Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Telecommunications

Editor: The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Telecommunications (COAT) is an advocacy group working to ensure that emerging and expanding telecommunications technologies will remain accessible to people with disabilities. They began with national organizations and are now expanding to include local organizations that support this mission. If your organization would like to join, please email Karen Peltz Strauss at kpsconsulting@starpower.net. Give her the name of your organization and the name and contact information for the appropriate head of the organization.

Here's their press release.

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Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Telecommunications Launched
For Full Disability Access in the 21st Century

Get your COAT! Today, a new coalition of disability organizations was launched to advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Telecommunications or "COAT," consists of over _#_ national organizations dedicated to making sure that as our nation migrates from legacy public switched-based telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with disabilities will not be left behind. In order to achieve equal access in the 21st century, COAT has identified the following broad objectives:

* Extend current disability protections under Sections 255 and 710 of the Communications Act to IP technologies with improved accountability and enforcement measures, to ensure more accessibility, usability and interoperability for all persons with disabilities, including persons who are aging

* Expand the scope of devices that must transmit and display closed captions under the Decoder Circuitry Act (from the present requirement of television sets with screens that are 13 inches or larger) to new apparatus, including video recording and playback devices designed to receive or display digital and Internet programming

* Apply existing captioning obligations under Section 713 of the Communications Act to IPTV and other types of multi-channel video programming services that are commercially distributed over the Internet

* Extend existing relay service obligations under Section 225 of the Communications Act to VoIP providers (i.e., extend the obligation to contribute to the interstate relay fund that supports these services)

* Restore the video description rules originally promulgated by the FCC in 2000 (overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) and ensure that these rules reflect the transition to digital television programming

* Require accessible interfaces on video programming devices

* Ensure that solutions for achieving access by people with disabilities to 911 emergency PSAPs, including solutions for the receipt of text and video, are identified and implemented