President Barack Obama signed communications accessibility legislation (CED Sept 30...
President Barack Obama signed communications accessibility legislation (CED Sept 30 p7) into law at a White House ceremony Friday. The bill includes provisions requiring manufacturers to make devices more accessible to the disabled and mandating closed captioning in Internet video.…
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“We've moved from Braille to broadband, from tracing words in palms to navigating a Palm Pilot,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The law “is the most significant disability law in two decades” and includes recommendations from the National Broadband Plan, said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Most importantly, the new law will ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind and can share fully in the economic and social benefits of broadband,” he said. CTIA, Verizon and advocates for people with disabilities issued laudatory statements. “It opens the door to the digital age, and gives Americans with visual or hearing impairments equal access to smart phones, emergency broadcast information, the menus and controls on televisions and cable TV guides, and much more,” said Paul Schroeder, a vice president at the American Foundation for the Blind.