The time is now for H.R. 3101

If ever there was a critical time for legislation, now is it when it comes
to H.R. 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of
2009. This legislation would do a number of things in the area of access to
telecommunications including the following"'
Require hearing aid compatibility (HAC) for cell phones.
Require accessible user interfaces for telecommunications devices.
Provide $10 million a year from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to fund the
purchase of telecommunications equipment for deaf-blind consumers.
Restore the requirement for video description.
Require that programming that moves to the Internet have video description
and closed captioning.
Require small devices to carry closed captioning and video description .

I've just outlined the key provisions of the bill. To date we only have 30
co-sponsors for this legislation. We need much more than that in order for
this legislation to move. Are we prepared to see this opportunity for
meaningful legislation in this area lost? I sure am not. I am not prepared
to be party to telling the deaf-blind community that we don't care about you
and your access needs. I'm not prepared to tell people who are blind or
visually impaired that they must have sighted assistance to set up a home
theater system. I'm not prepared to tell people who use hearing aids that
they can't have direct access to a cell phone. I'm not prepared to tell
people who are blind or visually impaired that they must pay extra for
access to all of the features of their cell phone. In short, I'm not
prepared to lose this opportunity and lose it we could if nothing happens
with this legislation.

If nothing happens this year, the legislation will die and must be
re-introduced next year. There's no guarantee that this will happen as no
one knows what the Congress will look like next year; and if we couldn't get
this done in a Democratically-controlled Congress, there's certainly no
guarantee that we'll even get this introduced in a Republican-controlled
one. Therefore, the time is now for H.R. 3101. Don't let this time pass
you by. Please contact your Representative in Congress and ask him or her
to co-sponsor this critical legislation. If you don't, the opportunity
could be lost for a generation. Are you prepared for this to happen? I'm
not.