DEVELOPS BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS ON BILL TO ALLOW VISUALLY & HEARING IMPAIRED TO ACCESS NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES

Washington, Jul 21, 2010 -

“Serving on the House Veterans Affairs Committee brought to light for me that thousands of our servicemen and women are returning from overseas with serious injuries, including losing their sight and hearing,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Republican Leader of the House Communications, Technology & the Internet Subcommittee.  “These veterans are unable to fully utilize the latest technological devices such as smart phones, and I realized the need to make the latest devices and services accessible to them and all the disabled.”

H.R. 3101, the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, was brought up in Stearns’ Subcommittee, but originally included burdensome mandates that would stifle creativity.  “Instead of imposing mandates, Congress should establish goals and allow industry and service providers to apply the latest innovations in meeting those standards,” explained Stearns.  “Recognizing the power of the marketplace, we developed a consensus on relying on the growing capabilities of the private sector in satisfying these goals in giving opportunities for the disabled to benefit from these new devices and services.”

Stearns joined the House Energy & Commerce Committee today in approving H.R. 3101, which is now ready for consideration by the full House.  During its consideration, the Committee approved a bipartisan amendment replacing the mandates with goals for industry and service providers to meet. 

 Added Stearns, “This legislation will help encourage closed captioning on the Internet, video description of television programming, voice-to-text interfaces for the deaf, text-to-speech interfaces for the blind, and defrays the cost of Braille-readers to help people who are deaf-blind use the Internet and advanced devices.”

Concluded Stearns, “All people should be afforded the opportunity to use and enjoy the wide variety of technology that is available.   Our nation’s success in developing new technologies stems largely from Congress allowing the marketplace to flourish and setting goals rather than federal mandates.”