NAD Receives Congressional Support on Captioning Issue

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced support from nine Members of Congress who wrote to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige urging the immediate reversal of the Department’s decision to disallow funding for captioning of nearly 200 television programs. The letter was sent by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL) and supported by Sherrod Brown (OH), Jerry Costello (IL), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Jim McDermott (WA), Juanita Millender-McDonald (CA), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH), Maxine Waters (CA), and Lynn Woolsey (CA). The Members of Congress urged Secretary Paige to "undertake an open and public process that is driven by consumer choice to determine the best way to allocate federal closed captioning funding."

"Captioning is an very important issue to over 28 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans," said Kelby Brick, Director of the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center, "We are gratified to see Congresswoman Schakowsky and other Members of Congress stand up against government censorship and promote open and full access to education and information.

"The decision also undermines parental authority by preventing parents from monitoring their children’s television viewing. Finally, this rule isolates individuals instead of bringing people together," the letter said.

A copy of the letter can be found at (2 pages):
http://www.nad.org/infocenter/newsroom/nadnews/20040511Paige_members.pdf [2]

This letter follows a letter from Senators. See:
http://nad.org/infocenter/newsroom/nadnews/20040414senatorfccltr.html [3]

Related info:
http://www.nad.org/openhouse/action/eow/vol3no1.html [4]