This Is A BIG F***ing Deal For The Deaf Community! (President Obama signs new communications law)

[ProSense]

This Is A BIG F***ing Deal For The Deaf Community!

by slinkerwink

One of the biggest bills for the deaf community was signed into law by President Obama today. It's called the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. What does this law do?

For starters, it makes the Internet accessible to the deaf community by requiring television programming to be captioned on the Internet, a closed-caption button on television remotes, and hearing aid compatibility for smartphones.

This is a big f***ing deal for me, because for a long time before Hulu started captioning some of their television broadcasts, a lot of television episodes on the internet weren't captioned, and we were left out as a result as deaf viewers. And it's really hard to get to the menu to display closed-captioning on HDTVs, and in some cases, these closed captioning displays were intentionally disabled. It was very confusing for many of my friends in the deaf community. Hearing aid compatibility on smartphones is also a big deal. I can hear on my iPhone 4G, but a lot of noise leaks out, and it's not compatible with my telecoil on my cochlear implant.

This law, signed by President Obama, will help alleviate many of these issues. It took three years for this law to happen since I last posted about it here on Dailykos. A lot of people in the deaf community, including myself, lobbied Congress to pass this law, and it was one of the few bills to pass on a bipartisan vote. Ironically enough, this new law will also help create jobs for those who work in the captioning and accessibility field. It's basically a two-fer for President Obama---he gets to sign a law that helps change the lives of millions of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf/blind Americans, and creates jobs as well!

This new law will require any and every video that, first, is broadcast on television and, then, distributed via the Internet to include closed captioning. Additionally, devices that display video such as smart phones, mp3 players, and DVRs must be capable of closed captioning and displaying video description and emergency alerts. For the large and growing amount of video content that will be broadcast live in the years ahead — on television and over the Internet — there will be a growing need for, and appreciation of, stenographic court reporters who work as broadcast captioners. That is one reason the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the court reporting profession will experience major growth in the years ahead, estimating that the profession will grow by 18 percent in the next eight years.

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Here is Kerry's previous statement on the bill.



Edited title.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. W00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vaberella]

2. I love my President and I love that he cares.

As for Congress...I'm glad for once the Republicans came through. This is definitely a "BIG F*in DEAL!"

[Parker CA]

3. Kick and Rec!

[monmouth]

4. How do I get to do this? I can still transcribe with the best of them.

I would love to contact someone. Any ideas?

[gateley]

31. Maybe your Congressperson or Senator's office might know where to start? nt

[Capitalocracy]

51. I read some articles saying they might be using court reporters

but they can't do that for all the TV content, at least not until they train some more of them. The best thing to do would be to break in with non-live programming and reformatting simultaneous CC captions for TV for Internet (assuming anyone will bother doing so, they may just use the captions as they appear in the TV CC captions)

None of this is concrete yet, it's going to be up to the FCC it come up with the final details. PM me and I'll let you know if I hear about anything, maybe I'll start sending emails myself trying to get in on this.

You know what would be great? Tax deductions for making online content accessible.

[karynnj]

5. Great work by Rep Markey and Senator Kerry!

Here's a link to the hearing they had (Markey testified in a Senate committee commerce hearing, chaired by Kerry.) http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Hearings&ContentRecord_id=4c38a45b-a9f2-4458-a4d3-cb22c48714fd&ContentType_id=14f995b9-dfa5-407a-9d35-56cc7152a7ed&Group_id=b06c39af-e033-4cba-9221-de668ca1978a (Thanks to Luftmensch067 )

It is the only Senate hearing I have seen with what people said scrolled on the bottom.

Though not world peace or a thriving economy, this is a good example of Senators and Congressmen working together to do something that really helps a group of people.

[karynnj]

10. I should add great work by Pryor and Rockefeller

[catgirl]

6. Yeah!!

[great white snark]

7. Yet another BFD signed by our President!

Wonderful news for our hearing impaired brothers & sisters.

[66 dmhlt]

8. From us whose world is silent ...

"Thank You!"

[Leftist Agitator]

16. Born Deaf, Deaf in Childhood, or Late-Deafened Adult?

I'm in the latter category.

[madmax]

Started in my mid 20's

Nerve deafness. Told me not to worry use the other ear. Month to the day was diagnosed as bi-lateral. Don't worry slow progression. It was but, it affected my life in certain situations and for things like movies, tv, group settings and music. Now I have 5% hearing in one ear 0 in the other.

The thing that pisses me off is that the majority of the public don't think it's a big deal. IT IS IF YOU CAN HEAR!

[madmax]

18. dupe - damn mouse

[66 dmhlt]

26. Same here.

Makes "learning the ropes" a bit harder (and sad that we'll never hear a new song again) - but of those three possibilities, I believe it's the best.

[Hawkeye-X]

47. Born deaf. There is a DU forum called Deaf & HH forum. It's underutilized

but should be used for a great discussion there :)

[Whoa_Nelly]

36. My deafness started in my late twenties

Is progressive (like me! ;) ), bi-lateral, neural and hereditary...my mom and maternal grandfather also went deaf.

Thank you for posting the eloquent ASL "Thank you" :hi:

[zipplewrath]

9. When we have those "just like Bush" discussions

This is what makes it hyperbole. There are differences. They may not be on drug price negotiation, or wars, or torture prosecutions. But there are literally hundreds of thousands of things the government does every single day. We don't always see them, or hear about them. But having a democratic administration affects literally hundreds of thousands of regulations. And 100's of millions of peoples lives.

[Dr Morbius]

52. Quite so.

The two parties are not the same.

Spot on, Mr President.

[frazzled]

11. My daughter's gonna be thrilled

She's not deaf, but seriously hearing impaired. She's really dependent on closed captioning. Since she no longer has a TV (that seems to be the case for a lot of young folks these days), she's dependent on the Internet to watch stuff. That really limits her viewing. She's told me she watches mostly foreign films on Netflix because they're subtitled!

BTW: When she was growing up we used to leave the closed captioning on on our TV all the time, and I got kind of used to it myself . But some of it can be very funny (misspellings, wrong words, missed phrases). But even funny captioning is better than none at all!

[boppers]

12. Kick.

This is a *huge* deal.

[Sirveri]

13. Good, maybe now netflix will stream subtitles too.

I hate watching movies without subtitles. Sorry to be all about me here...

[jennied]

22. I agree actually.

[Capitalocracy]

39. I can't believe they don't. It's not like it's difficult.

:shrug: Lots of people use them.

[Leftist Agitator]

14. This is WONDERFUL news!!!!!!

K&R * 10000000!

[nmbluesky]

15. Thanks Obama!!

I can watch online video with the caption... I hope youtube do it too..
Thanks Obama!!!

[madmax]

17. Biggest fucking deal in my life!!

Thank THANK YOU!!

I was grateful to Poppi Bush for ADA - CC on all tv manufactured after a certain date. NOW with youtube, etc. I can 'hear'. I rarely watch videos on the computer because it's pointless. Sometimes, I'll ask the OP to just post the gist, or paraphrase the damn thing. Now I'm FREE!!

Wasn't born deaf, started in my 20's and was slowly progressive. At 61 I now have 5% muffled hearing in one ear. That's it so it's a bitch. Especially since I'm a Class A Extrovert. It sucks.

I love MY President!

[tblue37]

19. Woo-hoo! Now if we could just get our fellow DUers to post a brief

summary when they post videos. Every few months Ipost an OP to that effect and get close to a hundred recs, but most people still won't bother. The person who psots the "Young Turks" videos never dbothers to, and neither do the people who post most other videos.

It's very frustrating to be so consistently left out of the conversation by people who are supposed to be on our side.

[tpsbmam]

25. I've missed your posts. You'd think someone with physical challenges

(wheelchair kinds) and who worked with people with disabilities for many years would have thought of doing this herself. But noooooooooo, I didn't. Shame on me! I've actually only posted one video but will damn well add a summary if and when I post another. Thanks for the kick in the butt!

[tblue37]

45. Thak you! Whenever someone is thoughtful enough to

provide a brief summary, I always thank that person with a K&R for their thread. I will certainly do that for you, too, when I see a video with a summary from you.

[karynnj]

34. I've missed your posts on this, but think it a great idea

I have posted video links, but mostly from the Senate. For floor speeches, CSPAN now has the transcript at the same link. But, for hearings, there is no transcript - other than for the statements. I will summarize more of the Q & A in the future.

[Capitalocracy]

40. This new rule would apply to them, wouldn't it? nt

[karynnj]

41. I definately think so, but I assume that it would not happen instantaeously

They must have the ability to do it already - as it was done for the commerce committee hearing on this.

[Capitalocracy]

50. I've been researching it a little bit

It looks like it's all still up in the air... it will be up to the FCC it hammer out the details, apparently.

[laurel46]

42. Maybe Skinner or other should be asked to make CC a policy here.

[Hawkeye-X]

48. Well, Youtube is starting to caption their stuff

and they're looking for plenty of volunteer transcripters for their older videos.

I'd imagine.

[Bette Noir]

20. Cool.

[Capitalocracy]

21. Awesome and I hope it leads to more work for me

I was hoping something like this would happen... and not just out of selfishness, but for hearing impaired and ESL viewers (people don't realize it, but captions are extremely helpful for them as well). And if anyone needs transcripts, captions, or subtitles, I'm the guy to talk to.

[madmax]

23. k&r

[babylonsister]

24. Rec'd! Thanks, Pro, and everyone who made this

into a reality. Great job!

[lightningandsnow]

27. This is awesome!

:woohoo:

[treestar]

28. kick!

[AmandaMae]

29. awesome news! n/t

[gateley]

30. K&R! nt

[groundloop]

32. I can relate - my wife has total hearing loss on one side and there's always the chance....

My wife woke up one day nearly 2 years ago and couldn't hear on one side. After many doctor visits was diagnosed with Menear's Disease. She was scheduled to have surgery to implant a device called BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) which would have helped her. Turns out our insurance wouldn't cover it (even though if she were on Medicare it would be covered), and in the process of fighting them I learned all about our screwed up health insurance in the US. Those bastards just don't consider hearing loss to be important.

With this particular condition there's always the possibility she could suddenly lose hearing on the other side as well. Her career working in the school would be over, and her life would be hell trying to learn sign language and learning to cope.

In any case, we all need to keep up the fight to hold onto Congress and the White House, get rid of the fillibuster, and make major improvements to the health care bill.

[Hawkeye-X]

49. spelling

Meinere's Disease...

[puebloknot]

53. Meniere's Disease

Meniere's Disease.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/menieres-disease/DS00535

Not being snarky. I've dealt with it for years.

[nolabear]

33. While the circus flails on around him, Obama continues to make things better.

I wish there was more touting of his constant, consistent work to correct wrongs and make progress that should have been made long ago.

[Whoa_Nelly]

35. Am going deaf, wear hearing aids

Yay! This is a big fucking deal! :woohoo:

[area51]

37. I'm glad.

Being hard of hearing, I'm appalled by how many times I've seen uncaptioned videos on the 'net.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Uncle Joe]

43. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Prosense.:thumbsup:

[puebloknot]

44. A real victory for the hearing impaired. Such good news! And ...

... this will create jobs for people who work in the captioning industry. I work in the court reporting field, and there are already many stenographic reporters who do captioning for television and for the deaf.

A win-win, for sure.

[Hawkeye-X]

46. How the hell did I miss this?

This is a godsend. Even Youtube is trying to make an effort on this - and I know MSNBC caption some of their stuff, but I'd like to see it being a standard for all.

CC buttons for all! I remember my first TV that had the CC capability back in 1993. It got stolen in my dorm room.

Never found out who stole it.

In any case, this is a big leap and a breakdown of yet another barrier for the deaf.

Hawkeye-X