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Thursday, January 31st, 2008Chances are you have done at least one of these things:
Used sign language interpreter or real-time captioning services
Watched a television program with closed captions
Made a call through a relay service (TTY relay, video relay, etc.)
You probably know that there are federal laws that protect your rights to this communication access. These laws and rights grew […]
NAD Takes Action for Deaf Babies
Monday, October 1st, 2007Early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs have been set up in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The NAD has supported EHDI for many years. The goals of these EHDI programs are:Â
(1) to screen babies for hearing by age one month (a simple hearing screen usually is done before a newborn baby […]
NAD Update
Friday, July 6th, 2007The NAD Law and Advocacy Center has been advocating for the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people on Capitol Hill and the Federal Communications Commission. Here is a description of some of our recent advocacy actions:
Congress – The NAD is actively engaged in the new Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (see www.COATaccess.org). […]
Share Your Views on the Infant and Toddler Program (IDEA)
Thursday, June 14th, 2007The U.S. Department of Education has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Infant and Toddler Program (Part C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It can be found at http://idea.ed.gov/static/partCNprm.
If you have an interest in deaf and hard of hearing babies, please send your thoughts to the Department on appropriate […]
VRS Rates – NAD Update
Friday, June 8th, 2007The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to know that relay services are important to you. Relay services include TTY relay, Speech-to-Speech, IP Relay, and Video Relay Service (VRS).
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that relay services be functionally equivalent to voice telephone service. The FCC must provide the necessary funding to ensure that relay […]
NAD Filed Comments about VRS Rates
Friday, June 8th, 2007On May 23, 2007, the NAD, along with TDI, ALDA, DHHCAN, CCASDHH, and HLAA, filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the payment rate for relay services proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) for July 2007 through June 2008.
The NAD made these points:
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that Telecommunications […]
NAD Urges Attendance at IDEA Public Meetings
Thursday, May 31st, 2007The U.S Department of Education is holding public meetings about proposed new rules for “Part C†of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). “Part C†applies to early intervention programs for infants and toddlers (birth through age two) who are deaf or hard of hearing.
One of these meetings may be in your area. If […]
NAD Advocates for Smooth Transition to Digital Television
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007Posted: May 1, 2007
Digital Television (DTV) is a new type of broadcasting technology that offers improved quality picture and sound. Today, most TV stations are broadcasting in “analog” and “digital.”Â
In February 2009, analog TV broadcasting will end. After February 2009, TV broadcasting will be digital. After February 2009, people who get their TV signal “over […]
Thank You for Taking Action on Closed Captions
Friday, March 30th, 2007The NAD asked you to oppose requests for TV programs to be shown without closed captions, in your state. You took action. Wow! Consumers like you filed over 500 comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing TV programs without closed captions.
THANK YOU . . . THANK YOU . . . THANK YOU.Â
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The NAD, along […]
NAD Interviewed by CNN about Movie Captioning
Thursday, March 29th, 2007CNN interviewed the NAD and others about movie captioning and aired a report about movie captioning technology on March 25, 2007.Â
The CNN technology broadcast, titled “Movi es for the Hearing Impaired,†can now be seen online. It shows some of the emerging movie captioning technologies described in a recent NAD Advocacy Blog post(see “Movie Captioning […]
Don’t Throw Away Your TTY!
Monday, March 19th, 2007Today’s technology presents our community with many communication choices. We can text message our boss on a cell phone, IM our kids on a PDA (like a Sidekick or Blackberry device), and chat with our moms through video relay. We have communication gizmos and gadgets we can throw in our purse, hang on […]
Closed Captioning – Time to Take Action
Friday, March 16th, 2007Posted March 16, 2007
The battle for TV closed captions continues. It is time to take action. Time to oppose requests from TV programs to be shown without closed captions, in your state.
The NAD made it easy to do. It must be done by March 27.
Remember last September, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) […]
Movie Captioning Update
Friday, March 9th, 2007People who are deaf or hard of hearing want to be able to attend any showing of any movie in any theater at any time. We want to be able to sit anywhere in the movie theater with our family and friends. We want equal access to the movie soundtrack through high quality captioning that […]
IP Relay Misuse
Friday, February 9th, 2007The NAD and other consumer advocacy group representatives have been meeting with relay service providers and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to address concerns about IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams. IP Relay is misused by people who are not deaf or hard of hearing. Those people use IP Relay to engage in fraudulent and […]
Closed Captioning – Update
Friday, January 26th, 2007The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted NAD’s request for a 120-day extension to file comments and oppositions to hundreds of requests for exemption from the closed captioning rules. The deadline for filing comments and oppositions is extended to March 27, 2007. The FCC also granted NAD’s request for permission for consumers and other consumer advocacy […]
Accessible Emergency Information
Thursday, January 4th, 2007In the summer of 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) distributed a Public Notice about closed captioning emergency information. According to that Public Notice, when big city TV stations say they tried, but failed to close caption emergency information, that was OK with the FCC.
That was not OK with the NAD.
The NAD, joined by other […]
Closed Captioning – Update
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006Hundreds of deaf and hard of hearing consumers took action. They protested the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) decision to approve almost 300 requests for new TV programs to be shown without closed captions. Consumers sent hundreds of e-mails to the FCC Chairman, Commissioners, and staff.
Your advocacy efforts were successful.
The FCC scanned hundreds of […]
Protest the FCC’s Closed Captioning Decisions
Friday, September 22nd, 2006Watch ASL Video (An important announcement from NAD, TDI, and other deaf and hard of hearing advocacy groups, presented by Don Lee Hanaumi. The text below is an English translation of the ASL video message.) UPDATE: Editor’s note, the link to the ASL Video has been disabled now.Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appoved almost […]
NAD Files Complaint against Washington Redskins and FedEx Field
Friday, September 1st, 2006The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Joseph B. Espo, an attorney with Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP in Baltimore, Maryland, filed a class action lawsuit against the Washington Redskins and FedEx Field football stadium. The complaint, filed with the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, claims that the Washington Redskins […]
Protect Emergency Captioning!
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006[gv data=”http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=4654615300583425829″ width=”320″ height=”255″][/gv]
(Editor’s Note: The captioned version of this video will be available next week)
Draft script for video:
Hello, my name is Frank Bowe. I am a government affairs consultant for the National Association of the Deaf (NAD).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently distributed a “Clarification†about a requirement for TV stations to caption emergency […]