COAT Very Pleased with House Hearing on H.R. 3101, Scheduled for June 10, 2010

June 4, 2010, Washington, DC. -- The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) is very pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet will hold a hearing on H.R. 3101, "The Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009." Scheduled for Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 10:00 a.m., in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building, it will be accessible to everyone: ASL interpreters, real-time captions, and assistive listening devices will be provided. COAT encourages all those interested in and who support H.R. 3101 to attend this historic event, which follows on the heels of the successful Senate hearing May 26. See story on Senate hearing. 

Representative Ed Markey (MA), who introduced H.R. 3101, testified at that Senate hearing, saying, "Americans with disabilities should have access to the communications technologies of 21st century, and delays are unacceptable. . . . There is no better way to honor the 20th anniversary of the ADA than to move this bill forward."

Expected to testify before the House Subcommittee are Lise Hamlin, Director of Public Policy, Hearing Loss Association of America, and Sergeant Major Jesse Acosta, a U.S. Army veteran who became blind while serving in Iraq in 2006. Other witnesses are expected, such as representatives from the various industries, i.e., wireless, information technology, telephone, and television, who will have to make their products & services more accessible to and usable by people with disabilities if the bill is enacted.

A complete list of witnesses, instructions to view a live captioned webcast of the hearing, and other information will be provided soon on the Committee website.

This is the second hearing by this U.S.House of Representatives Subcommittee on 21st century communications access for people with disabilities.. Issues raised will surely echo those raised at the previous hearing on May 1, 2008, which lead to H.R. 6320, the predecessor of H.R. 3101. Read COAT story on 2008 hearing.

Advocates wonder if, with S. 3304 under consideration by the U.S. Senate. and a House hearing again on H.R. 3101, if there could be enactment of comprehensive disability communications legislation in this year of the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).