Late last evening the FCC released a consumer advisory pertaining to video description for digital television. This document is pasted below this message.
This advisory, while not complete in its education of the blind consumer regarding video description housed on digital TV, does signal to the blindness community that the FCC realizes there are still issues concerning our ability to locate description on digital TV.
This is the first advisory regarding description since its mandate was overturned in 2002. Furthermore, this document references two converter boxes that have been tested by WGBH in Boston that will provide pass-through for video description. Both of these boxes are certified for sale under the Coupon Converter Box Program that is run by the federal government.
This advisory is only the first step in the FCC's acknowledgement of our intense desire to have video description accessible for the blindness community. A representative from the FCC will be speaking at the Legislative Seminar on July 6. I encourage you to come and voice your thoughts on this subject. While this advisory isn't everything we would've hoped for, it does show that the FCC is listening to ACB. There is much more to be done to ensure blind and visually impaired individuals have accessible consumer electronics available to them and ACB is actively fighting for this right.
IF YOU CURRENTLY USE AVAILABLE VIDEO DESCRIPTIONS TO ACCESS TELEVISION PROGRAMMING, YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING REGARDING THE DIGITAL TELEVISION (DTV) TRANSITION:
* After February 17, 2009, all full-power broadcast television stations will broadcast only in digital format.
* The DTV transition will provide broadcasters with a greater number of audio channels with which they may provide voluntary video description.
* Digital-to-analog converter boxes are not required to process all associated audio services broadcast by a DTV station, so consumers should check with manufacturers and retailers to learn more about whether specific digital-to-analog converter boxes are able to provide video descriptions.
* Although televisions with digital tuners should be able to process the audio services associated with DTV signals, consumers should confirm that a particular digital television includes this feature by checking with the appropriate manufacturer or retailer.
* If purchasing a digital television or digital-to-analog converter box, consumers should ask the manufacturer or retailer how audio streams are accessed, and whether the remote control and on-screen menus are accessible to individuals with vision disabilities.
* Consumers using multi-channel video services (e.g., cable or satellite) should ask their service provider for additional information about the availability of video description. To the extent that such providers receive programming with video description, those video descriptions should be delivered to the consumer.
*****
Yesterday Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced S. 3112, The Javits-Wagner-O'Day and Randolph-Sheppard Modernization Act of 2008. This legislation seeks to make several significant changes to both programs. The content of this bill has been actively worked on for the past three years but had stalled over the past year. I believe that this bill was introduced yesterday in order to make public everything that had been worked on over the past few years. Sen. Enzi announced that he does not plan to hold hearings or attempt to move S. 3112 this year. Below is a brief summary of some of the Randolph-Sheppard changes.
POSITIVE PROVISIONS
- Having states work to develop programs for business ownership in the private sector for blind entrepreneurs.
- Creating tougher requirements for federal agencies to create additional RS sites.
- A mechanism for blind entrepreneurs to bid on contracts if the state declines to do so.
CONCERNING PROVISIONS
- Reconfiguring the existing Committee for Purchase and giving it administration of both the RSA and JWOD.
- SLAs must train and give RS permits to persons with other severe disabilities beyond blindness, starting three years after enactment of the legislation.
- Merging any state VR self-employment program with the RSA to create one entrepreneurial self-employment program for all persons who are blind or have severe disabilities; reserving a portion of (new?) vending sites for the blind and another portion for persons with other disabilities.
- Limiting participation of a teaming partner to three years on any given contract. (Note: This provision appears to apply only to RS contracts, not to JWOD contracts)
RS MILITARY CONTRACTING
- JWOD cannot compete for full food contracts.
- Any full food contract currently on the procurement list will be removed after five years.
- SLAs will have equal preference in competition for full food service contracts with 8(a), HUBZone, and Alaska Native Corporations.
- There will be no priority for the blind in full food contracting. This provision appears to be limited only to military contracts, though we are trying to confirm that this is in fact the intent.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2008 -- Leaders of the American Council of the Blind, the nation's leading organization of people who are blind and visually impaired, today commended a vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch to increase funding for the talking book program. The National Library Service operates this program for the blind and physically handicapped (NLS). The NLS makes public library services available to people across the country who are unable to read the print books contained in traditional public libraries.
Organizations of the blind have been encouraging Congress to increase appropriations for this program in order to enable the Library of Congress to update its book production technology. The current talking book collection is produced on obsolete cassette tapes, which are played on obsolete machines that are no longer being manufactured. Increased funding will enable the Library of Congress to convert its antiquated talking book collection into a contemporary digital format and to produce players that will be much more versatile for the increasing number of patrons throughout the country. It is anticipated that this conversion will result in better book circulation because the equipment will last longer and the number of books that can be made available to library users will increase substantially.
Mitch Pomerantz, president of the American Council of the Blind, commended the subcommittee's action, saying: "This action represents a recognition on the part of subcommittee members of the vital role this service plays in the lives of blind people. Preserving this program is vital to the education of blind students, the continued employment of blind workers, and the participation of blind people generally in their nation's culture."
Eric Bridges, ACB's director of advocacy and governmental affairs, noted, "Access to a public library is something that many Americans take for granted. The ability to read books, whether novels, books on politics, or manuals on home improvement, is just as important to a person who is blind as it is to any other person who needs or wants information. What is at stake here is access to that information, because if this program diminishes for lack of funding, many Americans will be unable to access library services of any kind. Fortunately, this action gives us hope that the program will be preserved."
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, said, "It is our nation's public policy that all Americans are equal, and funding the Talking Book program is a tangible expression of that policy."
Under this program, books and the machines to play them are loaned to patrons through a network of cooperating libraries throughout the United States. This funding, if approved by the Senate, will ensure that new machines are distributed to the program's patrons well before the outdated cassette machines they are currently using wear out. It will also mean that patrons will have access to thousands of additional titles in the new digital format. The conversion should take place in approximately three years if the Senate approves this funding level.