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.

COAT Affiliates Wind Down DTV Transition Consumer Education Efforts

Over the summer of 2009, COAT affiliates, AAPD, ACB, NAD and TDI and others, wound down their outreach efforts -- begun last year -- that ensured our communities were not left without TV pictures and sound on June 12, 2009 the date when all full power TV stations stopped analog and switched to digital TV broadcasting. The original DTV transition date, February 17, was changed, an effort COAT endorsed. People wanting to keep their older analog TVs could still apply for the $40 converter box coupon up to July 31st, 2009 as can people with expired/unredeemed coupons.Current problems with the transition include reception problems with converter boxes needing "re-scanning" or antenna adjustments. See FCC Advisory. Problems with captioning can go to COAT affiliate CSD who is surveying and helping. AAPD has one surplus converter box that can be shipped to anyone in dire need, such as in tornado or wicked weather areas. Contact AAPD.

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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.

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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.