Bill would require closed captioning
A bill pending in Congress aimed at helping the hard of hearing and other disabled people access television and Web casts with greater ease is being praised by local advocates.
According to disabilities activist Jamie Berke, who is deaf, HR 3101 is a proposed federal law spearheaded by the Coalitions of Organizations for Accessible Technology and includes local and state chapters of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), she said in an e-mail.
Berke is now leading a group called Caption Action 2 on the social networking site Facebook in support of HR 3101. She said the bill has many provisions, including closed-captioning requirements from regular TV to the Internet.
The bill, known as the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, would amend the 1934 Communications Act to ensure the disabled have access to emerging Internet-based communications and video programming technologies. Among numerous measures it provides are closed captioning for any picture screen at least 13 inches wide and video description conveying emergency information, Berke said.
Sherry Appleby, former chairwoman of the Yuma chapter of HLAA and owner of Hearing Aid Specialists Inc., said HR 3101 ensures that the disabled will not be left behind as telephones and television increasingly rely on digital and Internet protocol technologies. It will allow greater numbers of disabled to enjoy all technologies that everyone else takes for granted, she noted.
"It's about time people with disabilities received assurances they will be fully included as America's communications evolve. New digital and Internet-based technology can provide wonderful opportunities for better employment and education (online courses) but only if they are accessible and affordable."
Despite laws in the 1980s and 1990s that guaranteed TV and telephone access such as hearing aid-compatible phones and captioning on TV, a new law is needed to apply to the Internet, she said. While closed captions are required on new TV shows, the very few that are Web cast will now have captioning. The proposed new law also covers cell phones that have applications for video programming, she said.
"Right now we can't even find the way to turn on captions on the new digital TVs. A requirement will have manufacturers put a captioning button on the remote control and caption settings at the top level of onscreen menus. And this will let America's growing population of hearing impaired enjoy TV with their families and friends."
Another provision of the bill allows the deaf who use the Internet to communicate in video and to receive the Lifeline and Linkup discount for their broadband service, Appleby said. Many hearing-impaired no longer use wireline phone services. Instead they use video relay, the only communication device that works for them in their "native language," sign language, she said.
"I am pleased proposals will require on-screen text menus and TV controls to be accessible through audio outputs. There's so much TV programming we are missing because the controls are inaccessible or too difficult to use."
