THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY ACT OF 2008 -- HON. HEATHER WILSON (Extensions of Remarks - June 19, 2008)
HON. HEATHER WILSON
OF NEW MEXICO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, June 19, 2008
* Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, the advancement of technology over the last 20 years has revolutionized daily life for Americans. Most of us use some form of technology every day. Cell phones, computers, iPods, webcasts, and televisions are everywhere.
* User-friendly technology is also important for people with disabilities. Televisions, computers, and cellular devices are available to the public at-large, but, unlike the ``plain old telephone'' there are no requirements to ensure that every American is able to use them. Technology can enable the disabled with things like specialized hardware that simulates the human voice reading the computer screen. Assistive or adaptive technology has taken down many barriers to education and employment for disabled Americans. The technology is there, and now we need to encourage its national availability.
* Alice Marshall is a mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She works for the Bureau of Land Management and when she was watching the news a few weeks ago, northern areas of New Mexico were receiving warnings of possible tornados in the area. She was not aware of this news because it was scrolling across the emergency ticker at the bottom of the screen and Alice is blind. The only audio descriptor technology available to her has to be ordered by mail and costs about $100.
* Another constituent, Priscilla Stansbury, a grandmother caring for her 3 grandchildren, is not able to get information easily about snow days and school cancellation. She is blind and tells me that school cancellation and amber alert information generally runs along the bottom of her TV screen with no audio that she can hear.
* The Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008 would require that IP-enabled communication equipment manufactured in the United States have a built-in speaker and a closed captioning decoder. The speaker and decoder would allow Americans with visual and hearing impairments to access the Internet, computers, and cellular devices. Furthermore, it would ensure that IP enabled equipment is manufactured to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.
* Most Americans get emergency information over the radio, the television or the Internet. Warnings about tornados, such as the one we received on Capitol Hill the other week, should be accessible to all Americans. This bill would require audio and visual accessibility for those who are deaf and blind.
* According to the Foundation for the Blind there are approximately 10 million blind people in the United States. The National Association of the Deaf report an estimated 22 million Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing, and there are a variety of other disabilities that affect the accessibility to audio-visual devices.
* Today I joined Congressman Ed Markey in introducing this legislation to ensure that American citizens with disabilities have full access to the information that the rest of us take for granted.