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.

May 1, 2008 Hearing on the Bill by House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

Progress of the Bill

Mark Seifert, Ken Nakata, Jesse Acosta, Larry Goldberg, Rep. Edward Markey, Russell Harvard, Jamaal Anderson, Dane Snowden, and Colin Crowell. Photo by Bonnie Ahmed.

Pictured above: Participants at the May 1, 2008 hearing, from left to right: Mark Seifert, Ken Nakata, Jesse Acosta, Larry Goldberg, Rep. Edward Markey, Russell Harvard, Jamaal Anderson, Dane Snowden, and Colin Crowell. Photo by Bonnie Ahmed.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing May 1 on the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008.

The witnesses included: Jamaal Anderson, defensive end and 2007 first round draft pick of the NFL Atlanta Falcons whose father is a leading deaf educator and former board member of Gallaudet University; Russell Harvard, a deaf Hollywood actor appearing in the double-academy award winning "There Will Be Blood"; and Sergeant Major Jesse Acosta, a distinguished U.S. Army veteran whose vision was seriously injured in Iraq.

You can read their written testimony and a COAT statement (MS Word):

If you visit the Subcommittee's web page on the May 1 hearing you will find:

A link to the archived video webcast of the hearing;
A witness list with links to their prepared testimony;
A link to the April 25, 2008 draft of the bill.

A transcript of the hearing is not available at this time but will be available on the Goverment Printing Office site within 90-120 days of the conclusion of the hearing (approximately August 2008).

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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.