Finally! Online Media and Captions

On Friday, October 8, President Barack Obama will sign the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 into law and deliver brief remarks on the impact of this law on individuals with disabilities. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, President of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) with Chief Executive Officer Nancy Bloch and Law and Advocacy Director Rosaline Crawford will be on hand to witness this historic event at the White House, which will be streamed on whitehouse.gov/live.

The NAD applauds Congress for passage of this landmark legislation will improve access to communication, television, and the Internet for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened and deaf-blind.

“The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act is one of the most significant victories for our community since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed 20 years ago. It will enable 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people to participate in the Internet age by ensuring captioning of television programs on the Internet, a closed caption button on television remote controls, hearing aid compatibility for Internet telephones, and communications equipment for individuals who are deaf-blind, and more,” said Bobbie Beth Scoggins, NAD President. “While we fell short in some areas, such as requiring web TV episodes distributed only on the Internet to be captioned, this is a step in the right direction to make the web accessible. For many of us, the quality of our lives depend on an accessible Internet and we appreciate Congress’ recognition of this essential civil right.”