I was reading the news when I saw a mention of Congress in the process of legislation that would substantially enhance accessibility for the deaf and the disabled for the internet. Naturally, this got my attention.
Here’s the link if you’d like to read the bill for yourself: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h6320/show
For those who’re wondering, the bill has just been introduced. The bill currently is waiting to be scheduled for debate.
If you’d like a summary of what the bill potentially covers, read on!
- Require all VO-IP (Example: Vonage) equipment to be compatible with hearing aids
- Pretty much this one is talking about phones that work through internet. Right now, landline phones are required to be compatible with hearing aids. Cell phones unfortunately however are exempt, meaning they don’t have to be compatible. The new bill doesn’t fix that. One step at a time, I guess.
- Layman’s Terms: If the bill becomes law, people with hearing aids would finally be able to have VO-IP equipment that works fine with their hearing aids!
- Redefines ‘Telecommunications Relay Services’.
- It’s just rephrasing the section, no big changes here.
- Layman’s Terms: Same thing as old law, different words.
- Requires all VO-IP providers to pay taxes to the Telecommunications Relay Services Fund
- Meaning, the funding for the relay services for the deaf would significantly increase. Excellent news! It also equalizes them with the other telephone service providers; they have to pay taxes too, so it wasn’t fair that they had to pay taxes to the TRS Fund while the VO-IP providers didn’t when they both basically were providing the same service, albeit via different methods.
- Layman’s Terms: More money for the relay services!
- Requires all VO-IP equipment to be accessible by the disabled
- Sometimes VO-IP equipment will beep to let people know there’s an event, such as an error, or whatever. This section of the bill, if it becomes law, would require manufacturers to from that point on include visual indicators for the deaf, and auditory indicators for the blind. Pretty good!
- Layman’s Terms: If this bill passes, all VO-IP equipment will tell you visually if there’s an event, like a problem or something.
- Requires all VO-IP providers to make it so the deaf can use TDDs with their services!
- No explanation needed!
- Requires that the VO-IP providers make all features that they offer to the hearing be also available to the deaf.
- Think of call-waiting, forwarding, etc, etc.
- Sets up guidelines for enforcement of Accessibility Violations of this bill
- Basically gives this bill teeth if it becomes law, so we can fight companies who try to avoid following the law! Good to know!
- Requires Government to have a database containing information of ALL accessible products
- The government would have a website and/or a catalog that deaf people could browse though to find accessible products to buy and make use of. Great for me; I tend to depend on Harris Communications for that and their prices are high! This would also give significant competition to those in the accessibility industry since all of their products would be listed in one place! This bill also requires the government to make the effort to let EVERYBODY know about this source!
- Layman’s Terms: No more searching for accessible products, now we can find info about them in a single source! And not only that, they’ll even make the effort to let the disabled KNOW about this source!
- Defines assistance programs such as Lifeline Link Up, etc as Services
- Layman’s Terms: Simply redefining it, I suspect this would enable using the fund for broadband services; maybe this means free (or more likely cheap) internet for the Deaf so we’d be able to use our videophones. There was no mention of ‘broadband’ in the bill, so I can’t be too sure as to this part.
- Emergency Access and Real-Time Text Support
- VO-IP and Relay providers, whether TDD-based or IP-based (such as Video Relay Services, or IP relay services), would be required to set it up so people can dial emergency numbers, and also have highly efficient text-based conversations when via IP relay or TDD, ensuring no delay is caused.
- Layman’s Terms: Now we don’t have to worry about emergencies; we can dial 911 using any kind of relay service we want.
- Majority of internet video media must be captioned!
- No explanation needed, but this part is my favorite part!
- Note: I doubt YouTube would be captioned. Some may be, but most wouldn’t. I think this law would be applicable to video distributors, and YouTube doesn’t distribute the video media, the users do. So chances are, this section would be applicable to companies, politicians, organizations, and so on. Individuals and movies distributed on a personal basis would most likely be exempt from this. For those, there’s always Bill Creswell.
- Note: I doubt YouTube would be captioned. Some may be, but most wouldn’t. I think this law would be applicable to video distributors, and YouTube doesn’t distribute the video media, the users do. So chances are, this section would be applicable to companies, politicians, organizations, and so on. Individuals and movies distributed on a personal basis would most likely be exempt from this. For those, there’s always Bill Creswell.
- No explanation needed, but this part is my favorite part!
This bill is definitely a much needed addition to the ADA. Your thoughts?
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