Senate Passes S. 3304 by Unanimous Consent!

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 description, and making emergency information accessible.
• Require accessible user controls for televisions and set-top boxes, and easy access to closed captioning and video description.
• And more.

For more information, see the section-by-section summary of what S.3304 (as amended) will do for us at http://www.coataccess.org/node/9776 [2].

S. 3304 will now go to the House of Representatives. Our coalition, COAT, supports and expects the House will pass S. 3304 soon. Job well done, everyone! Like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 20 years ago, we are making history now!

Note: As soon as a final copy of amended S.3304 is available COAT will post and announce it on the COAT website [3].