FCC Workshop on Broadband Access for People with Disabilities

Posted by Paul Schroeder on 10/19/2009 5:28:09 PM

While many of us take Internet access for granted, far too many people with disabilities are not able to take advantage of this essential communications and information vehicle. To really take advantage of the information and communications potential of the Internet, you've got to have broadband. This means a high-capacity connection to the Internet that is always on. Although broadband options are available in most parts of the country, the expense often puts these networks out of reach.

On October 20, I will be participating in a forum hosted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to explore broadband accessibility for people with disabilities. This daylong information meeting is part of the FCC's work to develop a National Broadband Plan. Participants, representing industry, the disability community, government and other key constituents, will be discussing accessibility and affordability barriers faced by people with disabilities, opportunities made possible by broadband and policy recommendations to spur broadband usage.

I plan to talk about the importance of access to information for people with vision loss and the absolute necessity to ensure that we have access to broadband to deliver information and services that we need. I will suggest some changes in policy to help make broadband more affordable for people with disabilities. I'll also make sure that our government understands the need to ensure that the equipment we use to access broadband services is accessible. That's why we need to have Congress enact legislation like the Twenty-first Century Communications and video Accessibility Act.

I hope you can take some time to listen to the webcast or follow the discussion. Online participants can visit http://www.broadband.gov/ws_accessibility_disabilities.html to register (instructions for online participants are found at the bottom of the page).

Simultaneous with the webcast, the meeting will be available through Accessible Event, a service that works with your web browser to make presentations accessible to people with disabilities. You can listen to the audio and use a screen reader to read displayed documents. You can also watch the video with open captioning. Accessible Event is available at http://accessibleevent.com. The web page prompts for an Event Code, which is 005202376. To learn about the features of Accessible Event, consult its User's Guide at http://accessibleevent.com/doc/user_guide/.

Updates about the Federal Communications Commission's development of the National Broadband can be found at http://blog.broadband.com and at http://www.broadband.gov/news.html. You can also follow the FCC on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FCC.

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