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Accessible Communications
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The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act: Highlights of a New Landmark Communications Law
By: Mark Richert
AccessWorld (r)
January 2012 Issue Volume 13 Number 1
If you would have told me a decade ago that one day there would be a law requiring virtually all text communication, mobile phone Web browsers, TVs, and broadcast emergency alerts to be fully accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired, I would likely have told you to keep dreaming. But if you also told me that this same legislation would be stronger than any communications law for people with disabilities previously enacted, that it would result in more than 60 hours a week of described video programming, and, amazingly, that it would permanently make up to $10 million per year available to put expensive communications equipment in the hands of people who are deaf-blind, I might have told you that you have a rich, albeit nerdy, fantasy life.
As incredible as it sounds, such legislation is now the law of the land, thanks to the passage of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, or CVAA. While readers of AccessWorld are no doubt some of the more savvy and connected folks who follow developments in technology policy, this brief rundown of what the CVAA does was written to provide a better understanding of the changes people who are blind or visually impaired can and should expect from the communications, consumer electronics, and video programming industries.
Please click here (Access World by American Foundation for the Blind) to read more...
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