Best Practices

October 20, 2011. Five years ago, in October 2006, several leading disability organizations filed for a "Review of the Bureau Order" and a "Petition for Emergency Stay" at the FCC in regard to what was referred to as "the Anglers' Order."   Today, the FCC overturned the Angler's Order and the other 300 exemptions to providing captioning on TV that were based on the Anglers' Order.   

September 29, 2011. COAT is delighted that major video programming distributor Time Warner Cable (TWC) announced it has now released a free app for the popular I-Pad that will now display any available closed captioning. Users install it by downloading the app from the Apple store as they would any other app.

On Thursday September 22, 2011, COAT leader Andrew Phillips, Policy Attorney at NAD, spoke at the 18th Annual ADA Meeting held by the ADA National Network. Update. His session, entitled "Is there an App for it? 21st Century Communications Technology for People with Disabilities," provided an update on the 21st CVAA and the status of the ANPRMs at USDOJ that address communications technology. The session was attended by over fifty ADA information leaders and advocates.

At its 19th Biennial conference in Austin, Texas, on June 2, 2011, COAT leading affiliate TDI is honored some of the leaders of COAT and Congressional members and staff who were instrumental in making the 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act of 2010 a reality. These honorees included:

On May 11, 2011, the FCC announced the roll-out of the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) and which includes accessibility for users with sensory disabilities. PLAN is a new public safety system that allows customers who own an enabled mobile device -- e.g., a wireless phone -- to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety, or emergency alerts, in their area.

May 4, 2011. As part of the effort to modernize communications and address the needs of people with disabilities, the FCC began an Accessibility and Innovation Initiative last year. The effort is to promote collaborative problem-solving among stakeholders to ensure that people with disabilities reap the full benefits of communications technology.

May 1, 2011.  A new coalition was formed in Canada recently, the Access 2020 Coalition, which is calling for 100% accessibility of television by 2020. This Coalition, spearheaded by Media Access Canada, includes two International Friends of COAT (listed below). Asserting the accessibility needs of Canadians who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, deafened and hard of hearing, the Coalition urges the Canadia Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) -- an agency somewhat like the FCC -- to ensure that 1% of the value of TV mergers over the next five years be set aside into an Accessibility Initiative Trust.