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 Confer with AT&T on Accessibility & Aging Marketing Topics

Other Access Issues

On February 4, 2010, representatives from several COAT affiliates – AAPD, AFB, Alliance for Technology Access, Inclusive Technologies, NCIL, TDI and WGBH Media Access Center – met in Atlanta, GA as members of AT&T’s Advisory Panel on Access & Aging (APAA). This first of four quarterly meetings in 2010 focused on how AT&T approaches "national marketing to the Disability and Mature segments." Also discussed was the development of applications that can further support these communities.

Over the past four years that the panel has met, AT&T has implemented a number of recommendations, such as establishing dedicated disability customer service centers, providing closed captioning and transcript services for non-live or taped video or webcasts, and providing creative input to "customer sales channels."

Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president of Public Affairs, AT&T said: "As we embark on the 20th anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we hope that our customers know that providing a valuable customer experience is a big part of who we are and what we continue to do as a communications provider."

For more information, including other groups who are on the panel and other topics addressed, please read AT&T Notice .

Note that other COAT affiliate representatives also participate in AT&T's Consumer Advisory Panel and on a similar group hosted by Verizon.

Advocates believe that working directly with industry is one way to advance the COAT agenda, alongside legislative, regulatory and judicial system approaches.

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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.