My Latest Letter on H.R.3101

Please join with me in writing to your representative in Congress, urging
him or her to co-sponsor H.R.3101.

October 27, 2009

Honorable Representative Peter Roskam
C/O Congressional Staff
507 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

To: Honorable Representative Roskam:

I am writing to request that you sign on as a co-sponsor of H.R.3101, "The
21st Century Telecommunications and Video Accessibility Act." This
legislation, put together by the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible
Technology (COAT) with some industry support aims to improve accessibility
to telecommunications and video equipment in a variety of ways for people
with disabilities.

Generally, I believe that the free market should dictate whether or not
things become more accessible. Apple Computer is a great example of a
company taking initiative to make things accessible out of the box with
VoiceOver for the Mac and the iPhone 3GS.

Unfortunately, in general, companies have not made things more accessible,
thus the Government needs to intervene. Let me give you a recent, personal
example of this.My wife and I recently purchased a home theater system as an
anniversary gift to each other. We knew we were going to need some help
setting this unit up as we are both totally blind. We knew we would need
help wiring the system up.

Well, not only did we need help wiring this unit up, but we also needed help
setting up the system. Why? Because the setup depended on following
on-screen menus which we cannot see. There was no voice or other
accessible means of output. Even the setup DVD that was sent did offer some
voice guidance, but we still couldn't set it up independently because it
would say, scroll down to certain options but give no voice output feedback
when you reached the option you needed to find.

If H.R.3101 were law today, perhaps Sony, the manufacturer of this system
would have to include options that make this equipment independently
accessible to people like us. I worked for over 15 years in
telecommunications. I know it would be simple to add voice chips to provide
voice output on demand for equipment like this.

H.R.3101 does much more. It gives the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) authority to mandate a modest amount of video description on network
television programming, so that people who are blind or visually impaired
can enjoy television programs just as you do. It allocates up to $10
million each year from the Universal Service Fund into which we all as
telephone customers pay to assist people who are deaf-blind to obtain
telecommunications equipment that they need to decrease isolation and
enhance employment and quality of life opportunities.

H.R.3101 requires that any program which includes video description which
transitions over to the internet includes that description. And, it
requires that emergency announcements scrawled across televisions screens be
verbalized. This will end the anxiety of hearing the beeps on TV and not
knowing if a tornado is headed toward my house.

Again, please sign on as a co-sponsor of H.R.3101. Many people with
disabilities wil benefit from its being passed and signed into law. While
there will be some cost of implementing this legislation, the cost of doing
nothing will be greater. That cost will be people with disabilities being
left behind as technology advances, less employmenbt and other
opportunities.

Thank you for your time and action to co-sponsor H.R.3101. I will be
watching what happens very closely and continue to contact you as
appropriate regarding this legislation.

Sincerely,

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