COAT Position Statement: Ensure Access to Video Programming Receivers and Play-Back Devices

COAT recommendation: Require all devices used to receive or display video programming simultaneously transmitted with sound to be designed, developed, and fabricated to allow people with disabilities to control, through non-visual and other means accessible to and usable by people with disabilities, the receipt, display, navigation and selection of video programming.

Who Will Benefit: Television programming is now made available through a variety of means, including broadband and cellular transmissions. The devices used to access this programming are often quite complex, with controls that are difficult to use and displays that are difficult to navigate. For America's approximately fifty million consumers with disabilities, these frustrations are exacerbated because the controls are not designed to be accessible or “disability friendly.” For example, the commonplace task of choosing options from on-screen menus routinely requires vision and manual dexterity to make the selection through a “point and click” remote control or via a touch screen. Individuals with sensory, motor, and cognitive disabilities, as well as seniors, struggle to manipulate these ubiquitous devices every day. Requiring the implementation of controls that are usable by these consumers, who are eager to access programming like all other consumers, is both right and smart business.

Current Law: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §794d, calls for the implementation of accessible controls in information and electronic technologies, including video equipment, purchased or used by the federal government.

Why It Is Not Enough: Although the federal government has a requirement to purchase accessible television sets, VCRs, DVD players, digital recording equipment and other video programming devices, there is no federal law that requires accessible user interfaces on devices purchased by private citizens. Moreover, there has been little demonstrable commitment on the part of industry as a whole to voluntarily implement accessible controls for devices used to receive and display video programming. To remedy this inequity, legislation is needed to ensure that video equipment is designed and developed to provide disability access to electronic program guides and menus, remote controls, Internet-based features and connectivity, and on-screen displays. In addition, it is critical that individuals who use captions, subtitles, and video description have an easy means of accessing those accessibility features, when provided.

Technical and Economic Feasibility: A patchwork of existing federal statutes demonstrates the feasibility of a mandate to implement accessible controls in video programming devices. For example, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act, which has revolutionized the television experience through the mandate of caption-enabling technology, proved that incorporating an accessible feature into all television sets was not only workable but of negligible impact on device manufacturing costs and customer price points. The same was found to be true when certain telecommunications providers began producing cellular phones with voice outputs, pursuant to their obligations under Section 255 of the Communications Act. When accessible user interfaces are required on all video devices, the incremental cost of adding these features will similarly become negligible. Moreover, the technical feasibility of mandating accessible user interfaces is already being illustrated by lone manufacturers who are now considering the incorporation these features in their video equipment.