PCB Fw: [announce] Alert Alert: H.R.3101 Sails Through Committee Markupwith Positive Additions
It has been quite a week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This morning I am very happy to report, H.R.3101, The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act was favorably reported out of committee and has tentatively been scheduled for House floor action early next week.The blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind communities can be proud of what is contained in the legislation that will go to the House floor.The program to fund the purchase of communications devices for individuals who are deaf-blind has been added to the bill. H.R.3101 Gives the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authority to increase the availability of description of video programming. It will not limit video description to 7 hours per week on 9 channels. There will be a time-line for adding more hours and ensuring that description is available nation-wide and not just in the largest media markets. This bill makes sure that people who are blind or visually impaired can connect to and interact with the Internet when it is available on mobile, handheld, or other devices through accessible user interfaces.There are also other very positive provisions that have been included in the legislation. We are actively reviewing the amended bill now to gain a full understanding of the technical language. I wanted to highlight these specific provisions as they have been the subject of several action alerts and have been discussed in various meetings at the 2010 ACB Conference and Convention. We can be very proud of the advocacy efforts of individuals and affiliates of ACB. Our job isn’t done, however. After the bill passes the House I will have more to say about strategy in the hopes that this bill becomes law. There is much more to come so please keep in touch.Eric
