National Association of the Deaf

The U.S. Senate passed the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (S. 3304) on August 5, 2010, by unanimous consent! Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of advocates across the country and in Washington, DC, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), of which the NAD is a leader and steering committee member along with other disability organizations, secured a monumental step forward in accessible technology. Earlier this week, Senator Pryor (D-AR) introduced an amendment to improve S. 3304. S. 3304, as amended, was passed by U.S. Senate by unanimous consent. Like H.R. 3101, which was passed on July 26, 2010, S. 3304 will also:

• Require captioned television programs to be captioned when delivered over the Internet.
• Authorize the FCC to require 7 hours per week of video description on the top 4 network channels and top 5 cable channels nationwide.
• Allocate up to $10 million per year for equipment used by individuals who are deaf-blind.
• Require televised emergency information to be accessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
• Require accessible advanced communications equipment and services, such as text messaging and e-mail.
• Require access to Internet services that are built-in to mobile telephone devices, like smart phones, if achievable.
• Require devices of any size to be capable of displaying closed captioning, delivering available video