White House Celebrates Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week

A colleague just passed along a GREAT blog post from the White House and I highly encourage you all to check it out. Last Friday, President Obama personally welcomed a group of people who are deaf-blind to the White House Oval Office. The group was in D.C. to celebrate Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week—a week set to demonstrate that successful deaf-blind persons are still thriving and excelling long after Helen Keller. It's great to report once again that President Obama and his administration are serious about their commitment to the disability community. Enjoy!

Exciting News from the U.S. Capitol

It's a busy and exciting time here in DC. Last Thursday, disability rights activist Kathy Martinez was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Kathy is a well-known champion of opportunities for people with disabilities and we look forward to the energy and intellect she will bring to her work. And on Friday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced comprehensive legislation to ensure that people with disabilities have access to Internet-based telecommunications and video programming technologies. The bill, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101), will:

• require that mobile and other Internet-based telecommunications devices be fully hearing aid compatible, have accessible user interfaces, and offer people with disabilities access to a full range of text messaging and other popular services that are currently largely inaccessible;
• provide people who are deaf-blind with vital, but costly, technologies they need to communicate electronically, support real-time text communications capability, and clarify existing relay-to-relay Lifeline and Linkup service requirements to address the real world communications needs of people with disabilities;
• restore the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) modest video description rules and provide clear authority to expand such regulations, require emergency announcements and similar information to be accessible to people with disabilities through audible presentation of on-screen alerts, ensure that video programming offered via the Internet will be both captioned and described, and call for all devices that receive and play back video programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow easy access to captioning and description; and
• strengthen consumers' ability to enforce their rights to communications and video accessibility through the establishment of a clearinghouse of information about service and equipment accessibility and usability, a meaningful FCC complaint process that holds industry accountable for their accessibility obligations, and judicial review of FCC action to ensure the Commission's own accountability.

All Members of the United States House of Representatives should be actively encouraged to cosponsor H.R. 3101, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, and you are urged to contact your Member of Congress immediately to make such a request. Learn how to contact your Member of Congress at https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml.

The legislation is supported by a broad-based cross-disability coalition of more than 230 national, regional, and community-based groups working together for information age equity for people with disabilities. You can find additional information about the coalition (known by its acronym COAT) and supporting material describing the purposes and provisions of COAT's proposed legislation at www.coataccess.org.

NFB and ACB File Suit against Arizona State University

Those of you that are following the Kindle debate might have heard the news that today the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from using the Amazon's Kindle DX electronic reading device to provide electronic textbooks to its students. As we have been reporting for the past few months, the Kindle cannot be used by blind students and by using it as a means of delivering information to students, the university would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The NFB and ACB have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice asking for investigations of five other institutions: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College.

As we've stated many times on the blog, reiterated during the Reading Rights Coalition protest at the Authors Guild in NY, and heard from many of you, we cannot allow authors and publishers to decide what people with disabilities are permitted to read and America's institutions should not be permitted to discriminate against people with disabilities. Kudos to NFB and ACB for taking the lead in ensuring that technology is made accessible to both blind and sighted students. It's great to see these organizations working together.

You can learn more about the suit by reading NFB's press release.

Readers, we need your help!

Guest Blogger, Lee Huffman, National Technology Associate

As most of you know, here at AFB, we are constantly working to make life more accessible for people with vision loss, and lately there has been a good deal of buzz about the work AFB Consulting (AFBC) is doing to make web sites accessible to all individuals. Back in April, AFBC launched its new initiative in web accessibility: the Accessibility Assurance Program (AAP)—and both AFB and the lead AAP participant, Marriott International have been working together to get this initiative moving forward. Now we need your help to determine if users are having difficulty accessing any aspect of Marriott's web site such as making or canceling a reservation, learning about a hotel's amenities, or redeeming your Marriot Rewards points.

We'd love anyone using assistive technology to visit Marriott's AAP page and take a look at the Marriott Site Accessibility Policy page and its Site Accessibility FAQs. If you encounter any accessibility issues, please let us know by submitting the Accessibility Feedback form.

Now's your chance to help us improve web accessibility—don't miss out!

Congressman Sessions Announces Legislation Recognizing the 40th Anniversary of NEI

Yesterday, Congressman Pete Sessions, a good friend of AFB, applauded the House's passage of a bill recognizing the 40th anniversary of the National Eye Institute (NEI) and expressed his support for the designation of 2010 through 2020 as the "Decade of Vision." In a release about his support, Sessions stated: "The NEI has been a leader in research and sight-saving treatments that reduce visual impairment and blindness for over 40 years. With Congressional and public support, our national investment in vision research will continue to yield substantial treatments and cures for Americans affected by vision loss and impairment." We're thrilled to see the House of Representatives and leaders like Congressman Sessions and Representative Tammy Baldwin (both original sponsors of the bill) support vision-related organizations like NEI, especially as more and more individuals are living with vision loss.

Read more about NEI by visiting their web site.