COAT advocates for accessibility and usability of technology for people with disabilities. Enacting the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (21st CVAA) was a huge step forward and we are working to implement this new law. COAT’s overall aim is to ensure accessibility, usability, and affordability of all broadband, wireless, and Internet technologies for people with disabilities.

Eight COAT Affiliates on New FCC Technical Group to Work on Captioning and Video Description Problems in Digital TV Transition

As a result of COAT advocacy efforts, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set up a new working group in May 2009 to help resolve closed captioning and video description problems in the digital TV transition. COAT affiliates will attend the meetings with industry and federal representatives. COAT affiliates involved are American Council of the Blind, CaptionMax, Communication Service for the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, National Captioning Institute, National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH, Northern Virginia Resource Council for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and VITAC. First meeting is Monday May 18 at the FCC in Washington, DC. More information in FCC Public Notice

Forward this page to a friend

Your Personal Message: *

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT).

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture your email address.

Your Email: *

Your Name: *

Send To: *

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You can only email up to 5 recipients

Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology

Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology web site.

Add new comment

Andrew Phillips, National Association of the Deaf; Eric Bridges, American Council of the Blind; Mark Richert, American Foundation for the Blind; and Jenifer Simpson, American Association of People with Disabilities, outside the FCC building, Washington DC, after meetings on pending rules under 21st CVAA.

Celebration of the bill's final passage

Rep. Ed Markey and Legislative Director Mark Bayer celebrate the bill’s final passage on September 28, 2010, in front of the Helen Keller statue, with the leaders from the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology: Karen Peltz Strauss, formerly with Communication Service for the Deaf; Jenifer Simpson, American Association of People with Disabilities; Rosaline Crawford, National Association of the Deaf. Their hands symbolize clapping in sign language.

Congressman Ed Markey in photo of Congressional hearing room dais. Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), center, introduced the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101) on June 26, 2009.

Search

President Obama signs the Accessibility Act

President Obama signed the 21^st
Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act into law on October 8, 2010, with many key advocates and lawmakers in attendance.

Senator Mark Pryor (AR) received AAPD’s Justice For All Award July 26, 2011 for his leadership with Senate passage of the 21st CVAA.

Key FCC Staff working on 21st CVAA

Key FCC staff working on 21st CVAA: Karen Peltz Strauss, Rosaline Crawford, Eliot Greenwald

Sesame Street video with captioning and description.

Closed Caption button on remote.

Eight COAT Affiliates on New FCC Technical Group to Work on Captioning and Video Description Problems in Digital TV Transition

COAT

Background

21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

Search

COAT Issues

Others are saying and doing...