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Thread: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passes Congress
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Wed, Sep 29 2010 11:39AM
Subject: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passes Congress
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In the USA, From PR Newswire.
"The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which requires
that smart phones, television programs and modern communications
technologies are accessible to people with vision and hearing loss, has now
passed both chambers of Congress and is headed to the President's desk.
President Obama is expected to sign the bill."
PR Newswire: http://tinyurl.com/36tpfyz
Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/2wvasfb
John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com
From: Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson
Date: Wed, Sep 29 2010 11:54AM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passes Congress
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What does this mean in terms of actual accessibility?
Will the manufacturer be required to develop a screen reader (such as
VoiceOver for Apple) or will it be enough that solutions such as Talks
or MobileSpeak exist for purchase to make phones accessible, such as
is the case for Symbian or Windows Mobile?
Any thoughts?
I am very happy this is happening but I just wonder if the blind user
will see actual benefits and in what timeframe.
Cheers
-Birkir
On 9/29/10, John E. Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> In the USA, From PR Newswire.
>
> "The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which requires
> that smart phones, television programs and modern communications
> technologies are accessible to people with vision and hearing loss, has now
> passed both chambers of Congress and is headed to the President's desk.
> President Obama is expected to sign the bill."
>
> PR Newswire: http://tinyurl.com/36tpfyz
> Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/2wvasfb
>
> John E. Brandt
> jebswebs.com
> Augusta, ME USA
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> www.jebswebs.com
>
>
>
>
From: deborah.kaplan
Date: Wed, Sep 29 2010 4:30PM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passes Congress
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John E. Brandt wrote:
"The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which requires
that smart phones, television programs and modern communications
technologies are accessible to people with vision and hearing loss"
Does the bill actually specify accessibility as being for people with vision and hearing loss? Because smartphones, at least, are still pretty inaccessible to people with mobility disabilities.
-Deborah
From: ckrugman
Date: Fri, Oct 01 2010 10:09PM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passes Congress
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based on information I received from National Federation of the Blind and
other sources it is my understanding that it specifically addresses both the
blind and deaf communities. I haven't had a chance yet to read the entire
bill yet.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility
Act passes Congress
> John E. Brandt wrote:
> "The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which
> requires
> that smart phones, television programs and modern communications
> technologies are accessible to people with vision and hearing loss"
>
> Does the bill actually specify accessibility as being for people with
> vision and hearing loss? Because smartphones, at least, are still pretty
> inaccessible to people with mobility disabilities.
>
> -Deborah
>
From: Waltenberger, Lon (LNI)
Date: Mon, Oct 11 2010 2:57PM
Subject: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010
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On October 8, last Friday, President Obama signed the 21st Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.
From Disability.gov at
http://www.disability.gov/technology/accessible_technology:
"This law will ensure that Americans with disabilities can more fully
participate in society and enjoy all that new technologies have to
offer--especially Internet-based and mobile services. The new law will
make it easier for people who are deaf, blind or have low vision to
access the Internet, smart phones, television programming and other
communications and video technologies. The law will also make sure that
emergency information is accessible to individuals who are blind or have
low vision."
President Obama's remarks at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/08/remarks-president-
signing-21st-century-communications-and-video-accessib.
Andrew Kirkpatrick's (Corporate Accessibility Engineering Lead for Adobe
Systems) blog about his attendance at the signing at
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/2010/10/president-obama-signs-acces
sibility-act.html.
Summary of the law from the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible
Technology at
http://www.coataccess.org/node/9776.
PDF of this Act (ironically and pathetically not tagged with no language
specified but after processing by NVDA starts out as readable) at
Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010
<http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&;enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTEwMzIz
MjYmbWVzc2FnZWlkPVBSRC1CVUwtMTAzMjMyNiZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTEy
NzY2NDE3MDYmZW1haWxpZD1sb24ud2FsdGVuYmVyZ2VyQGxuaS53YS5nb3YmdXNlcmlkPWxv
bi53YWx0ZW5iZXJnZXJAbG5pLndhLmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm
&&&101&&&http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_c
ong_bills&docid=f:s3304enr.txt.pdf> .
1 giant leap for humankind.
From: Waltenberger, Lon (LNI)
Date: Mon, Oct 11 2010 6:00PM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of2010
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No idea what happened to the link/URL for the untagged PDF during
transmission but here's another try:
PDF of this Act (ironically and pathetically not tagged with no language
specified but after processing by NVDA starts out as readable) at
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills
&docid=f:s3304enr.txt.pdf
...Lon
From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Oct 11 2010 7:06PM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of2010
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Lon,
The line is wrapping, that's why you're having some difficulty. Try http://goo.gl/qc8P for a shortened link.
Regarding the PDF of the act, just to clarify, NVDA isn't processing the untagged PDF, Adobe Reader is. When Reader encounters an untagged PDF (as this one is, and yes, shouldn't be) it will add tags automatically, but it is a machine conversion and isn't perfect. On documents like this one you really miss the headings and well-structured lists, and those still take a human to get just right.
Thanks,
AWK
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
From: Waltenberger, Lon (LNI)
Date: Tue, Oct 12 2010 12:36PM
Subject: Re: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010
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Thanks for the follow up, Andrew. And the tip on processing.
When NVDA started reading the PDF in the browser/reader, it announced
that it was processing the file so I assumed it was attempting to tag
it.
I copy you on the structure, conversion, and need for human
intervention.
Most of the links were truncated. I didn't have time to get short ones
so hope everyone finds stuff okay.
Except for your blog, most of the links can be found at Disability.gov's
page at
http://www.disability.gov/technology/accessible_technology.
Onward, toward a brighter future for all.
...Lon