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.
US Senate Hearing on S.3304-H.R.3101 Issues Set for Wed May 26, 2:30 PM Russell Building Room 253
May 21, 2010. COAT is delighted to learn that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) will chair a hearing Wednesday May 26 on legislation that would require technology companies, phone manufacturers & services providers to ensure accessibility of their products for deaf, blind, deaf-blind & other customers with disabilities. The focus of the hearing will be the "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act," (S.3304) which Kerry co-sponsored along with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
“Technology and the Internet have broken down barriers, and no one should be or has to be excluded from modern communications and the new economy because of a disability,” Kerry said.“It’s been 20 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act knocked down barriers to employment and government services — and now it’s time to do the same thing [with regard to] blocking people with disabilities from getting online.”
Lawmakers' focus on disability and the digital divide arrives weeks after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a report that found only 42 percent of those with disabilities have access to high-speed Internet service. As the FCC prepared to discuss that figure at a workshop earlier in the month, Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said the number was "not acceptable" and promised to implement an "ambitious accessibility agenda to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind."
H.R. 3101 is a similar, more broad in scope, bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hill Newspaper Story on May 26 Hearing.
Senate Subcommittee website notice.
Closed Caption button on remote.