[Missouri-l] Fwd: ALERT!--Landmark Communications and Video Accessibility Legislation Introduced--Urge Your Member of Congress to Cosponsor!

[Chip Hailey]

>Delivered-To: chiphailey at cableone.net
>From: "AFB DirectConnect" <blemoine at afb.net>
>To: "AFB Subscriber" <afbweb at afb.net>
>Subject: ALERT!--Landmark Communications and Video Accessibility 
>Legislation Introduced--Urge Your Member of Congress to Cosponsor!
>Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:52:25 -0400
>
>
>
>ALERT!--Landmark Communications and Video Accessibility Legislation 
>Introduced--Urge Your Member of Congress to Cosponsor!
>
>For further information, contact:
>
>Mark Richert
>Director, Public Policy, AFB
>(202) 822-0833
><mailto:mrichert at afb.net>mrichert at afb.net
>
>On Friday afternoon, June 26, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced 
>comprehensive legislation to ensure that people with disabilities 
>have access to Internet-based telecommunications and video 
>programming technologies. The bill, the Twenty-first Century 
>Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101), will--
>
>    * require that mobile and other Internet-based 
> telecommunications devices be fully hearing aid compatible, have 
> accessible user interfaces, and offer people with disabilities use 
> of a full range of text messaging and other popular services that 
> are currently largely inaccessible;
>    * provide people who are deaf-blind with vital but costly 
> technologies they need to communicate electronically, establish a 
> process for the provision of real-time text capability, and clarify 
> existing relay-to-relay, Lifeline and Linkup service requirements 
> to ensure their relevance to the real world communications needs of 
> people with disabilities;
>    * restore the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) modest 
> video description rules and unambiguously establish the 
> Commission's current and ongoing authority to expand such 
> regulations, require emergency announcements and similar 
> information to be accessible to people with disabilities through 
> audible presentation of on-screen alerts, ensure that video 
> programming offered via the Internet will be both captioned and 
> described, and call for all devices that receive and playback video 
> programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow ready 
> access to captioning and description; and
>    * strengthen consumers' ability to enforce their rights to 
> communications and video accessibility through the establishment of 
> a clearinghouse of information about service and equipment 
> accessibility and usability, a meaningful FCC complaint process 
> that holds industry accountable for their accessibility 
> obligations, and judicial review of FCC action to ensure the 
> Commission's own accountability.
>
>All Members of the United States House of Representatives should be 
>actively encouraged to cosponsor H.R. 3101, the Twenty-first Century 
>Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, and you are 
>urged to contact your Member of Congress immediately to make such a 
>request. Learn how to contact your Member of Congress at 
><https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml>https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml. 
>
>
>Additionally, please share this alert widely with your networks and 
>other contacts to spread the word.
>
>This landmark legislation, the work product of the Coalition of 
>Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), was introduced by 
>Rep. Markey in the last Congress as H.R. 6320 and has been 
>significantly revised based on extensive and successful negotiation 
>with leading industry players. COAT is a broad-based 
>cross-disability coalition of more than 230 national, regional, and 
>community-based groups working together for information age equity 
>for people with disabilities. You can find additional information 
>about COAT and supporting material describing the purposes and 
>provisions of COAT's proposed legislation at 
><http://www.coataccess.org>www.coataccess.org.