§ 14.20   Obligations.

   (a) General Obligations. (1) With respect to equipment manufactured after
   the  effective date of this part, a manufacturer of equipment used for
   advanced communications services, including end user equipment, network
   equipment, and software, must ensure that the equipment and software that
   such manufacturer offers for sale or otherwise distributes in interstate
   commerce shall be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,
   unless the requirements of this subsection are not achievable.

   (2) With respect to services provided after the effective date of this part,
   a provider of advanced communications services must ensure that services
   offered by such provider in or affecting interstate commerce are accessible
   to and usable by individuals with disabilities, unless the requirements of
   this paragraph are not achievable.

   (3) If accessibility is not achievable either by building it in or by using
   third party accessibility solutions available to the consumer at nominal
   cost and that individuals with disabilities can access, then a manufacturer
   or service provider shall ensure that its equipment or service is compatible
   with existing peripheral devices or specialized customer premises equipment,
   unless the requirements of this subsection are not achievable.

   (4) Providers of advanced communications services shall not install network
   features, functions, or capabilities that impede accessibility or usability.

   (5)  Providers  of  advanced communications services, manufacturers of
   equipment used with these services, and providers of networks used with
   these services may not impair or impede the accessibility of information
   content when accessibility has been incorporated into that content for
   transmission through such services, equipment or networks.

   (b) Product design, development, and evaluation. (1) Manufacturers and
   service providers must consider performance objectives set forth in § 14.21
   at the design stage as early as possible and must implement such performance
   objectives, to the extent that they are achievable.

   (2)  Manufacturers  and  service  providers  must identify barriers to
   accessibility and usability as part of such evaluation.

   (c) Information Pass Through. Equipment used for advanced communications
   services, including end user equipment, network equipment, and software must
   pass through cross-manufacturer, nonproprietary, industry-standard codes,
   translation protocols, formats or other information necessary to provide
   advanced communications services in an accessible format, if achievable.
   Signal compression technologies shall not remove information needed for
   access or shall restore it upon decompression.

   (d) Information, documentation, and training. Manufacturers and service
   providers must ensure that the information and documentation that they
   provide to customers is accessible, if achievable. Such information and
   documentation  includes,  but  is  not limited to, user guides, bills,
   installation   guides  for  end  user  devices,  and  product  support
   communications. The requirement to ensure the information is accessible also
   includes ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access, at no extra
   cost, call centers and customer support regarding both the product generally
   and the accessibility features of the product.

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