Thank you to everyone who is contacting their Senators on S. 2686 and encouraging them to support the disability provisions, particularly video description. We need all the support we can get to have this brought to the floor for a vote in September. Special thanks also to ACB Radio, the National Office is receiving phone calls from individuals who want more information, who heard about S. 2686 from you. We are spreading the word far and wide. This is our opportunity to get Video Description passed and also, to assure that emerging telecommunications such as VOIP are accessible.
ACB is working to assemble a coalition of groups with critical interests in the accessibility and usability of telecommunications services and products and who support the disability-specific sections of the "Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006." That list of supporters can be seen below. Special thanks to Abdul Kamara who has been doing massive amounts of legwork to sign up supporting organizations.
The goal is to not only invigorate our membership and to garner the support of our Senators, but to persuade others to support these disability provisions - Churches, schools, and civic organizations. Together we can do this and when the Senate returns from their district work periods, we can make sure that S. 2686 is on the top of their priority list.
Thanks for all of your work. Keep it up! CURRENT SUPPORTERS OF DISABILITY PROVISIONS AND VIDEO DESCRIPTION IN S. 2686:
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Council of the Blind
American Foundation for the Blind
Alexander Graham Bell Association
Alliance for Public Technology
APSE: The Network on Employment
Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs
Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
Association for Macular Diseases
Audio Description International
Blinded Veterans Association
California Coalition of Agencies Serving the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
CaptionMax
Communication Service for the Deaf
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network*
Foundation Fighting Blindness
Hearing Loss Association of America
Inclusive Technologies
Metropolitan Washington Ear
Mission Consulting
National Association of the Deaf
National Association of Private Special Education Centers
National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments
National Association of School Psychologists
National Captioning Institute
National Center for Accessible Media
National Coalition for Disability Rights
National Down Syndrome Society
National Industries for the Severely Handicapped (NISH)
Northern Virginia Resource Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Self-Help for Hard of Hearing People
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc.
World Institute on Disability
* The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network includes various additional organizations. In all, the member organizations of DHHCAN include American Association of the Deaf-Blind, American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association, Association of Late-Deafened Adults, American Society for Deaf Children, The Caption Center - WGBH, Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, Communication Service for the Deaf, Deaf Seniors of America, Gallaudet University, Gallaudet University Alumni Association, National Association of the Deaf, National Catholic Office of the Deaf, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Sorenson Communications, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., and USA Deaf Sports Federation.
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