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.

Consumer Electronics Association Forms Accessibility Working Group

On August 9, 2010, the Video Systems Committee of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) launched a working group to develop standards for accessibility of video devices. One of seventy CEA working groups, "R4 WG19" will develop standards and guidelines for accessibility of video devices. The group expects participation from consumer electronics manufacturers, including designers, engineers, manufacturers, users with disabilities and accessibility design specialists.

Their first focus is to work on remote controls to assist in locating and distinguishing buttons and features on TV, recorder, audio and other remote-controlled devices and on other video accessibility topics for consumers with visual and auditory impairments.

For more information, or to join the R4 WG19 working group, please contact Alayne Bell via Email

Read full Consumer Electronics Association Press Release

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Due to the unstoppable

Submitted by Jenifer Simpson on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 13:44.

Due to the unstoppable advocacy of over a dozen COAT leaders, CEA agreed recently to allow representatives from nonprofit organizations onto this working group without having to pay the typical industry-based fee to participate. Special thanks to COAT organizations TDI, NVRC, and NAD for staying on top of this one!

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.