[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 102 (Thursday, June 19, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1292-E1293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE 21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY 
                                  ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 19, 2008

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the 21st Century 
Communications and Video Accessibility Act, along with my colleague 
Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM). Madam Speaker, telecommunications 
technologies have a proven ability to empower individuals with the 
necessary tools of the information age. These technological tools can 
animate the personal use of communications for work or enjoyment, but 
also impact health care delivery, educational opportunities, the 
prospects for employment, and job creation. The goal of the legislation 
is to establish new safeguards for disability access to ensure that 
people with disabilities are not left behind as technology changes and 
the United States migrates to the next generation of Internet-based and 
digital communication technologies.
  As the story in today's Washington Post business section makes clear, 
the practical effect and use of many innovative services and high tech 
equipment in the marketplace can be diminished or eliminated for 
individuals with disabilities if accessibility isn't built-in, or 
factored into the design, of the product or service. This keeps the 
promise of the information age as just that--a promise. And it often 
means that to obtain accessible equipment, individuals with 
disabilities must pay significantly, and in many cases needlessly, more 
than if standards and accessibility were built in or adopted earlier in 
the design process. The provisions of this bill will help to ensure 
that such accessibility is factored in and manufactured into products 
and services as a matter of course, which also will have the effect of 
reducing costs to consumers who rely on such services and products.
  In summary, here is what the bill we are introducing today aims to 
do. First, Section 102 of the bill extends the Federal law that 
currently requires hearing aid compatibility on newly-manufactured and 
imported telephones, to comparable equipment used to provide IP-enabled 
communication service. The purpose of this section is to make sure that 
people with hearing loss have access to telephone devices used with 
advanced technologies, including cell phones or any other handsets used 
for Internet-based voice communications. (This section is not intended 
to extend to headsets or headphones used with computers.)
  Section 103 of the bill, addressing relay services, clarifies that 
telecommunications relay services (TRS) are intended to ensure that 
people who have hearing or speech disabilities can use relay services 
to engage in functionally equivalent telephone communication with all 
other people, not just people without a hearing or speech disability. 
It revises Section 225 of the Communications Act of 1934, which has 
been interpreted at times (by the FCC) to authorize only relay services 
between people with disabilities and people without disabilities. This 
section also expands the relay service obligation to contribute to the 
Telecommunications Relay Services Fund to all providers of IP-enabled 
communication services that provide voice communication.
  Sec. 104 of the legislation, designed to address access to Internet-
based services and equipment, builds upon authority contained in 
Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934, which generally requires 
telecommunications service providers, as well as interconnected VoIP 
providers and manufacturers, to make their services and equipment 
accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. This section 
creates new safeguards for Internet-based communications technologies 
(equipment, services and networks) to be accessible by people with 
disabilities, unless doing so would result in an undue burden. Where an 
undue burden would result, manufacturers and providers must make their 
equipment and services compatible with specialized equipment and 
services typically used by people with disabilities. (The term ``undue 
burden'' has the same meaning given it in the Americans with 
Disabilities Act.)
  In addition, this section also contains measures to improve the 
accountability and enforcement of disability safeguards under Section 
255 and the new Section 255A, including directives for new FCC 
complaint procedures, reporting obligations for industry and the FCC, 
the creation of a clearinghouse of information on accessible products 
and services by the U.S. Access Board and National Telecommunications 
and Information Administration (NTIA), and directives for enhanced 
outreach and education by the FCC and NTIA.
  Sec. 104 also clarifies that the transmission and receipt of text 
messages sent by radio to and from mobile wireless devices are 
telecommunications services, and therefore must comply with the 
accessibility obligations under Section 255 and the new accountability 
measures under Section 255B.
  The bill also contains a modest section on universal service. This 
provision makes consumers with disabilities--as a distinct group--
eligible to receive universal service support through two specific 
measures. First, it grants the FCC authority to designate broadband 
services needed for ``phone communication'' by people with disabilities 
as services eligible to receive support under the existing Lifeline and 
Linkup universal service programs. For example, this would include deaf 
individuals who are otherwise eligible for Lifeline and Linkup support, 
but who rely on Internet-based video relay services or point-to-point 
video for their telephone communications. Second, it grants authority 
to the FCC to designate programs that distribute specialized equipment 
used to make telecommunications and Internet-enabled communication 
services accessible to individuals who are deaf-blind, as eligible for 
universal service support. Such support, however, is capped at $10 
million per year.
  Section 106 of the bill contains a specific requirement for real-time 
text support, to ensure that people with disabilities, especially 
individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing or who have a speech 
disability, are able to communicate with others via text in an IP 
environment with the same reliability and interoperability as they 
receive via the public telephone network when using TTYs. A primary 
goal of this section is to ensure that individuals who rely on text to 
communicate have equal access to emergency services during and after 
the migration to a national IP-enabled emergency network.

  Section 201 of the legislation directs the FCC to conduct three 
inquiries within 6 months of passage of the Act, and to report to 
Congress on the results of such inquiries within 1 year: (1) to 
identify formats and software needed to transmit, receive and display 
closed captioning and video programming provided via Internet-enabled 
services and digital wireless services, including ways to transmit 
televised emergency information that is accessible to people who are 
blind or visually impaired; and (2) to identify ways to make user 
interfaces (controls--e.g., turning these devices on and off, 
controlling volume and select programming) on television and other 
video programming devices--including the receipt, display, navigation 
and selection of programming--accessible to people who are blind or 
visually impaired, and (3) to identify ways to make video programming 
guides and menus (typically on-screen) accessible in real-time to 
people who cannot read those guides or menus.
  Section 202 expands the scope of devices that must display closed 
captions under the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 from the 
present requirement of television sets with screens that are 13 inches 
or larger, to all video devices that receive or display video 
programming transmitted simultaneously with sound, including those that 
can receive or display programming carried over the Internet. The 
section also requires these devices to be able to transmit and deliver 
video descriptions. Video description is the provision of verbal 
descriptions of the on-screen visual elements of a show provided during 
natural pauses in dialogue.
  The next section of the bill addresses video description and closed 
captioning. Section 203 reinstates the FCC's modest regulations on

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video description. Those rules, originally promulgated in 2001, were 
struck down by a U.S. Court of Appeals for lack of FCC authority. This 
section also authorizes the FCC to promulgate additional rules to (1) 
ensure that video description services can be transmitted and provided 
over digital TV technologies, (2) require non-visual access to on-
screen emergency warnings and similar televised information and (3) 
increase the amount of video description required. Finally, this 
section adds a definition for video programming to include programming 
distributed over the Internet to make clear that the existing closed 
captioning obligations (and future video description obligations) 
contained in Section 713 apply to video programming that is distributed 
or re-distributed over the Internet.
  This section is also intended to ensure the continued accessibility 
of video programming to Americans with disabilities, as this 
programming migrates to the Internet. It further tasks the FCC to 
create captioning rules for three types of programming: (1) pre-
produced programming that was previously captioned for television 
viewing, (2) live video programming, and (3) programming (first 
published or exhibited after the effective date of the FCC's 
regulations) provided by or generally considered to be comparable to 
programming provided by multichannel programming distributors.
  Section 204 requires devices used to receive or display video 
programming, including devices used to receive and display Internet-
based video programming, to be accessible by people with disabilities 
so that such individuals are able to access all functions of such 
devices (such as turning these devices on and off, controlling volume 
and select programming). The section contains requirements for (1) 
audio output where on-screen text menus are used to control video 
programming functions, and (2) a conspicuous means of accessing closed 
captioning and video description, including a button on remote controls 
and first level access to these accessibility features when made 
available through on-screen menus. The final section of the legislation 
requires multichannel video programming distributors to make their 
navigational programming guides accessible to people who cannot read 
the visual display, so that these individuals can make program 
selections.
  Madam Speaker, I look forward to working with all of my House 
colleagues on this important legislative initiative in the coming 
weeks.

                          ____________________