Section 68.5, Waivers (Application for Waiver of Hearing Aid Compatibility Requirements)

The Commission submits this revised information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to merge OMB Control Number 3060-0687 into OMB Control Number 3060-0422 and to extend the information collection requirements relating to the Commission’s hearing aid compatibility (HAC) requirements. Section 710 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act), requires that almost all telephones manufactured in, or imported into, this country must be hearing aid compatible. The HAC requirements ensure that people with hearing loss (regardless of whether they use hearing aids or not) can effectively use wireline telephone handsets with the legacy telephone network and with advanced communications services (ACS), which include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The HAC requirements are structured for handsets to provide sufficient magnetic fields to be used by people with hearing aids and to provide volume control. Congress recognized that there may be technological or economic reasons why some new telephones may not meet the hearing aid compatibility (HAC) requirement. Therefore, Congress provided a waiver request procedure. Section 68.5 of the Commission’s rules, 47 CFR § 68.5, provides the criteria to be used to assess waiver requests.

The latest form for Section 68.5, Waivers (Application for Waiver of Hearing Aid Compatibility Requirements) expires 2027-05-31 and can be found here.