Maine Representative Becomes 19th Cosponsor

Caption Action 2 just learned this morning that HR3101 got its 19th cosponsor!

Let's welcome from Maine, Representative Chellie Pingree (D-1)!

Thanks to the anonymous commenter in the previous post for alerting us!

Cosponsor 18 - Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Caption Action 2 just learned that we got our 18th HR3101 cosponsor. Let us welcome Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-3)!

We're doing good so far, but we still have a long ways to go.

Two Ladies - 1 Fully Grown/1 Not Fully Grown - Make Strides on HR 3101

Recently, two deaf ladies with a huge stake in the matter, did their parts for HR 3101. One lady is fully grown up, the other lady is not quite fully grown up yet. Both of them were dynamic in their accomplishments.

Marlee Matlin

The fully grown up deaf lady is Marlee Matlin.

Marlee Matlin and Ed Markey

Marlee spent the entire day of November 5 visiting key offices on Capitol Hill in her role as National Association of the Deaf spokesperson for accessible broadband services and internet media. Marlee connected with, among others, the office of Representative Rick Boucher, the chairperson of the key House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. She also met with key people in the Senate (remember a Senate version of HR 3101 is in the works). Details are in this illustrated NAD report. This report also includes a link to a YouTube video excerpt of the FCC hearing with only Marlee's testimony, plus a transcript.

Jehanne

Marlee took a few minutes to meet with Jehanne, a young deaf vlogger who is certain to get the job of the SIGNews editor when she grows up. Jehanne taped a captioned interview with Marlee.

Jehanne and Marlee

During this interview, they discuss what young deaf and hard of hearing people like Jehanne (and hearing friends) can do to help get HR 3101 passed! As it turns out, according to Marlee, they can do plenty to help!

In the near future, Caption Action 2 will have some exciting news to report. For now...mum's the word.

Broadband for America Blog Post!

Today Caption Action 2 had its first-ever guest blog, on the Broadband for America website! What is Broadband for America? It is a coalition of companies and organizations focused on promoting and increasing the availability of broadband. Jamie met a representative from Broadband for America at the recent Federal Communications Commission field hearing on broadband access for people with disabilities. She made contact with them afterwards, and the happy result is the blog post below. (The same blog is on the Broadband for America website, but we are reprinting it here.)

As the FCC gathers recommendations for a national broadband plan, it faces a historic opportunity to help improve the lives of all deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

A recent field hearing on broadband access for people with disabilities outlined several of the necessary improvements an effective national broadband plan could have for people with disabilities, from improved closed captioning services to improved emergency services like 911.

Some of the Benefits of Broadband for People With Disabilities:

1. Access to high speed Internet provides access to goods and services that people with disabilities would otherwise face obstacles in obtaining.

2. In addition to increased commercial opportunities, broadband provides educational opportunities, including the option of attending distance-learning courses.

3. Broadband increases access to job opportunities for the disabled, particularly jobs that would otherwise require difficult or unnecessary commuting as part of the job search and application process.

4. Broadband permits users of Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) to use Video Relay Services (VRS) to communicate more easily with voice telephone users.

One broadband access issue specific to deaf and hard of hearing people is closed captioning. For example, section 508 requires accessibility of government web video, but it is not unusual to come across a government web video that is not captioned. In fact, YouTube has a US Government section, http://www.youtube.com/usgovernment. Many of the videos there are not captioned.

Another issue is that the internet and regular television are merging. This means that internet television needs to be captioned just like regular television. Captioning on the internet is also important for educational access. Without captions on the internet, deaf and hard of hearing people miss out on news, entertainment, and educational opportunities.

Jamie Berke is a leader of Caption Action 2, a cause on Facebook.

Update: Tonight Caption Action 2 checked YouTube/USGovernment and found a big increase in captioned video. There is still some not captioned on the 86 channels in YouTube/USGovernment (so far, found 19 that are not captioning or caption very little), but the uncaptioned portion is getting smaller and smaller, probably because of section 508.

HR 3101 Could Help Oral Deaf - Signing Deaf Friends!

Recently, there has been some opposition in the deaf community to section 103 in HR 3101. Caption Action 2 will try to explain it, using a combination of resources.

Exact Language from HR 3101

SEC. 103. RELAY SERVICES. (a) DEFINITION.—Paragraph (3) of section 225(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 225(a)(3)) is amended to read as follows: ‘‘(3) TELECOMMUNICATIONS RELAY SERVICES.—The term ‘telecommunications relay services’ means telephone transmission that provides the ability for an individual who is deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or who has a speech disability to engage in communication by wire or radio with one or more individuals, in a manner that is functionally equivalent to the ability of a hearing individual who does not have a speech disability to communicate using voice communication services by wire or radio.’’.

What Does That Mean?

The above language is vague, which may be part of the reason for the opposition by some people. As Kelby Brick explained on Twitter, it means that deaf people who use sign language would be able to use relay services to communicate with non-signing deaf people. Kelby provided further information to clarify why this provision was added to HR 3101. He pointed to a PDF of Consumer Groups’ Expectations of Responsibilities and Goals for the Disability Rights Office (DRO) Federal Communications Commission, which has the following language:

"Grant the pending petition to clarify that TRS includes communications between and among people with disabilities and not only communications between an individual with a disability and one without a disability"

The Petition to the FCC

What petition is this language referring to? Again Kelby pointed to the original source, a petition to the FCC from January 28, 2009, Telecommunications Relay Services and Speech-to-Speech Services for Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities, CG Docket No. 03-123. This is a 25-page document that asks that the definition of a relay service be expanded to include calls made with a combination of multiple communication assistants and technologies (e.g. captioned telephone, video relay, etc), because section 225 of the Communications Act requires "relay services that are the functional equivalent of traditional voice services provided to hearing users." Page 9 states "Although VRS now appears to be the preferred mode of communication for many former TTY users who sign, millions of Americans with hearing loss must still rely on text-based communication."

More Interaction Between ASL Deaf and Oral Deaf

In other words, while many deaf people use sign language video relay services, what about those deaf and hard of hearing people who do not use sign language or who do not know sign language? The days when everyone used TTYs are gone! What if a non-signing deaf person wants to contact a signing deaf person without using instant messaging or email? This provision of HR 3101 could encourage friendships between oral and signing deaf people! Or what if someone from Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf wants to collaborate with someone at the National Association of the Deaf?

Not a Sunny Day Online for Deaf Kids

Can you tell me how to get...
How to get to Sesame Street?

40 years ago two deaf five year olds could not watch Sesame Street because closed captioning did not exist yet. Today it is 40 years later and today's deaf five year olds can not watch Sesame Street online. How do you think Bert and Ernie feel about that? The Cookie Monster would probably chomp up the page in frustration.

The Sesame Street website at PBS does not have captions on its videos for children. See for yourself at http://pbskids.org/sesame/#/videos. Ironic isn't it? A show that purports to be open and accessible to all children regardless of race or disability does not caption its online videos.

Forty years later, Sesame Street should be ashamed of itself. Get HR 3101 passed so another generation of deaf and hard of hearing kids does not have to miss out on Big Bird, Ernie, and Oscar online!

Only Half Access to Cable Without HR 3101

How people get their cable TV is going to change very soon - and deaf and hard of hearing viewers are at risk for only getting half the access to what they pay for. Comcast is going to offer their cable programming online starting in December. (Time Warner, Verizon, and DirecTV are planning to do the same. Apple plans a TV service via iTunes) Hearing people will pay one fee and for that one fee, have the choice of watching their cable either on regular television or on the Internet. Deaf people? For now, outta luck, based on what Rosaline Crawford, Director of the Law and Advocacy Center at the National Association of the Deaf, said.

Jamie asked:

"There is a clear trend towards cable TV companies offering access to cable programming via the Internet. People can pay for a cable subscription, then view it on either Internet or regular TV. My question is, when the cable programming is shown on the Internet, are the captions shown too? In other words, do the line 21 captions carry through to the Internet?"

Rosaline's response:

"Today, most TV video programming distributed over the Internet does not have closed captions. That's one of the reasons why we need to get H.R. 3101 passed. When passed, H.R. 3101 will ensure that broadcasters and "multichannel video programming distributors" (such as cable and satellite TV companies) will provide closed captions for the video programming they distribute over the Internet.

How those closed captions will be transmitted over the Internet is a question best addressed by people with technical expertise. As I understand it, the caption codes transmitted for decoding and display on TVs (called "line 21 captions") need to be reconfigured when a program is distributed over the Internet. In other words, Internet caption technology is not the same as TV "line 21 caption" technology. There are many groups and people working to develop a standard for Internet captions. It also makes sense that this new standard for Internet captions will build on and take advantage of existing "line 21 captions," so the entire process of producing captions does not need to be repeated for TV programs redistributed over the Internet.

The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM at WGBH) spearheaded a group of Internet service providers to address Internet captioning. See http://ncam.wgbh.org/news/icf.html. Recently, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) established a working group to create an industry standard for Internet captioning. See http://www.coataccess.org/node/3469. I have heard that the SMPTE standard may be established by the end of this year; they are very close to finishing. Also recently, NCAM at WGBH demonstrated that real-time captions for TV could be multi-purposed for a real-time simultaneous webcast. See http://www.coataccess.org/node/4895.

What I do know is that Internet captioning is possible. That is a fact demonstrated every day on many websites -- even YouTube. Having a standard for Internet captioning will just make it easier for everyone in the chain of video programming -- from production to distribution -- to provide captions."