Effective September 1, 2006, unless an exception is approved
by the executive director of the state agency or an exemption has
been made for specific technologies pursuant to §213.17 of this
chapter, all EIR developed, procured or changed by a state agency
shall comply with the standards described in this subchapter. Each
state agency shall include in its accessibility policy the following
standards/specifications:
  (1) Telecommunications products or systems which provide
a function allowing voice communication and which do not themselves
provide a TTY functionality shall provide a standard non-acoustic
connection point for TTYs. Microphones shall be capable of being turned
on and off to allow the user to intermix speech with TTY use.
  (2) Telecommunications products which include voice
communication functionality shall support all commonly used cross-manufacturer
non-proprietary standard TTY signal protocols.
  (3) Voice mail, auto-attendant, and interactive voice
response telecommunications systems shall be usable by TTY users with
their TTYs.
  (4) Voice mail, messaging, auto-attendant, and interactive
voice response telecommunications systems that require a response
from a user within a time interval, shall give an alert when the time
interval is about to run out, and shall provide sufficient time for
the user to indicate more time is required.
  (5) Where provided, caller identification and similar
telecommunications functions shall also be available for users of
TTYs, and for users who cannot see displays.
  (6) For transmitted voice signals, telecommunications
products shall provide a gain adjustable up to a minimum of 20 dB.
For incremental volume control, at least one intermediate step of
12 dB of gain shall be provided.
  (7) If the telecommunications product allows a user
to adjust the receive volume, a function shall be provided to automatically
reset the volume to the default level after every use.
  (8) Where a telecommunications product delivers output
by an audio transducer which is normally held up to the ear, a means
for effective magnetic wireless coupling to hearing technologies shall
be provided.
  (9) Interference to hearing technologies (including
hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices)
shall be reduced to the lowest possible level that allows a user of
hearing technologies to utilize the telecommunications product.
  (10) Products that transmit or conduct information
or communication, shall pass through cross-manufacturer, non-proprietary,
industry-standard codes, translation protocols, formats or other information
necessary to provide the information or communication in a usable
format. Technologies which use encoding, signal compression, format
transformation, or similar techniques shall not remove information
needed for access or shall restore it upon delivery.
  (11) Products which have mechanically operated controls
or keys, shall comply with the following:
    (A) Controls and keys shall be tactilely discernible
without activating the controls or keys.
    (B) Controls and keys shall be operable with one hand
and shall not require tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the
wrist. The force required to activate controls and keys shall be 5
lbs. (22.2 N) maximum.
    (C) If key repeat is supported, the delay before repeat
shall be adjustable to at least 2 seconds. Key repeat rate shall be
adjustable to 2 seconds per character.
    (D) The status of all locking or toggle controls or
keys shall be visually discernible, and discernible either through
touch or sound.


Source Note: The provisions of this §213.11 adopted to be effective April 27, 2006, 31 TexReg 3379; amended to be effective September 16, 2008, 33 TexReg 7744; amended to be effective September 18, 2014, 39 TexReg 7565