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Gregory Hlibok, currently an attorney in the Disability Rights Office (DRO) in the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, has been named to head that office.
"Greg will be heading up the Disability Rights Office at a crucial time, as the FCC ramps up to implement the most significant disability law in two decades," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "Greg possesses extensive knowledge in the field of telecommunications access for people with disabilities as well as the leadership qualities necessary to lead the office. He will be the first head of DRO who has a disability. Under his direction, the office will work to ensure that people with disabilities can share fully in the economic and social benefits of emerging 21st century technologies."
Greg has been instrumental on a wide array of disability matters in DRO since 2001. He is known nationally for his role as spokesperson for the Deaf President Now movement in 1988, which led to the selection of Gallaudet University's first deaf president. Gallaudet is the world's only university serving primarily deaf and hard of hearing students. At the FCC, he has taken the lead in several key rulemaking proceedings on telecommunications access for people with disabilities, including new initiatives on the National Broadband Plan. Greg now lives in Ellicott City, MD with his wife and four children, and also serves as the board president of his alma mater, Lexington School for the Deaf. He is a graduate of Gallaudet University and Hofstra Law School.
In addition to its new duties in implementing the new Act, the Disability Rights Office has responsibility for a variety of disability-related telecommunications matters, including telecommunications relay service (TRS), access to telecommunications equipment and services by persons with disabilities, access to emergency information, and closed captioning. DRO also provides expert advice and assistance to other Bureaus and Offices, consumers, and industry, in order to support the Commission's goal of increasing the accessibility of communications services and technologies for persons with disabilities.