Draft Broadband Reform Bill Accommodates People with Disabilities

Editor: You are probably aware that virtually all electronic communication is moving to the digital world. This includes telephone service, television broadcasting, etc. Maintaining access to these services is obviously a high priority for people with disabilities. Happily, the bill that Congress is considering seems to accommodate folks with disabilities, according to the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). Here's the press release from Justice for All.

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Disability Advocates Delighted with Efforts to Ensure Access in House Staff Discussion Draft on Broadband Reform

Andrew J. Imparato, AAPD President and CEO 202-457-0046

Washington, DC - September 15, 2005-- The nations major disability organizations are delighted with efforts of House legislators to address the needs of people with disabilities in todays public release of a Discussion Draft of federal broadband reform legislation by staff of the Energy & Commerce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives.

The House committee staff unveiled the draft at noon on Thursday. Noting that it is not an officially introduced bill, the staff seeks comment from telecommunications, cable, satellite, and other industry representatives as well as from representatives of consumers of communications services by September 27.

Disability groups reacted within hours. Speaking on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the nations oldest and largest self-advocacy organization of deaf and hard of hearing Americans, NAD governmental affairs consultant Frank Bowe said: The NAD is simply ecstatic at the staff draft. The House staff listened to us and heard us! Bowe is a professor at Hofstra University, on Long Island.

Added Karen Peltz Strauss, Esq., telecommunications attorney advocating on behalf of several disability constituencies: The proposed disability language is truly the product of bipartisan efforts. Congressmen Upton, Barton, Dingell, Markey, and Pickering are to be commended for their excellent efforts to safeguard disability access to the IP technologies of the future. These legislators understand how important it is not to leave behind people with disabilities as the rest of the nation surges ahead in their use and enjoyment of these innovative and exciting technologies. Strauss is a former senior staff member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Bowe and Strauss pointed to language proposed in section 404 in the staff draft entitled Access by Persons with Disabilities. The section calls for broadband, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), and other IP-based communications equipment manufacturers and service providers to make sure that their products and services are accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. Companies making products or offering services do not have to provide access if they can prove that doing so would cause their business an undue burden. In the event an undue burden is claimed, manufacturers and providers still must find alternative ways to make products and services compatible with adaptive equipment and software that is specifically designed for use by people with disabilities.

The advocates also hailed section 208 of the staff draft. Entitled Provision of Relay Service, this section calls for VoIP service providers to offer relay services for individuals with hearing, speech, or other communication-related disabilities. Current relay provisions, contained in Section 225 of the Communications Act of 1934, do not require VoIP service providers to do so. Relay services enable individuals who cannot speak or hear to engage in text, voice or video communication with other individuals through a third party called a communications assistant (CA). Various types of relay services facilitate communication in text, voice, sign language, and captions.

American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) President and CEO Andrew Imparato said: AAPD continues to be an active participant in the ongoing efforts of Americans with disabilities to achieve parity in todays communications environment. Working with the American Foundation for the Blind, TDI, and other organizations, such as the NAD, we will monitor developments as Congress moves from this initial staff discussion draft toward actual legislation.