Senate Hearing on S. 3304: Equal Communication Access for the 21st Century

Submitted by Leah Katz-Hernandez [1] on Mon, 06/07/2010 - 00:21

Hello again! The Senate recently introduced a version of the H.R. 3101 bill, and the Senate’s bill is called the "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act” (S. 3304).

Last Wednesday, May 26, Bobbie Beth Scoggins, President of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), and Russell Harvard, a deaf actor, testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet in support of the Senate bill. 

The senators also read written testimony from our third witness, Academy Award Winning Actress and NAD Celebrity Spokesperson, Marlee Matlin. Our three incredible witnesses made sure that our senators and representatives understood that the millions of deaf and hard of hearing Americans deserve their attention and demand equal access!

S. 3304, if passed, would make it easier for deaf and hard of hearing Americans to access the same technologies that hearing people take for granted. In particular, it would:

• Require all devices to be capable of captioning video, no matter how small the screen.
• Require all Internet videos to be captioned. This includes movies and TV shows.

However, the NAD has some concerns about the differences between this law and the house version of the bill, H. R. 3101. For example, our biggest concerns are:

• S.3304 does not define “advanced communications” as broadly as H. R. 3101. This means that some products, such as Google, Skype, AOL, Short  Messaging Services (SMS), will not be covered by the Senate bill.
• S. 3304 creates a new compliance standard: companies only need to make changes which are “achievable.” New standards often create new legal challenges. H.R. 3101, in contrast, uses the same standard of “undue burden” used by the ADA.

While it is true that S. 3304 needs minor adjustments, once passed, will provide great benefits to deaf and hard of hearing Americans. We believe that our recent hearing was a big success and a step in the right direction -- and it would not have been possible without you.

Please call or e-mail your senator today and tell them that you support S. 3304, but encourage them to pass a law  that covers all of the same devices, and enforces all of the same standards, that we saw in H.R. 3101.

Also, please let them know what you need and that we stand together! For more information on contacting your senator, see our recently released Action Alert and our blog post. With your help, we can get this law passed!

No matter where you live, calling or e-mailing your senator will be a big help. However, if your senator is on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (listed below), it is especially important that you contact them right away. For more information on contacting your senator, see our recently released Action Alert regarding S. 3304.

John Ensign - Ranking Member (NV)
Daniel K. Inouye (HI)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ)
Claire McCaskill (MO)
Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Tom Udall (NM)
Mark Warner (VA)
Mark Begich (AK)
Olympia J. Snowe (ME)
Jim DeMint (SC)
John Thune (SD)
Roger F. Wicker (MS)
George S. LeMieux (FL)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
David Vitter (LA)
Sam Brownback (KS)
Mike Johanns (NE)