Just a quick note to let everyone know that the convention pre-registration was mailed May 16th. Many people have received their packets, but keep in mind that some packets might not have arrived yet. Convention online registration is now available. You can register for the convention, purchase convention CD's, and enter into the convention sweepstakes. Please be advised, that the website's secure certificate has expired. You must select the "Yes" button to proceed to the secure online registration pages. Information you exchange with this site cannot be viewed or changed by others.
The House version of the Video Description bill (HR 951) currently has 15 co-sponsors listed. The most recent (May 3rd) being Representative Cooper from Tennessee and Representatives Honda and Lofgren from California. In the Senate, there have been no changes to S. 900. However, the wording of S. 900 was added to the large telecom bill S. 2686. A popular and contentious bill, a hearing was held last week and another is scheduled for the upcoming week. It is expected that this bill will be ready for mark up within the month.
Senator Dodd submitted a bill last week (S 2918) to provide access to newspapers for blind or other persons with disabilities. Basically, the Library of Congress is authorized to pay telecommunications costs for blind and other persons with disabilities to have interstate free access to electronic editions of periodicals and newspapers. Those special editions can be disseminated in specialized audio and electronic text formats and are supposed to be available contemporaneously with their print editions, from a multi-State nonprofit source. The multi-State nonprofit source isn't described specifically other than that it obtains content from publishers for free distribution of 1 or more periodicals or newspapers to blind and other persons with disabilities in each State. For fiscal year 2007, the bill authorizes an appropriation of $750,000 for this project. The bill currently has one co-sponsor, Senator Trent Lott.
As stated in a prior Legislative Update the House version of this bill (HR 2872) passed by a voice vote. The Senate version of this bill (S 2321) currently has 64 co-sponsors. The most recent sign ons were last week from Sen. George F. Allen (R-VA), Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR). Only a handful of additional co-sponsors will be needed to guarantee a 2/3 majority vote if this bill goes to the Senate floor.
Day Al-Mohamed
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
American Council of the Blind
1155 15th St. NW
Washington DC 20005
Tel. 202-467-5081
dalmohamed@acb.org