Sign Petition to Support "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act"

Published 03-19-2009

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) now has an online petition to support passage of federal legislation ensuring equal access: “21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.” 

Sign it now and spread the word!  See the names of thousands of people from all 50 states who’ve signed it so far.

The petition states the following:

We, the undersigned, support the legislative and regulatory proposals of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) to ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless, and Internet communication and electronic technologies.

Over the last 20 years, various federal laws to ensure access to telephone and television technologies have been enacted. However, these federal laws have not kept pace with new technologies. For example, television programs distributed over the Internet are not required to have closed captions or video description – even if they had captions and description when they were shown on television. Also, although televisions with screens larger than 13 inches must display closed captions, small televisions, cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices do not have this same requirement; nor are they required to pass through video description. In addition, although federal law requires phones over the regular public telephone network to be hearing aid compatible, it is not clear whether this obligation carries over to smart phones used for communication over the Internet. Nor are there any affordable phone devices that work for people who are deaf-blind. The list goes on and on – nearly every time new technology is introduced in the marketplace, people with disabilities get left behind! We say enough is enough!

We want access. We need change. We support COAT’s efforts to enact the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act and other laws and policies that will ensure equal access to telecommunications, the Internet, and television programming!

For more info about COAT of which MCDHH is a long-time member, go to: www.coataccess.org Information is provided in both text and ASL video.

Click here for complete listing of COAT Affiliates.

Sign the Online Petition Today!