My thoughts on HR 3101, the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009

Lately, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to HR 3101, which was introduced into the House at the end of June by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA.) Full text of the bill can be read here.

This bill is aimed at providing accessibility to people with various disabilities. I only know what it’s like to be deaf, and not blind or autistic, so I can only tell my own story of why I support HR 3101.

I remember when closed captions first became available on television. I was about 6 or 7 years old when my parents bought a caption decoder for our television, and the first shows I was able to watch were Sesame Street and the evening news. I was too old for Sesame Street, but it was one of the few captioned shows available at the time, and I was happy to be able to watch something on TV with my family and my friends. As time went by, more and more TV shows became captioned. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Among many things, it required that all televisions built after October 1993 have closed caption chips in them. All commercial and emergency broadcasts must be closed captioned now. It also brought into effect the Telecommunications Relay Services.

As technology evolves and new tools emerge, there is very little regulation ensuring that they will be accessible. Faster, cheaper broadband access is helping to move media onto the Internet. The world has changed progressively since I was a kid. The way we learn, interact, and conduct business today is vastly different than it was for my parents.

It’s not just about watching television for entertainment, though. Sure, while I’d appreciate being able to watch shows on Hulu or movies on Netflix or any other myriad of online video systems, there’s so much more involved here. Many educational institutions offer online degree programs and distance learning. More and more businesses are encouraging their employees to telecommute, and are hosting online meetings over Internet protocols. Ensuring that these online lectures and meetings are captioned means that I and other deaf people don’t get left out of the loop. The bill also aims to provide more hearing aid compatibility support and real-time text support for emergency services. It is not limited to these technologies and is written in a way that it will expand to include future technologies.

In short, everyone has the right to have equal access to these new technologies, and HR 3101 will make sure those with disabilities have equal access to Internet-based and digital communication technologies now and in the future.

Positions (taken from Caption Action 2):

How can you help? (via NAD.org)

1. Find your U.S. Representative. You can call, mail, and fax in support of H.R. 3101 to your Representative.
2. Find your two U.S. Senators. You can use the contact list at the link to call, e-mail, and click on their home pages to send faxes as well.
3. You can ask these offices when your Member of Congress will be in town holding a district event so you can go there in person to lobby in favor of H.R. 3101. In-person visits to your elected official can be very valuable. This brings the message home about H.R. 3101 and lets your elected official know how much you care about H.R. 3101.
4. Become familiar with what H.R. 3101 does, and what it would do for the deaf and hard of hearing community in America, so that you sound knowledgeable about the legislation when you write e-mails, letters, or faxes in support of it. You can check out the bill text at Thomas, which is a website that has all of the bills that are introduced in each Congress. You can also read a summary of each of the issues addressed by the bill at www.COATaccess.org (see the list of COAT Issues).
5. You can sign the petition being circulated by COAT, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, in support of H.R. 3101.
6. You can join Facebook groups such as this one in support of Internet captioning, and promote efforts to make more people aware about H.R. 3101, and why we need to pass it in the 111th Congress. You can also look for blogs such as Caption Action 2, which is run by Jamie Berke and others, on this issue.

FAQ:

Q: “YouTube? How will that work? Also what is “the internet” do they intend to include all the Chinese, British, French & etc. sites too?”

Q: “Just wondering about the details. Do I have to CC a video if I want to upload it?”

A: The law would include any U.S.-run sites. HR 3101 doesn’t require captions on consumer generated videos on the Internet (i.e., individuals who post videos on YouTube).

Text taken from Rosaline Crawford at the National Association for the Deaf (NAD): “H.R. 3101 adds a definition for television video programming to include programming distributed over the Internet. H.R. 3101 tasks the FCC with creating captioning rules for three types of programming: (1) pre-produced programming that was previously captioned for television viewing, (2) live video programming, and (3) new programming provided by or generally considered to be comparable to programming provided by multichannel programming distributors (such as cable or satellite subscription TV services). This section is intended to ensure the continued accessibility of television video programming, as this programming migrates to the Internet. For example, with authority under H.R. 3101, the new FCC rules would likely cover ABC television programs that were captioned when shown on TV, live ABC programs, and new ABC programs that are shown on the Internet.”

HR 3101 is currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce where it is competiting against thousands of other bills for attention. The current Congress (111th) will end in 2011, and if HR 3101 doesn’t pass before that, it will have to be reintroduced.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope you’ll show your support for HR 3101.