CVAA Audible Crawl Rule (Accessible Emergency Information)

Current understanding

Under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), video programming providers must make emergency information conveyed visually in a textual crawl accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired, historically by providing an aural description on a secondary audio stream. The FCC has proposed revising the rule to permit providers to satisfy the requirement by conveying the crawl aurally as an alternative to the separate secondary audio stream, offering an additional compliance pathway. Status: proposed rule (NPRM).

Evidence log

• 2026-04-16 — Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act of 2026: cross-connection with communications-video-technology-accessibility-act: HR8327 would build on the existing CVAA accessibility framework (of which the audible crawl rule is one implementation) by extending accessibility requirements across communications, video, and technology. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-07-10 — Facilitating Implementation of Next Generation 911 Services (NG911); Improving 911 Reliability: cross-connection with fcc-ng911-interoperability-rules: Both address accessibility of emergency information — the NG911 NPRM’s Direct Video Calling proposal extends accessibility from broadcast emergency info to NG911 call origination for deaf/hard-of-hearing users. (novelty: 3)

Open questions

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