National Association of the Deaf

The NAD responded to an opinion published on January 25, 2010 in the LA Times by Berin Szoka of the Progress & Freedom Foundation about access to the Internet by people with disabilities.  Mr. Szoka believes that “innovation and competition – not mandates – will widen Web access for the disabled.” To reach this conclusion, Mr. Szoka must ignore history.

The NAD submitted this response for publication by the LA Times:

An Internet for everyone, including us

We were intrigued to read Berin Szoka’s opinion about how “innovation and competition – not mandates – will widen Web access for the disabled.”  To reach this conclusion, Mr. Szoka must ignore history.  The marketplace, left to its own devices, does not result in access for people with disabilities.  Here is just one example: for generations, not just years, deaf and hard of hearing people were excluded from the telephone network and television news, information, and entertainment.  This exclusion is something that must be remembered, not repeated. The lesson we should all have learned by now is that access for everyone, to be achieved, must be mandated. 

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) was established in 1880 by deaf leaders who believed in the right of the American deaf community to use sign language, to congregate on issues important to them, and to have its interests represented at the national level.  These beliefs remain true to this day, with American Sign Language as a core value. As a nonprofit federation, the mission of the NAD is to preserve, protect, and promote the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering the breadth of a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership, and more.

It is sometimes easy to forget that people who are deaf or hard of hearing did not have access to the telephone network until the teletypewriter (TTY) was finally developed in the 1960s and that nationwide relay services that connect TTY and telephone users were not available until required by law in 1990. Captions, which provide access to television, were available but provided only on an extremely limited, voluntary basis in the 1980s. A law, passed in 1990, was needed to require televisions to have caption decoder systems.  Still another law, passed in 1996, was needed to require the captions. Finally, in 2006, that law resulted in a requirement for all new, non-exempt television programs to have captions. Today, television programs are captioned when shown on television. But most of these television programs are not captioned when shown on the Internet. 

Innovation is necessary to ensure that new technologies, applications, and equipment are available, affordable, and accessible to all Americans, including Americans with disabilities. Yes, innovation to enable access by people with disabilities, just like innovation for anyone else, will cost something. However, such innovation is good for everyone, increases functionality and flexibility, as demonstrated by the Mr. Szoka’s own use of innovative speech-recognition software. 

When market forces result in access for people with disabilities to the Internet and broadband devices, advocates can turn their attention to other things. In the meantime, when the only way to ensure access is to mandate it, then that is what must be done. Access is not only appealing; it’s the right thing to do. As a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said recently during oral argument in a case brought to increase access for moviegoers who are deaf or blind, industry can “be the good guys, or you can be dragged kicking and screaming and look like jerks.”

Passage of the Markey bill (H.R. 3101) will simply ensure that industry does the right thing.