Posted:
The Federal Communications Commission is accepting public comments on a proposed change to its accessible emergency information rules for television broadcasters. The proposal, adopted at the FCC's April 30, 2026 Open Meeting, would revise the existing "Audible Crawl" requirement, which obligates broadcasters to provide spoken descriptions of visual, non-textual emergency content (such as radar maps or graphics) on a secondary audio stream.
The FCC has waived this rule continuously since its 2015 compliance deadline, noting that no technical solution currently exists to meet the rule as written. The proposed revision would allow broadcasters to satisfy the accessibility requirement by airing a text crawl that duplicates or is equivalent to the visual emergency information, provided that crawl is also conveyed aurally.
Comments are due June 15, 2026. Reply comments are due June 29, 2026. Filings must reference MB Docket No. 12-107 and can be submitted through the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System. People with disabilities who need assistance filing may contact FCC504@fcc.gov.
Learn more here.
