VITAC’s Heather York Named to FCC Disability Advisory Committee

VITAC Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs Heather York has been chosen to serve a two-year term on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Disability Advisory Committee (DAC).

York has served on the previous two Disability Advisory Committees as a non-voting member of the video programming subcommittee, and has advised on the technical requirements for topics ranging from mixed-case captioning to audio description pass-through possibilities to captioning clips delivered via IP after air on television. With more than two decades of experience in the captioning industry, she is an expert in prerecorded and live captioning as well as in the technical aspects related to caption preparation and delivery.

Brittany Winland, director, marketing communications, VITAC has been named a committee alternate.

Disability Advisory Committee members are accepted for a two-year term of service. The committee meets at the FCC offices in Washington, D.C., for a minimum of three one-day meetings, and members are expected to participate in at least one working group or subcommittee.

More than three dozen individuals were selected for the DAC’s third term, with membership consisting of a diverse mix of organizations representing individuals with disabilities, the communications and video programming industries, the public safety industry, trade associations, academia, researchers, and other stakeholders.

The Disability Advisory Committee was created to provide advice and recommendations to the commission on a wide array of disability issues within the FCC’s jurisdiction. Some of the issues addressed in the past have included closed captioning, video description, telecommunications relay services, access to emergency information on television, telephone emergency notifications, device accessibility, technology transitions, and the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program.

Membership for the DAC’s third term runs from December 21, 2018, through December 21, 2020.