FYI. House draft disabilty telecom leg includes Video Description restoration!!!

Jenifer Simpson <[email protected]> Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:01:02 -0500

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.accessibility.vision
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Below is the notice and action alert from the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT). A critical component of this draft legislation is restoration of the video description regulations, but in the context of digital TV and with requirements for accessible TV interfaces. You are encouraged to get involved and support this!. Thanks. Jenifer Simpson, AAPD

HOUSE RELEASES 21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY ACT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

On December 21, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives released a draft bill, the long-awaited “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.” This proposal is a dramatic and comprehensive step forward for consumers with disabilities. It proposes to amend the Communications Act – the main statute that impacts the telephone and video programming industries – to add new consumer protections that will ensure people with disabilities do not get left out or left behind as telephones and television programming increasingly rely on digital and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. The proposals will allow greater numbers of people with disabilities to become independent and productive members of society, as well as to enjoy all the new electronic gadgets and devices that everyone else takes for granted.

To see a summary of the bill (Word) please go to website at
http://markey.house.gov/docs/telecomm/summary_of_telecom_legislation.doc

To see the draft bill (PDF only) please go to http://markey.house.gov/docs/telecomm/draft_of_telecom_legislation.pdf

Or go to http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3236&Itemid=46 and CLICK on the documents.

IMMEDIATE ACTION STEPS!!! To help pass these simple communication fixes that will bring communications into the 21st century for people with disabilities, please send letters as soon as you can to the following House members who are the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (the committee that is assigned this bill). Make sure to ask them for their sponsorship of the legislation:
Rep. John Dingell, (D-MI), Chairman, House Energy and Commerce Committee, Room 2328 Rayburn House Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Rep. John Dingell, (D-MI), Chairman, House Energy and Commerce Committee, Room 2328 Rayburn House Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Room 2125 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Ranking Minority Members:

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Room 2109 Rayburn House Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Room 2322A Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Also send letters to your own representatives if they are members of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, whichwill review the bill first (This subcommittee is within the full House Committee.) You can see list of subcommittee members and get their addresses at http://energycommerce.house.gov/Subcommittees/telint.shtmlhttp://energycommerce.house.gov/Subcommittees/telint.shtml. Snail mail is preferred.

Please send copies of your letters to: COAT, c/o of AAPD, 1629 K Street NW, Suite 503, Washington, DC 20006, attn: J. Simpson.

Your letter could help make sure that there really is 21st century electronic communication for people with disabilities!

Additional Action Steps will follow! Please stay alert!

THANKS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

end

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