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Century Communications Act For People With Disabilities

Saturday December 22, 2007 - Washington, D.C. – The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology hails the recently issued draft legislative measure, the “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act” as a dramatic and comprehensive step forward for consumers with disabilities. Released yesterday, the draft would amend the Communications Act – the statute that impacts the telephone and video programming industries – to add new consumer protections that will ensure people with disabilities do not get left out or left behind as telephones and television programming increasingly rely on digital and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. The proposals will allow greater numbers of people with disabilities to become independent and productive members of society, as well as to enjoy all the new electronic gadgets and devices that everyone else takes for granted.

“It’s about time that people with disabilities received assurances that they will be fully included as our nation’s communication technologies evolve,” said Karen Peltz Strauss of Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD). “Emerging digital and Internet-based technologies can provide people with disabilities with all kinds of wonderful opportunities for better employment and education, as well as improved citizenry, but only if these are designed to be accessible and affordable,” she added.

Although laws in the 1980s and 1990s guaranteed telephone and television access, such as relay services, hearing aid compatible telephones, and captioning on TV, “we need to be sure these laws apply to services provided over the Internet, or to the newer, smaller devices available today that display television programs,” says Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). “While closed captions are required on all new television shows, very few that are also webcast are also shown with captioning. This leaves behind millions of people who rely on captioning.” The draft law proposes to include this programming under the captioning mandates, and would cover new types of electronic equipment now displaying video programming.

“In addition, right now we can’t even find the way to turn on captions on the new, snazzy digital television sets that everyone wants to buy,” adds Crawford. “A new requirement for television manufacturers to put a captioning button on the remote control and captioning settings at the top level of on-screen menus will enable America’s growing population with hearing loss to enjoy television along with their families and friends,” she adds.

Another provision would let deaf people – who generally use the Internet to communicate in video – receive the Lifeline and Linkup discount for their broadband service. “Video relay service users who are low income should have the same phone company subsidies as other low income people,” says Jenifer Simpson, of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). “These individuals aren’t using traditional wireline phone services anymore,” she says; “instead, they are using the only phone service – video relay – that works for them in their native language. Why should they be penalized for being sign language users?”