰At Microsoft’s recent annual Ability Summit, over 700 Microsoft employees, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, were joined by disability rights advocates, educators, and public officials to discuss and assess actions needed to create a more accessible world.¹¹
Microsoft also hires usability testers through a vendor, who employs and trains individuals with disabilities for IT work, to participate in studies and provide feedback on the usability of our products, including those implicated by the CVAA. For example, over the last fifteen months, Microsoft’s Skype team, just one of the dozens of Microsoft product groups

¹⁰Microsoft, Contact the Disability Answer Desk, http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contact-

microsoft-accessibility.

¹¹Paul Nyhan (Microsoft), Accessibility and Technology Take Center Stage at the 2014 Ability

Summit, Microsoft Accessibility Blog (May 20, 2014),

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/accessibility/archive/2014/05/20/accessibility-and-technology-take- center-stage-at-the-2014-ability-summit.aspx.

6implicated by the CVAA, engaged usability testers with visual impairments in user studies that lasted two to five days each and were performed for each of nine different platforms.
We also engage regularly with the community on disability issues. Based on our research and numerous dialogues with accessibility experts around the world indicating the need for a professional organization, Microsoft has taken a leadership role in forming the IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals).¹²Microsoft also has collaborated with organizations representing individuals with disabilities, meeting with groups such as the World Blind Union, the National Federation of the Blind, and having dialogues with others at events around the globe, such as the European Disability Forum, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation, to better understand the diverse needs of people with disabilities and to solicit feedback on our products and services. These efforts help spark innovative ideas and ensure that Microsoft is able to continue improving how its products serve people with disabilities.

3. The Commission should continue to foster innovation and industry flexibility.

By fostering innovation and industry flexibility, the Commission helps to ensure that
Microsoft can apply these significant resources toward solutions that provide maximum impact to consumers with disabilities. Overly prescriptive or technology-specific rules divert resources from developing better, previously unconceived solutions. Technical mandates that differ across geographies mean that companies must create multiple versions of their products for different markets, also diverting resources from innovation. By instead focusing on outcomes, the

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For more information about the IAAP, please visit http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/.
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Commission can help encourage industry to continuously improve accessibility features as technology evolves and improves.
Going forward, the Commission can encourage further market-driven outcomes wherever possible, through programs such as the Chairman’s Accessibility Awards and the Accessibility & Innovation Initiative Speaker Series. Microsoft believes that there is a market for accessibility solutions both among persons with disabilities and among others, and that the Commission can help catalyze industry’s recognition of that market.
Although the Commission’s CVAA rule makings are largely complete, in any future proceedings the Commission should continue to focus on outcomes and encourage innovation. Where the Commission finds it necessary to reference a specific technology standard, it should consult with industry to select standards that are internationally recognized. In addition, the Commission should rely on technology standards only as a “safe harbor,” where compliance with the standard will be evidence of complying with the CVAA regulations, while still allowing other methods of achieving the regulatory goals.

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8Respectfully submitted,

MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Paula Boyd

Gerard J. Waldron

Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs

MICROSOFT CORPORATION

901 K Street NW 11th Floor
Paul Swain*

COVINGTON & BURLING LLP

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20004 (202) 662-6000
Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 263-5946

Counsel for Microsoft Corporation

*Member of the Virginia State Bar. Not admitted in the District of Columbia; supervised by principals of the Firm.