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.

FCC Commissioner Copps Testifies to Congress on Disability Inclusion in Broadband National Plan

On March 25, 2010, in an oversight hearing on the National Broadband Plan, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps's testimony affirmed the importance of including people with disabilities' concerns in the Plan. The hearing, before the U.S. House Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet, is looking at various proposals before the Committee in regard to broadband communications. Mr. Copps made the same statement at the FCC's roll-out of the Plan on March 16, 2010. Below attached is a copy of Mr. Copps' statement.

Read another COAT story on roll-out of the National broadband plan. Read, and comment, on other news stories about disability in the National Broadband Plan:--

Abledbody

About.com Deafness blog

Lexology

National Association of the Deaf

FCC Broadband Blog and FCC Lyle's Blog (with photo of FCC event)

Fair Use Lab

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

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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.