Telecommunication equity

The principle that people with disabilities should have access to telecommunications services that are functionally equivalent to those available to people without disabilities. For deaf users, this means video calling capabilities (for sign language) should be treated as equivalent to voice calling for hearing people — with comparable data plans, service quality, and cost. Telecommunication equity has policy implications including data plan accommodations, relay service funding, bandwidth allocation, and ensuring that mobile platforms optimize for sign language video quality alongside voice call quality.