COAT Hails Communications and Video Accessibility Act

By Susan J. Campbell

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

The "Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" has been hailed by the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) as a dramatic and comprehensive step forward for consumers with disabilities.

This recently issued legislative measure was released on December 21 and will amend the Communications Act—the statute that impacts the telephone and video programming industries—to add new consumer protections to ensure individuals with disabilities do not get left out or behind as telephones and television programming increasingly rely on digital and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.

With these proposals, a greater number of people with disabilities will become independent and productive members of society, while also enjoying 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), in a Thursday statement.

Strauss continued: "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."

While previous laws guaranteed these individuals telephone and television access, they do not adequately cover technologies that are becoming available today.

”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), in Thursday’s statement. "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 the inclusion of this programming under the captioning mandates and would also 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," added 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."

Those individuals with hearing disabilities generally use the Internet to communicate in Video. Another provision would allow these individuals the ability to 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," said Jenifer Simpson of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), in Thursday’s statement.

 

Simpson continued: "These individuals aren't using traditional wireline phone services anymore; 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?"

A related provision would authorize Universal Service funds for the distribution of specialized communications equipment needed by the 100,000 people in America who suffer from both hearing and vision loss.

Simpson added, "With this new program, America's Deaf-blind population will have the same universal phone service everyone else takes for granted!"

The draft also requires the restoration for television programs to include video description and ensure that TV devices transmit and deliver video description. This technology is the provision of verbal descriptions of on-screen visual elements that are provided during natural pause in dialogue.

"With video description, people with vision disabilities can hear on-screen emergency warnings and also more fully participate in society through access to television programs like everyone else," says Paul Schroeder of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), in Thursday’s statement.

AFB and other COAT organizations are also pleased to see proposals that will require on-screen text menus and TV controls to be accessible through audio outputs. Schroeder added, "There's so much television programming we are missing because the controls are inaccessible or too difficult to use."

It is ignorance that would lead any organization to believe that only individuals will full vision and hearing capabilities use technological offerings to communicate, work and live. As such, these individuals need to be able to gain the same amount of benefit from these technologies.

This Act will ensure that these individuals are not left behind as next-generation technologies emerge. It will also ensure that new offerings are available to this portion of the population so that their contributions can be respected and accepted as valuable assets for our society.