The FCC Enforcement Bureau has adopted an Order finding that Assurance Wireless (Assurance) and parent company, T-Mobile, violated rules of service accessibility for disabled persons. The Communications Act and FCC rules both require communications service providers to take steps to ensure their services may be accessed and operated without the use of vision, and to maintain records of their efforts to enact such measures. The July 2 Order finds that Assurance failed to meet these obligations during a two-year period in which a visually impaired subscriber experienced repeated difficulty accessing Assurance’s Lifeline service due to device inoperability and inadequate customer support.
The Order requires Assurance to provide an accessible and operable device to the complainant, make information regarding accessibility features publicly available, enhance customer support, establish an accessibility-assistance group, and implement a complaint system. Assurance has thirty days to comment on the Order.
