[Social-sciences-list] Fwd: CCVIP-FW: Mayday!--Stop Tech Lobbyists from Scuttling Accessible TV; We'll Help You Respond!Please Send to our List

Wed Jul 31 22:35:57 UTC 2013

Hi folks, I'm forwarding a Mayday email that I think is self-explanatory.
If you have time, could you help this effort? Thanks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lisa Saunders <Lisa.Saunders at baruch.cuny.edu>
Date: Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 11:10 AM
Subject: CCVIP-FW: Mayday!--Stop Tech Lobbyists from Scuttling Accessible
TV; We'll Help You Respond!Please Send to our List
To:

 Greetings to All,****

** **

Below please read a very important request for your help from the American
Foundation for the Blind (No one is asking for money) This concerns the
future of video description and accessible TV in the U.S. Please respond;
thanks in advance.****

Best,****

** **

Karen Gourgey****

** **

** **

Karen Luxton Gourgey, Ed.D. Director****

Computer Center for Visually Impaired People****

Baruch College, City University of New York****

One Bernard Baruch Way Box H-0648****

New York, NY 10010****

Tel: 646 312-1426****

Fax: 646 312-1421****

*http://www.baruch.edu/ccvip/* <http://www.baruch.edu/ccvip/>**

** **

*Mayday! Mayday!
Tech Industry Lobbyists Threatening Future of Accessible Television!
With One Email, Tell Them and the FCC What You Think!

!!!"This is not a test; this is an actual emergency"!!!*

*For further information, contact:*

*Mark Richert, Esq.
Director, Public Policy, AFB
(202) 469-6833
**MRichert at afb.net* <mrichert at afb.net>****

Dear Advocate:

When we all celebrated the enactment of the historic Twenty-First Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) almost three years ago,
we were promised by our bipartisan champions on Capitol Hill, by the U.S.
Congress, and the President of the United States, that one day, things
would be significantly different. We were promised that the experience of
people with vision loss in terms of our/their independence and full
participation in American life through the full and fair use of today's
most ubiquitous technologies would be forever changed.

We were thrilled to know that there would be much more video description
available on TV, and indeed today there is. We were gratified to know that
the manufacturers and service providers of some of the most commonly used
communications technologies, such as electronic messaging and mobile phone
web browsing, would no longer be able to ignore the needs of people who are
blind or visually impaired. And we were hopeful that emergency alerts would
finally be meaningful for our community, and it looks like they will be.

But we were also promised, and the new law requires, that TVs and TV-like
equipment would need to be fully accessible to us. Now, in what is
essentially the proverbial eleventh hour in the series of federal
regulatory proceedings implementing the CVAA, the seemingly shameless
consumer electronics lobby is demanding, with implied threats to go to
court if they don't get their way, to strip the CVAA of its TV
accessibility obligations and to violate the vision of a more accessible
technology society that the CVAA represents.

So what do our tech lobbyist "friends" want?

Well, to answer this question, you need to know just a little bit about how
the CVAA works. the CVAA says that your cable or satellite provider needs
to make the equipment, the settop boxes and other such devices they give
you to get their programming, accessible to you upon your request. While
this is a good thing in comparison to how things have been, it is a
compromise, and one that advocates reached with cable and similar providers
as a condition for their willingness to allow the CVAA to become law. So,
with regard to cable and satellite providers, they don't necessarily need
to make all, or even most, of their equipment accessible as a matter of
course; they merely have to accommodate your request for equipment you can
use by providing you with something, even if it is not state-of-the-art.

In contrast, the CVAA requires that TVs and TV-like equipment, essentially
anything that receives or plays back video programming of any kind, a ton
of very cool technology out there, must be accessible by default; TVs and
TV-like equipment will only be allowed to be inaccessible in a given
instance if, and only if, fairly strict legal exceptions apply. This means
that, unlike the cable and satellite sector which may regularly traffic in
inaccessible equipment so long as they can ultimately give us something we
can use upon our request, makers of TVs and TV-like equipment are charged
with the clear responsibility to fundamentally change their behavior in a
way that would exponentially increase the commercial retail availability of
the accessible and most popular video-related consumer electronics on the
market.

Ok, but what are those lobbyists up to?

With forked-tongued craftiness, the consumer electronics lobby is, even as
we speak, assuring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of
industry's commitment to the needs of people with disabilities while,
without blushing, propounding some of the most contorted legal reasoning
that we have seen yet. They are using the full weight of their
over-indulged influence to pressure the FCC into applying the inferior,
more limited cable and satellite requirements to TVs and TV-like equipment.

If these "friends" of ours in the tech lobby get their way, rather than
being able to shop for the digital TV or other video player you want and to
have a robust array of choices just like everyone else, you will be forced
to beg for an accessible product directly from the manufacturer. Rather
than being able to enjoy the product you want to buy, you may even be
expected to live with an inferior model, if you can get an accessible
inferior model at all. Why are the tech lobbyists proposing this manifestly
unfair arrangement? quite simply, their scheme would let their client
companies off the hook for doing the right thing but leave consumers with
little recourse.

What can you do?

Right now, the FCC is accepting comments from the public about how to
implement the CVAA's TV and cable and satellite equipment requirements. AFB
will help you voice your concern if you will take just a moment or two and
write your thoughts in an email to us; AFB will file your comments for you.
No, AFB's name will not be on your comments; your comments will be your
own. We are simply offering to make the process as easy for you as possible
because this issue is so uniquely critical.

The FCC's electronic comment filing system is not the easiest system to
use, and any comments filed need to include certain technical legal
references. Send an email to: TV at afb.net

We will be glad to add the technical pro forma details for you and to
submit your comments on your behalf for the official record.

So what exactly do you need to do?

All you need to do to help get things back on the right track is the
following:

1: Write an email of whatever length you wish stating in polite but pointed
fashion that begging for an accessible TV or similar equipment directly
from a manufacturer is categorically unacceptable to you. Tell the FCC that
it was the obvious intention of Congress, and it is the expectation of
people who are blind or visually impaired across America, that accessible
TVs and TV-like equipment will be readily and regularly available at
commercial retail stores. Remind the FCC that the so-called "upon request"
compromise that we reached with the cable and satellite industries neither
involved the consumer electronics lobby at the time nor applies to their
client companies now. Tell the FCC that people with vision loss will not
stand for the consumer electronics lobby's proposed gutting of one of the
most popular and important parts of the CVAA. Tell the FCC your own story
of frustrations trying to simply adjust the volume or channels on your
equipment, to simply play a show or movie, to find and activate your TV's
video description controls, and to otherwise make full use of your TV or
TV-like equipment.

2: At the conclusion of the text of your email, be absolutely certain to
type your first and last name, followed by your regular mailing address.
When we properly format and file your comments, the FCC needs to know that
you are a real person, and your comments must be accompanied by more than
your email address; they must include a regular identifying mailing
address. It is up to you to decide which of the addresses that you might be
associated with you want to use, a home, work, or some other appropriate
address. So long as your email includes both your full name and a real
related address, your comments will be accepted as part of the official
record. Don't worry about anything else; we will be sure to fill out the
rest of the required information, such as the docket number for this
proceeding and similar formalities.

3: Between now and Monday, August 5, send your email to: TV at afb.net

and simply begin the text of your email with the greeting, "To whom it may
concern." A simple "Sincerely" or "Respectfully" at the conclusion of your
message and before your full name and address will be fine.

Once we receive your email, we will properly format it and submit it to the
FCC. The deadline for all comments is Wednesday, August 7. However, given
that we hope and expect that we will receive a considerable number of
comments, please send us your email comments no later than Monday, August 5
or as soon as you possibly can.

Thank you in advance for your advocacy, keep hope alive, and please share
this call to action widely.****

You can unsubscribe at any time. To remove your name from this mailing
list, or to find out what other newsletters are available from AFB, visit
http://www.afb.org/myafbnewsletter.aspx.****
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