The Policy Committee has continued to work with the APHA Policy office to assure our voice is heard so that health reform addresses the needs of individuals with disabilities. After we alerted the APHA office to the pending legislation H.R. 3101, the Twenty-F irst Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, Dr. Benjamin wrote a letter to the members of the House of Representative to urge support of the bill.   H.R. 3101 will ensure that people with disabilities, who have historically faced barriers to accessing health and other resources, have access to Internet ‐ based telecommunications and video programming technologies. These technologies provide critical public health and health care health resources, including information on living healthfully, preventing disease, responding to health emergencies and connecting with mentors and experts in times of health diagnostic episodes. They also provide resources for obtaining an education, employment, housing, transportation, and other social resources that are critical for an improved quality of life. Specifically, H.R. 3101 would:

·         Require that mobile and other Internet‐based telecommunications devices and equipment be fully hearing aid compatible, have accessible user interfaces, and offer people with disabilities use of a full range of text messaging and other popular services that are currently largely inaccessible;

·         Provide people who are deaf‐blind with vital but costly technologies they need to communicate electronically;

·         Establish a process and time table for the provision of real‐time text capability;

·         Clarify existing relay‐to‐relay, Lifeline and Linkup service requirements to ensure their relevance to the real world communications needs of people with disabilities;

·         Restore the Federal Communications Commissionʹs (FCC) modest video description rules and unambiguously establish the FCCʹs current and ongoing authority to expand such regulations;

·         Require emergency announcements and similar information to be accessible to people with disabilities through audible presentation of on‐screen alerts;

·         Ensure that video programming offered via the Internet will be both captioned and described;

·         Call for all devices that receive and playback video programming to employ accessible user interfaces and allow ready access to captioning and description;

·         Strengthen consumersʹ ability to enforce their rights to communications and video accessibility through the establishment of a clearinghouse of information about service and equipment accessibility and usability, a meaningful FCC complaint process that holds industry accountable for their accessibility obligations, and judicial review of FCC action to ensure FCC accountability.

Please support the Policy Committee by letting us know of pending legislation you think needs support AND contacting your congressional representatives to support important disability related bills.