Mayday!--Stop Tech Lobbyists from Scuttling Accessible TV; We'll Help You
Respond!
----- Original Message -----
From: AFB DirectConnect
To: AFB Subscriber
Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2013 6:22 PM
Subject: Mayday!--Stop Tech Lobbyists from Scuttling Accessible TV; We'll Help
You Respond!
Mayday! Mayday!
Tech Industry Lobbyists Threatening Future of Accessible Television!
With One Email, Tell Them and the FCC What You Think!
!!!"This is not a test; this is an actual emergency"!!!
For further information, contact:
Mark Richert, Esq.
Director, Public Policy, AFB
(202) 469-6833
[email protected]
Dear Advocate:
When we all celebrated the enactment of the historic Twenty-First Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) almost three years ago, we
were promised by our bipartisan champions on Capitol Hill, by the U.S.
Congress, and the President of the United States, that one day, things would be
significantly different. We were promised that the experience of people with
vision loss in terms of our/their independence and full participation in
American life through the full and fair use of today's most ubiquitous
technologies would be forever changed.
We were thrilled to know that there would be much more video description
available on TV, and indeed today there is. We were gratified to know that the
manufacturers and service providers of some of the most commonly used
communications technologies, such as electronic messaging and mobile phone web
browsing, would no longer be able to ignore the needs of people who are blind
or visually impaired. And we were hopeful that emergency alerts would finally
be meaningful for our community, and it looks like they will be.
But we were also promised, and the new law requires, that TVs and TV-like
equipment would need to be fully accessible to us. Now, in what is essentially
the proverbial eleventh hour in the series of federal regulatory proceedings
implementing the CVAA, the seemingly shameless consumer electronics lobby is
demanding, with implied threats to go to court if they don't get their way, to
strip the CVAA of its TV accessibility obligations and to violate the vision of
a more accessible technology society that the CVAA represents.
So what do our tech lobbyist "friends" want?
Well, to answer this question, you need to know just a little bit about how the
CVAA works. the CVAA says that your cable or satellite provider needs to make
the equipment, the settop boxes and other such devices they give you to get
their programming, accessible to you upon your request. While this is a good
thing in comparison to how things have been, it is a compromise, and one that
advocates reached with cable and similar providers as a condition for their
willingness to allow the CVAA to become law. So, with regard to cable and
satellite providers, they don't necessarily need to make all, or even most, of
their equipment accessible as a matter of course; they merely have to
accommodate your request for equipment you can use by providing you with
something, even if it is not state-of-the-art.
In contrast, the CVAA requires that TVs and TV-like equipment, essentially
anything that receives or plays back video programming of any kind, a ton of
very cool technology out there, must be accessible by default; TVs and TV-like
equipment will only be allowed to be inaccessible in a given instance if, and
only if, fairly strict legal exceptions apply. This means that, unlike the
cable and satellite sector which may regularly traffic in inaccessible
equipment so long as they can ultimately give us something we can use upon our
request, makers of TVs and TV-like equipment are charged with the clear
responsibility to fundamentally change their behavior in a way that would
exponentially increase the commercial retail availability of the accessible and
most popular video-related consumer electronics on the market.
Ok, but what are those lobbyists up to?
With forked-tongued craftiness, the consumer electronics lobby is, even as we
speak, assuring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of industry's
commitment to the needs of people with disabilities while, without blushing,
propounding some of the most contorted legal reasoning that we have seen yet.
They are using the full weight of their over-indulged influence to pressure the
FCC into applying the inferior, more limited cable and satellite requirements
to TVs and TV-like equipment.
If these "friends" of ours in the tech lobby get their way, rather than being
able to shop for the digital TV or other video player you want and to have a
robust array of choices just like everyone else, you will be forced to beg for
an accessible product directly from the manufacturer. Rather than being able to
enjoy the product you want to buy, you may even be expected to live with an
inferior model, if you can get an accessible inferior model at all. Why are the
tech lobbyists proposing this manifestly unfair arrangement? quite simply,
their scheme would let their client companies off the hook for doing the right
thing but leave consumers with little recourse.
What can you do?
Right now, the FCC is accepting comments from the public about how to implement
the CVAA's TV and cable and satellite equipment requirements. AFB will help you
voice your concern if you will take just a moment or two and write your
thoughts in an email to us; AFB will file your comments for you. No, AFB's name
will not be on your comments; your comments will be your own. We are simply
offering to make the process as easy for you as possible because this issue is
so uniquely critical.
The FCC's electronic comment filing system is not the easiest system to use,
and any comments filed need to include certain technical legal references. Send
an email to:
[email protected]
We will be glad to add the technical pro forma details for you and to submit
your comments on your behalf for the official record.
So what exactly do you need to do?
All you need to do to help get things back on the right track is the following:
1: Write an email of whatever length you wish stating in polite but pointed
fashion that begging for an accessible TV or similar equipment directly from a
manufacturer is categorically unacceptable to you. Tell the FCC that it was the
obvious intention of Congress, and it is the expectation of people who are
blind or visually impaired across America, that accessible TVs and TV-like
equipment will be readily and regularly available at commercial retail stores.
Remind the FCC that the so-called "upon request" compromise that we reached
with the cable and satellite industries neither involved the consumer
electronics lobby at the time nor applies to their client companies now. Tell
the FCC that people with vision loss will not stand for the consumer
electronics lobby's proposed gutting of one of the most popular and important
parts of the CVAA. Tell the FCC your own story of frustrations trying to simply
adjust the volume or channels on your equipment, to simply play a show or
movie, to find and activate your TV's video description controls, and to
otherwise make full use of your TV or TV-like equipment.
2: At the conclusion of the text of your email, be absolutely certain to type
your first and last name, followed by your regular mailing address. When we
properly format and file your comments, the FCC needs to know that you are a
real person, and your comments must be accompanied by more than your email
address; they must include a regular identifying mailing address. It is up to
you to decide which of the addresses that you might be associated with you want
to use, a home, work, or some other appropriate address. So long as your email
includes both your full name and a real related address, your comments will be
accepted as part of the official record. Don't worry about anything else; we
will be sure to fill out the rest of the required information, such as the
docket number for this proceeding and similar formalities.
3: Between now and Monday, August 5, send your email to:
[email protected]
and simply begin the text of your email with the greeting, "To whom it may
concern." A simple "Sincerely" or "Respectfully" at the conclusion of your
message and before your full name and address will be fine.
Once we receive your email, we will properly format it and submit it to the
FCC. The deadline for all comments is Wednesday, August 7. However, given that
we hope and expect that we will receive a considerable number of comments,
please send us your email comments no later than Monday, August 5 or as soon as
you possibly can.
Thank you in advance for your advocacy, keep hope alive, and please share this
call to action widely.
You can unsubscribe at any time. To remove your name from this mailing list, or
to find out what other newsletters are available from AFB, visit
http://www.afb.org/myafbnewsletter.aspx._______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
