Caption Action 2: Internet Closed Captioning

Caption Action 2: September 2011 Newsletter

2011-09-11T21:28:00.001-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for September 2011.

We skipped the August newsletter. Caption Action 2 took a bit of a summer break.

Coming Up:

Alloy Entertainment, producer of branded web series, is now on board with closed captioning! After being nudged by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, Alloy promised to closed caption its upcoming Wendy web series. Wendy is about one of the characters from the children's classic Peter Pan. It is launching on September 15. Check out the Facebook page, facebook.com/WendyTheSeries.

Read more:

http://www.causes.com/posts/850597

All My Children and One Life to Live Move to Internet

2011-07-08T00:10:00.004-04:00

The soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live have been cancelled on regular television, but fan demand has resulted in the licensing of the shows to the company Prospect Park.

Prospect Park will be continuing the shows online, but it is not definite that the same actors will participate. The question is, now that AMC and OLTL are becoming web series, will they be closed captioned online?

You can make sure they are online by contacting Prospect Park on Twitter at @prospectpk

The Internet has increasingly been taking over the soap opera genre. There are several web-exclusive soap operas. Caption Action 2 doesn't know of any closed captioned internet soap operas at this time.

Here is what Marlee Matlin tweeted: All My Children fans have tweeted asking me to use my clout to help insure it's captioned when it moves to web. Happy to make noise for you!

But the time is very short! E! reports that AMC ends its regular TV run in September! The deaf community has less than 2 months to convince Prospect Park to closed caption online.

According to the Internet Movie Database, One Life To Live started in 1968, All My Children in 1970.

Sources:

‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ Head Online
Canceled soaps will continue online
Soap Shocker: All My Children and One Life to Live Saved?!

Caption Action 2 Takes On Facebook!

2011-06-30T20:28:00.013-04:00

A new fight has been launched to get Facebook to update its video player to add closed captioning support. Why now? The answer is, because Facebook is clearly positioning itself to become a major player in the original web video content arena.

This past week alone, two high-profile web series have been announced for Facebook: Aim High, and Teen Wolf.

Aim High is a professionally-produced web series about a spy in a high school. One of the producers is Dolphin Entertainment, and according to their website, they have a solid track record producing content for Nickelodeon, Family Channel, Cartoon Network, etc. Their site says they specialize in children and young adults' programming. Aim High, which features an actor from the Twilight films, Jackson Rathbone, has been getting a lot of publicity, as it is distributed by Warner Brothers on Facebook starting August 1:

Entertainment Weekly, Examiner.com, Just Jared Jr., BSCKids, Sugarscape are media sources that have already published preview articles. More will come the closer we get to August 1.

Teen Wolf is actually ALREADY on Facebook. Teen Wolf is a companion web series to the new MTV show Teen Wolf. You have to go to the AT&T Facebook page, and "like" it to be able to see the video. Link too long to post here, but you can get to it via the link in the Hollywood Reporter article, MTV's 'Teen Wolf' Web Series Premieres Today.

Since the target is Facebook, it makes sense to have Facebook pages about this! Last night Caption Action 2 posted on Twitter asking for someone to create a Facebook page calling for Facebook to add closed captioning. Two people responded, and now we have both a Facebook group, and a Facebook page, so people can choose whichever they prefer.

Facebook group: Facebook must add closed captions!! ( people must request to join the group)

Facebook page: FB must support closed captioning
(uses FB in title because of apparent Facebook restrictions in the use of the word Facebook in a page title. Anyone can join by simply "liking" the page.)

Both the group and page creators are active supporters of closed captioning. Caption Action 2 would like to see the group and/or page grow to 30,000 members. Why 30,000? We figure we need at least that many to get the attention of Facebook - and the attention of reporters and bloggers in the media.

Caption Action 2's goal is to avoid the need for a class action lawsuit. We already have class action lawsuits against Netflix and CNN.com; we don't need a third. There have been comments from hearing people about the two existing class action lawsuits, and the majority are negative. A class action lawsuit against Facebook should be our last resort to get Facebook's attention.

Finally, there are two ways to communicate our desires directly to Facebook:

Facebook's "make suggestions" page for videos

Facebook's own page. You can't post messages there, but you can post comments in response to Facebook's postings.

Please spread the word about this new fight. We have to send the message that the deaf and hard of hearing community will not tolerate automatically being left out. If Facebook is going to become a major platform for original video entertainment, we have to demand that Facebook update its video player to support closed captioning.

blip.tv's Player Now Has Closed Captioning!

2011-06-28T16:45:00.013-04:00

In a previous post when we slammed blip.tv, we said that their player didn't have CC. blip.tv contacted Caption Action 2 and told us that the reason they had relaunched with no captions is because they had some technical issues that could not be resolved in time for the relaunch. They were forced to revert back to an older player. blip.tv promised to update their video player within a month. Today, blip.tv kept its promise and launched the new, updated video player with closed captioning support!

To see the video above, go to http://blip.tv/red-vs-blue/red-vs-blue-season-9-episode-2-5296839. The captions are similar in appearance to subtitles.

According to blip.tv, producers have to upload a special file (.srt or Timed Text XML) as part of the upload process if they want to include closed captions, and if they do, when you click on cc the captions go live. Only a small percentage of shows do this now, but some of the biggest shows, including Red vs. Blue, do.

Why is this such a big deal? blip.tv is one of the biggest hosts of original web series programming. When they relaunched last month, they got a lot of media attention because they were the first web series host to try to make it easier for people to find the best web series. Their relaunch included a continually refreshed redesign that showcases selected web series hand-picked by blip.tv editors.

blip.tv is also popular with web series producers because of the flexibility of its distribution network. In addition to being on blip.tv, web series are also distributed to multiple partner sites, including YouTube, AOL Video, Facebook, and iTunes.

If blip.tv can do it, why not Koldcast.tv? Crackle.com? MyDamnChannel.com? Atom.com? Babelgum.com? Vimeo?

Caption Action 2: June 2011 Newsletter

2011-06-01T20:40:00.002-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for June 2011.

Two New Additions

May was a disappointing month. There was only one new addition to the list of closed captioned web series: Anyone But Me. The description: "Anyone But Me is an award winning, critically acclaimed drama about a new generation of gay, straight, and ethnically diverse teens struggling with identity and modern relationships."

However, we expect several more to be added in the coming months. Caption Action 2 has contacted more than 200 web series producers to date, and out of those, more than 60 have responded positively. Some are working on adding captions now.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/778156

Webby Awards Host's Web Series Lacks Captions

2011-05-27T22:43:00.007-04:00

This week, the big news in the web series biz was that the Webby Awards will be held on June 13, 2011. The selected host is Lisa Kudrow, whose web series "Web Therapy" is an award-winning web series, having won two webby awards this year: best comedy and best individual performance. The series' description is "Lisa Kudrow stars as a therapist with limited patience for others' problems in this original improvised series." "Web Therapy" has even been picked up by the Showtime TV channel.

However, "Web Therapy" is NOT a closed captioned web series. Produced by the L Studio, an arm of Lexus, it does not have closed captions on EITHER YouTube or the web series website.

Caption Action 2 has contacted the producers of "Web Therapy" twice to ask for captions and has not had a single response. How popular is that web series? Popular enough that the esteemed actress Meryl Streep made a guest appearance! (Meryl Streep appeared in episode 46.) The series has had at least three seasons already, and only the first two seasons are on YouTube. The video player used on Lstudio.com is incapable of showing captions, so our only hope is to convince them to caption on YouTube.

We deserve and must demand, captions on this very popular web series. Especially now that the star of that show is the host of the Webby Awards! How can you help? Contact the producers, Is or Isn't Entertainment, at info@isorisnt.com. On Twitter, send a tweet to @LisaKudrow.

Blip.TV Redesigns Web Site, Does Nothing to Improve Accessibility!

2011-05-17T20:39:00.015-04:00

Update: Blip has now updated their player to include captioning!

Today there was big news in the web series industry. Blip.TV announced it had redesigned their website to showcase the best, most professional web series. Not only that, Blip had raised $18 million in new funds.

(Nostalgia Chick, courtesy of Blip.tv)

Blip.TV claims it has support for closed captioning. A message on the Blip.TV support forum from Blip.TV staff on February 23, 2011 states:

"The blip.tv player supports closed captioning in .SRT or .TT format. Just upload your file as a secondary format on the Edit Episode page."

Another, much longer support forum thread discusses Blip.TV support for captioning.

However, where are those captioned videos on Blip.TV?! When Blip.TV redesigned their site, they did NOTHING to make it easier to find the captioned videos! AND the video player STILL does not prominently display a CC button like the one you see on YouTube videos.

Via Google, we found this Blip.TV file:

http://blip.tv/spacegeek/closed-captioned-the-pope-freud-seti-202162

When we played it, we observed that there was no CC button to enable hearing people to turn the captions on and off. Therefore, we can't tell if it is hard coded subtitles, or if it is truly CC.

Blip.TV needs to spend a FEW of those $18 million dollars to improve their website and video player's accessibility!!

There are other sites like Universal Subtitles, Videohelp.com, Doom 9, and Bill Creswell's that can help with subtitle creation and/or have tools to create them.

Kids' Web Series Ruby Skye PI Begins Captioning!

2011-05-13T22:09:00.002-04:00

This week, a children's web series, Ruby Skye P.I. became the first closed captioned children's web series (for kids aged 8 to 14) added to the master list of captioned web series. This was significant because Ruby Skye P.I., about a teenage girl detective, is an award-winning web series. At the Los Angeles Web Series Festival, Ruby Skye won eight awards:

Outstanding Interactive Narrative Comedy: Jill Golick (Creator); Kerry Young, Steven Golick, Karen Walton, Jill Golick (Producers)

Outstanding Lead Actress - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Writing - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Directing - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Cinematography - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Editing - Interactive Narrative Comedy
Outstanding Score - Interactive Narrative Comedy

As of this blog post, the first four episodes are closed captioned, and the producer is quickly working to add more! And more awards may be coming - Ruby Skye has been nominated for the New Media Film Festival Audience Choice Award.

Caption Action 2: May 2011 Newsletter

2011-05-10T20:56:00.003-04:00

More Web Series Captioning

This past month saw some increase in captioned web series. We are now posting the master list of captioned web series at http://captionaction2.blogspot.com/ on the captioned web series page. New to the list since last issue:

BROKEN TOY
GHOULS
HARD DRIVE 13
KIDS REENACT
MICROWAVE P**N
OUT WITH DAD
PIONEER ONE (Producer is from a deaf family)
SEEKING SIMONE
SIX FIGURES
SOLO
SPACE HOSPITAL
SQUATTERS
TIGHTS AND FIGHTS
VAMPIRE ZOMBIE WEREWOLF

The list has also been improved, by adding short descriptions of each web series to help you decide what to watch.

Web Series Becoming Television

What is a web series? What is a television program? The line between the two is becoming quite blurred! For now, any original programming for the Internet is called a web series. Also, short episodes of three to five minutes each still dominate, but the writing is on the wall. The future (which is getting very close) - lies with long-form web series of television-equivalent lengths. That is, a 22 minute web series episode with commercial breaks equals a half hour television program.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/754496

Caption Action 2: April 2011 Newsletter

2011-04-09T23:08:00.001-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for April 2011.

The tide seems to be turning. We are finding out that sometimes in order to get a web series captioned, all you have to do is ask. Starting with this issue, every issue will carry a master list of captioned web series at the bottom. While the list is growing, it is just a tiny segment of the huge number of web series out there.

New Beneficiary on Caption Action 2

Recently Caption Action 2 changed the beneficiary on its Facebook cause. The new beneficiary is the National Association of the Deaf. Why the NAD? The NAD was the lead organization in the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) that worked to get the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passed.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/716857

Caption Action 2: March 2011 Newsletter

2011-03-07T06:49:00.002-05:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for March 2011.

Two New Captioned Web Series

We like to start off with good news, so here is some: two new web series are captioned! The first one is The Vamps Next Door, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcrmXgWzUx0, about a family of vampires. What is interesting about this web series, is that the producers are very interested in giving actors with disabilities opportunities! Not only does this web series include a deaf character (Dewey, played by Antionette Abbamonte), they plan to have a disabled character in every episode. There's just one problem; they do not have the funding to produce more episodes. Keep an eye on their website at http://www.thevampsnextdoor.com/. They hope to add a PayPal button or some other means for donations to be made to keep the web series going.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/679791?m=7ab6ab90

Caption Action 2: February 2011 Newsletter

2011-02-13T21:48:00.002-05:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for February 2011.

It Starts with Students

As web series grow in popularity and are increasingly becoming the face of television online, colleges are teaching students how to create web series. After reading this article in The Seattle Times, Caption Action 2 contacted the professor who was interviewed, Ross Brown. Professor Brown teaches about web series at Chapman University in California. In addition, he is also the author of the book "Byte-Sized Television: Create Your Own TV Series for the Internet."

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/648298?m=7ab6ab90

We've Got To Get Through to Major Networks!

2011-01-22T18:21:00.007-05:00

A popular trend now is for major networks to have companion web series for their popular shows. The regular show is closed captioned online, but not the companion web series! Under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, we have NO LEGAL WAY to force the captioning of the companion web series.

This week, NBC launched its companion web series for The Office, "Podcast." Caption Action 2 double-checked the regular series (captioned) and the web series (not captioned). Why is it that the producers will invest in captioning for the regular series, but not the web series? Are deaf and hard of hearing consumers THAT unimportant to them?

Also, just weeks ago, ABC introduced its own companion web series for their show Cougar Town, "Andy's Dreams." There was heavy promotion for ABC's new web series. In fact, the ABC.com home page has a promotion under Featured. Again, the regular show has captions while the web series does not!

The most frustrating thing about this is that the networks routinely caption their regular programs - but not the shorter web series! Yet web series are growing in importance and popularity. We can't let deaf and hard of hearing viewers be left out and forgotten! We've got to get through to the major networks on web series captions, or we won't have much hope of convincing smaller online channels to caption their web series. The example must be set by the major networks!

COMPLAIN to ABC and NBC! If enough of us complain, they will get the message that they can't just simply ignore us as viewers! How to complain:

On NBC, go to http://www.nbc.com/contact/general/ and select the show from the pulldown list.
On ABC, go to http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us and select the show.

Can CBS be far behind with their own show companion web series? Probably not, considering how much publicity ABC and NBC are getting from their own companion web series.

Caption Action 2: January 2011 Newsletter

2011-01-12T17:51:00.001-05:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for January 2011.

Caption Action 2 Hits 15,000 Members

Caption Action 2 now has over 15,000 members. The slow but steady growth of Caption Action 2 reflects increasing awareness among people of Internet television and the lack of captions on Internet television.

Web Series Contacts

December through early January was a rather fruitless period for getting web series producers to caption. The few contacts made were targeted ones.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/624919?m=3a57449a

YouTube Buying Next New Networks. What Does It Mean?

2010-12-15T20:12:00.004-05:00

Today the New York Times reported that YouTube is in talks to buy Next New Networks. What does this mean for the deaf and hard of hearing community? First we have to look at why YouTube is doing this and its significance, then look at what it could mean for the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Why and Significance of the Purchase

YouTube buying Next New Networks could be a game changer. When a company of YouTube's caliber buys a web series network, it sends a message. That message is, web series have grown enough in popularity and importance that we want to own the network that hosts them. These days, popular web series can get more views than regular television programs. YouTube is doing this because YouTube wants to become a content owner of professional video without actually producing the content.

This is significant because it echoes the Disney-ABC business model. YouTube is becoming like Disney, a parent company, and Next New Networks is becoming like ABC. Like Disney, YouTube would not actually produce the content. Like ABC, Next New Networks does not actually produce the content but hosts it for outside producers.

Caption Action 2 predicts that if YouTube succeeds in buying Next New Networks, other web series networks could be sought after by companies. We predict that Microsoft, AOL, or Yahoo will seek to buy web series networks. If this happens, we will see the formation of parent company-web series network relationships that will result in the ABC, NBC, and CBS of the web.

Possible Implications for Deaf/HOH Community

What could this mean for the deaf and hard of hearing community's efforts to get web series closed captioned? Caption Action 2 thinks it could have a positive impact. Right now, one problem with getting companies to caption web series is that the producers are often small, and have limited resources. This limitation could be overcome when the web series' network hosts are owned by wealthier corporate parents.

How captioning paid for now with regular television networks? Jamie once asked that question and was told that it varies - sometimes the network pays, sometimes the producer, sometimes the cost is shared between the network and the producer. So theoretically, if YouTube owns Next New Networks, YouTube could pay for, or share the cost of, captioning web series hosted by Next New Networks, with Next New Networks.

Therefore, it will become harder for the "we can't afford it" argument to be made. As an analogy, look at the situation of a deaf person needing an interpreter at a medical office. The doctor's office may claim they can't afford the interpreter, but the law looks at the TOTAL resources - if the doctor's office is part of a network of medical offices, the law looks at the total resources of the network. Ergo, instead of trying to hold the individual tiny producers responsible for captioning of web series, we may be able to hold the wealthy corporate parent responsible for ensuring captioning.

Caption Action 2: December 2010 Newsletter

2010-12-08T21:46:00.003-05:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for December 2010.

New York Times on Web Series

You know the web series business has arrived as an entertainment industry, when the New York Times takes note. In November, the New York Times launched an occasional feature in their ArtsBeat section, a column called Watchlist. It started November 12. Check it out via the watchlist tag: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/watchlist/ The comments contain lots of mention of other web series.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/600013?m=7ab6ab90

Number One Web Series is Now Captioned!

2010-11-03T20:13:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Sebastian Andrade, The Annoying Orange is now closed captioned! After Caption Action 2 began making noise about no closed captions on Annoying Orange, Sebastian contacted CA 2 and let us know about his captioned videos on DotSub, where his moniker is SpongeSebastian. Then Sebastian reached out to the producer of The Annoying Orange, offering to share his caption files.

Today, Sebastian tweeted Jamie to let her know that there are now captions on this number 1 web series! The producer had accepted his offer! Sebastian hopes to get all the past episodes captioned, too. For now, there are two captioned episodes on The Annoying Orange:

Frankenfruit
Annoying Saw 2: The Annoying Death Trap

Enjoy!

Dateline: 2012

2010-10-14T20:25:00.003-04:00

Today a very reliable source pointed Caption Action 2 to a timeline for the implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, developed by a law firm and posted on the Internet. This timeline is a downloadable PDF file. According to this timeline, we can expect Internet closed captioning regulations to be published in Spring 2012.

So what does this mean for us? Until regulations are published, companies don't have to caption online. Between now and Spring 2012, all we can do is ask, plead, push, demand. All the while reminding them that it is going to be the law soon, so they may as well start now.

The timeline also indicates that at about the same time, regulations will also be published for caption decoding capability in devices. However, it looks like we have to wait until 2014 for CC buttons to be mandatory for remote controls.

Vampire Mob Begins Captioning!

2010-10-01T20:24:00.009-04:00

Today Vampire Mob (http://www.vampiremob.com) notified us that they were starting to closed caption! The first captioned episode from the first season is up, with more to come.

Caption Action 2 first contacted the producer of Vampire Mob on September 5. At that time, Vampire Mob was using Vimeo for their web series. On September 22, Vampire Mob's producer wrote back that he was the only one on the staff, and that the show was produced on a microbudget. However, a hearing fan would be assisting with closed captioning for their new YouTube channel!

(One of the few G-Rated Screen Shots Available!)
(He's a hitman and a vampire and he just found out his mother in law is moving in for eternity)

Just one week later, on October 1, Vampire Mob wrote again to announce that they had started captioning on YouTube! How did they do it so quickly? Simple! The aforementioned hearing fan listened to the video and compared the spoken dialogue to what was on a text script, then the producer "dropped all the lines into the timecode." The results are excellent; Caption Action 2 watched the video and did not see any errors unlike with unedited automatic captions.

This tiny producer with a shoestring budget has accomplished something that is apparently too difficult for wealthier producers. (Yes, that is sarcasm!) Let's reward Vampire Mob's producer by spreading the word about this entertainment web series being captioned! You can also send your thank-yous to info@vampiremob.com.

Help Get The Annoying Orange to Caption!

2010-09-30T21:16:00.009-04:00

Today Mashable/Visible Measures came out with their new monthly list of top web series. For the seventh straight month, The Annoying Orange was #1. This is the web series that Caption Action 2 has tried to get to closed caption, but they have not responded at all. Getting the top web series to closed caption is critically important because if we can not get the top web series to caption, it makes it that much harder to convince less popular web series to closed caption. As they say, leadership has to start at the top.

Photo from Guest Appearance on Other Web Series

So tonight, Caption Action 2 launched a new Facebook group: Dane Boedigheimer Should Caption The Annoying Orange! (http://tinyurl.com/39a8obw) Our hope is that enough people, both hearing and deaf, will join and/or send emails to the producer to help make an impact on the producer of The Annoying Orange. This new Facebook group is considered a temporary group; we will take it down when the producer of The Annoying Orange commits to closed captioning with quality closed captions.

Catheters, Not Accurate Captions

2010-09-24T20:54:00.008-04:00

Even the Federal government is getting into web series now. But they can't be bothered to spend a few dollars for accurate closed captions. An example of this can be seen in the new (actually two months old) Federal web series $100 Note Podcast on the YouTube US Currency channel.

Caption Action 2 learned about the existence of this web series from a review on the TubeFilter blog. We checked out the first episode of this six-episode web series and found there are captions - but they are the YouTube automatic captions with no editing.

The little gem displayed here is an example of why the Federal government, when it budgets for a web series, should invest at least a few dollars in editing the automatic captions generated by YouTube. What is the caption trying to say? That the three agencies have to stay ahead of catheters (catheter: that thing that is placed inside a private part as a substitute for natural urination) because they are afraid consumers may pee on the $100 dollar bill?

Don't bother trying to watch the other episodes in this series. They too have only the YouTube automatic captions.

Guest Blog: Creating Captions for Streamed Netflix Videos

2010-09-13T20:08:00.004-04:00

Carolina Maria wrote the following guest blog for Caption Action 2, about creating subtitles for Netflix streamed videos.

Watch Streaming Movies in Netflix with Subtitles/Captions!

Netflix is a rental service of videos that provides its subscribers with two options:

1. Pick movies or any other video you wish to watch and they will mail the movies to your residence.

2. Instant watch; Streaming movies or any other video that you can watch on their website right away, without download.*

3. Netflix Ready Service: You use a device they provide you with to hook up with your TV and watch the videos there.*

*Not all videos have this ability, however the numbers are increasing.

For Instant Watch, they do not have captioning on their videos yet and when they do start implementing, it is not guaranteed that they will start to enable subtitles for every movie.

Recently, a .DFXP converter was developed (JoshErickson.com). It lets us convert the most common file extension for subtitling, .SRT, to .DFXP, which is good news because Microsoft's Silverlight, the program Netflix uses for their streaming videos, only recognizes that extension to enable subtitles.

However, it's not that simple. It just happens that Netflix has different timeline for their streaming videos (for example, added introduction for Netflix at beginning). In that case, the subtitles and the Netflix's video are not synchronized. You might end up reading an line that is only spoken 5 seconds later.

Since I am deaf, I was frustrated so my friend and I decided to convert the .SRT files to .DFXP and correct the timing of the subtitles to match Netflix's streaming videos. We thought, if we are going to do that... Why not share the files, readily available, for other Netflix's subscribers too?

You can download the .DFXP files of subtitles for Netflix videos on the Website www.carolinamaria.com/nfsubs and follow the newest uploads on Twitter, www.twitter.com/nfsubs. You can check the instructions here, which is surprisingly simple and short.

Please note that, unfortunately, the .DFXP does not work on the Netflix Ready Service. It only works when you watch the movie on your computer.

Enjoy the movies!

Caption Action 2 Newsletter: September 2010

2010-09-04T22:07:00.003-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for September 2010.

FINAL ACTIONS IN CONGRESS

This month should bring a final vote by the House on the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The House is expected to pass S 3304, which passed the Senate in August.

As you know, S 3304 leaves out a very important and fast-growing area of entertainment: original television-like programming for the web. Anyone can produce a web series, but not all web series programs get large enough viewership to merit being pressured to closed caption.

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/534705?m=

Come On, Google, Do The Right Thing!

2010-08-28T11:56:00.012-04:00

Google has jumped into the web series biz, producing its own web series, Google Beat. Google Beat is about search engine term popularity, and has a human host. Google Beat is on YouTube of course - but they are using the inaccurate automatic captioning. (For instance, in the picture below, are they talking about what we are eating for breakfast, not what we are hearing for breakfast?) Google knows that the automatic captioning is not that good, and that's why they have the YouTube Ready Program so companies can have professional options that can be used in conjunction with YouTube automatic captioning.

It is critical that we convince Google to use professional help to caption Google Beat. If we can't get Google to do the right thing, that makes it that much harder to get others to do the right thing too.

How can you help? You can help by:

Go to Google Beat on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/googlebeat
Go down the page until you see the "Send Message" option

Click "Send Message."
Sign in using either your Google account or YouTube account
Tell Google that the automatic captions are not acceptable, that they should use Google's own YouTube Ready Program at http://youtubeready.dcmp.org/

Google is a wealthy company and can certainly afford the pittance it costs to closed caption through their own YouTube Ready Program! Shame on Google for not doing the right thing from the very start with their own web series!

Runic Films Willing to Caption, But...

2010-08-21T16:59:00.013-04:00

Yesterday, Caption Action 2 contacted the producers of a children's web series, eScape. The premise of eScape is given in a press release: "eScape tells the story of a group of campers seemingly abandoned by their counselors. They soon discover they are trapped within a video game that grants them amazing abilities. But in the real world, this game is the object of a power struggle between powerful corporations and mysterious military interests."

Today, Caption Action 2 received an email from Ben Alpi (ben@runicfilms.com), director and producer of eScape. Mr. Alpi's response shows a real willingness to caption, except for one problem:

"At present we don't have closed captioning (one of the few downsides with the Vimeo player) but we do plan to do it as soon as we're able (even if we have to post on YouTube or create a special version of the video.) We're currently on the search for volunteers for that and to do subtitles for as many languages as we can. The last series I worked on, Star Trek: Phase II we had several languages. We've been so busy getting the series out on schedule though, it may be some weeks until we're up and running with CC.

By the way, if you would like to urge Vimeo in this area, I'd certainly be for it. It's been a request for at least 3 years."

Checking Vimeo's site, apparently Mr. Alpi's correct. In the FAQ on closed captioning, it says:

"Vimeo does not currently support the use of separate closed captioning text files. If you want any kind of text to appear in your video, including closed captioning, it needs to be added to the actual video, like any other graphics.

We hope to have time to develop proper support for closed captioning soon."

Vimeo does have captioned videos, but the captioning is embedded as open captions, not closed captions. Below is an example found on Vimeo when we used the captioning keyword:

Revision3 Pledges to Caption All of its Web Series!

2010-08-18T19:52:00.025-04:00

One of the many web series producers Caption Action 2 contacted about captioning their web series, was Revision3.com. (Memory refresher: the HR 3101 and S 3304 bills do not require original web television programming to be captioned). Revision3.com is a website that produces and broadcasts only original web series programs, some as long as an hour.

Caption Action 2 corresponded with Ron Richards, the Senior Director of Marketing & Product Management for Revision3. Mr. Richards' first response was "unfortunately we don't have any captioning functionality at this time - we'd like to but ultimately right now, we haven't found a cost effective way to enable it on our site. " By "our site," he means the Revision3 site itself. Caption Action 2 responded with three options for captioning: use YouTube automatic captions; professional captioning service; freeware or online subtitling sites; buying software and doing it themselves.

To that, Mr. Richards replied, "we've actually been looking into the YouTube automatic captioning and are looking to that as an option - while there are many options as you laid out, we're still a small startup company with limited resource in both money and people - so sometimes we have to make tough decisions - but captioning is definitely something we want to figure out how to get implemented."

Caption Action 2 responded with the recommendation that they use YouTube. Mr. Richards said that is what they will do. Then Caption Action 2 asked when they would begin YouTube automatic captioning, as it has to be enabled by the video owner.

Mr. Richards' final response is something to cheer: "I don't have an exact ETA for you - we have one person managing our YouTube presence, and he's got a very full plate - I'm going to bring this up with him immediately and hope that we can get all our videos/channels enabled by the end of this month, if not sooner."

Kudos to Mr. Richards for his willingness to make Revision3 programming more accessible! It turns out that most of their programming is already auto-captioned on YouTube. The fact he wants to make ALL of their programming auto-captioned is something to cheer! If you would like to thank Mr. Richards, his email address is rrichards@revision3.com.

Caption Action 2 will probably become a fan of iFanboy, a Revision3.com show about comic books!

Industry Wins. Deaf Pay the Price.

2010-08-12T20:00:00.009-04:00

How high a price are we paying for Congress not requiring original web television programming to have closed captions? The price is already high, and getting higher by the day! Caption Action 2 is still learning just how high that price is.

Professionally produced web television is exploding on the Internet. More money is being poured into it, and the quality has increased to the point that web television now has its own version of the Emmys, the Streamys.

Web television may not be the correct term. Increasingly, the term we see being used more and more is "web series." One company is even financing an entire movie to be released online as a web series! In fact, the audience for web television has grown so much that Mashable now releases a monthly list of the top web series.

PROFESSIONAL WEB PRODUCERS - WHO?

Caption Action 2 is learning about the producers of professional web series, and contacting them to ask about captioning. So far, we have contacted five!

Babelgum.com - Babelgum pays for professional video, as reported by Fast Company.
Crackle.com - Crackle.com has 52 original web television series.
MyDamnChannel.com - MyDamnChannel.com recently got an infusion of money. In addition, the company recently released a press release about their new web programming.
NextNewNetworks.com - the company describes itself as "the leading provider of original, episodic series programming for the Internet."
Vuguru.com - this is backed by Michael Eisner, formerly of Disney.

Crackle.com has a FAQ that says at the bottom:
Q: Does Crackle have subtitles or closed captioning?
A: Currently, Crackle does not offer subtitles or closed captioning but please be assured we are working on implementing them into our system.

RESULTS OF CONTACTS

When contacted by Caption Action 2, Crackle.com said "our Product Team is currently working on it. It's certainly something we would like to be able to offer sooner rather than later, but there are also technological issues involved, in terms of what we can make work on our site." Caption Action 2 is trying to get a more definite response as to when Crackle.com will begin captioning.

Likewise, MyDamnChannel.com responded that they had "no plans" to closed caption as of now. Caption Action 2 has not responded yet to MyDamnChannel.com.

What can we do? Congress just passed legislation that will get us guaranteed access to regular television programming on the web, but already, a whole new world of web entertainment is leapfrogging ahead, and we don't have any legal guarantee to captions in this new world! All we can do is ask for, push for, plead for, and demand captions on web series!

It does not matter to Caption Action 2 if a web producer is small. If they can afford to produce professional web series - the key word here is PROFESSIONAL - they can afford to caption!

We've Won. And We've Lost.

2010-08-05T21:58:00.010-04:00

We've won...

We've kind of won.

The hard work of the National Association of the Deaf and the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology has resulted in the Senate modifying S 3304 so it is more like HR 3101! There was then a last big push on to get the Senate to pass S 3304!

Update! At 10 pm last night the Senate passed S 3304 unanimously! COAT trumpeted the news late last night!

But.

We've also lost.

Despite the hard work of NAD and COAT, the "new" S 3304 does NOT include the provision for broadcasters to report to the FCC every two years about how much Internet-only programming they are captioning. It also does not include the provision for the FCC to, three years after the law takes effect, recommend whether closed captioning requirements should be extended to Internet-only television programming.

Caption Action 2 will be continuing the fight! There is a whole big new and growing world of Internet-only television out there, and we will be pushing Internet-only broadcasters to caption! We don't have the luxury of waiting for future Federal regulation - we've got to push them now! Now that this Congressional battle is over, watch for word from Caption Action 2 on who we will be targeting!

Caption Action 2: August 2010 Newsletter

2010-08-01T00:03:00.002-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for August 2010!

HOUSE VOTE!

On July 26, 2010, in keeping with the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the House of Representatives voted and passed HR 3101, 348 to 23! Happily, the version of HR 3101 that passed the House also restored the $10 million to help deaf-blind people purchase equipment.

BUT.

We can't celebrate yet. We still need to pass the SENATE. The Senate could vote any day now!

Read more:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/512704?m=19b0b551

HR 3101 Will Pass - Next Stop: Senate!

2010-07-26T17:16:00.013-04:00

In a voice vote earlier today, the House passes HR 3101 and is expected to pass it tonight.

Amy Cohen Efron posted about it, HR3101 PASSED UNANIMOUSLY!, on her blog.

Next stop is the Senate.

What does this mean for Caption Action 2 when the Senate passes the bill also? Simply put, our job is done. The blog and the Facebook group will be closed.

Great job, everyone!

Update:

It passes!

348 to 23!

(source - http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll469.xml)

Next Stop For HR 3101 - Full House Floor!

2010-07-21T15:57:00.003-04:00

This morning, HR 3101 went through its second markup. It was a great day for everyone, especially the deaf-blind. Here's what happened;

- the $10 million deaf-blind provision was restored
- Rep. Baldwin suggests addition of adding captioning to Public, Educational, and Government channels.

Now it's on the way to the House floor for a full vote!

The video of the markup is here in downloadable and streamed formats:

Full Committee Markup

Second HR 3101 Markup 7/21 At 10am!

2010-07-20T07:30:00.002-04:00

HR 3101 will have its second markup tomorrow morning (June 21) in Rayburn Room 2123 at 10 AM.

Keep an eye on this blog and on COAT's website for more:

COAT Looks Forward to House Energy & Commerce Committee Markup of H.R. 3101

Update: Full Committee Markup

Do You Want A Toothless HR 3101? Act Now!

2010-07-16T16:54:00.059-04:00

Caption Action 2 was aware that there had been changes made to the "new" HR 3101 that is going to be voted on by the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, any day now. What we did not know, was exactly what changes and how much was changed! In an effort to craft a bill that industry would accept, industry got a lot of what they demanded - with the result that our bill risks becoming toothless.

Toothless

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) sent Caption Action 2 the following Action Alert, which we are reprinting in full, along with commentary. If you do not like the changes that were made in the new HR 3101 - act now, because there is NO TIME TO LOSE. There will be a vote ANY DAY NOW.

From: COAT

Subject: Action Alert -- H.R. 3101 Energy and Commerce Committee

Congress Needs to Hear from You

It is time for us to make noise about H.R. 3101. We want H.R. 3101 to be as strong as possible to ensure accessible advanced communications and video programming in the 21st Century.

Industry has been making a lot of noise about H.R. 3101. Industry claims that H.R. 3101 will require all advanced communication and video programming equipment and services to be accessible to every person with every kind of disability. Industry says this requirement will stifle innovation and prevent new technology, products, and services from coming into the market. Even though these claims are not true, Congress has changed H.R. 3101 to address these industry concerns. The new H.R. 3101 (approved by the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet on June 30, 2010) added several industry protections.

Congress has heard a lot from industry about H.R. 3101.

Now it is time for Congress to hear from us.

Tell members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce:

· Making advanced communication products and services accessible does not stifle innovation; accessibility requires innovation.

· Manufacturers and service providers only need make advanced communications accessible when it is achievable through reasonable effort and expense.

· Restore H.R. 3101 Section 105(b) to ensure funding for specialized communication equipment for people who are deaf-blind.

Caption Action 2: We already knew about this one, and had blogged it previously in the post From $10 million to Zero...for Deaf-Blind People!

· Restore H.R. 3101 Section 107 to ensure all advanced communications, such as mobile Internet browsing functionality, are accessible to and usable by people who are blind or visually impaired.

Caption Action 2: What does the absence of this section mean? We looked at "old" HR 3101 and found that section 107 would have modified the Communications Act to add this language: "Every provider of Internet access service and every manufacturer of Internet access equipment shall, unless it would result in an undue burden, make user interfaces for such service and equipment accessible to individuals with disabilities, including those interfaces used to initiate, monitor, and control such service.". So not having that in the new HR 3101 means that blind and visually impaired people would not be guaranteed access to the internet devices of the future! We are sure that Jesse Acosta, the blinded veteran who testified on Capitol Hill, is NOT a happy camper about this.

· Further inquiries are not needed to determine the use and benefits of video description for people who are blind or visually impaired. Strike the video description inquiries from Section 202.

· Do not prohibit the FCC from increasing video description beyond 7 hours per week on only 9 channels. Strike the limit on video description from Section 202.

Caption Action 2: Does anyone remember the days when we had only a few hours of captioning on television? Saying the FCC can't increase video description for the blind and visually impaired is like telling the deaf that they can't have more captioned programming.

· Do not limit captioning on the Internet to video programming first published or exhibited on television. Strike “first published or exhibited on television” from Section 202(b). Do not leave deaf and hard of hearing people behind as television moves to the Internet, including video programming shown first or exclusively on the Internet and new IPTV services!

Caption Action 2: We are frankly pissed off to learn about this one!! What this means is that with the new HR 3101, we can only expect closed captioning online for television programming that was aired on regular television - but NOT for original Internet-based television programming! With this kind of rule, if Marlee Matlin's "My Deaf Family" was a regularly-aired Internet-only program it would be exempt from having to have closed captions.

· All devices, regardless of size, can and must be capable of displaying closed captions. Strike the achievable standard and waiver authority for closed captions in Section 203.

Caption Action 2: We found language in new HR 3101 that said devices with screens 13 inches or less have to be able to display closed captions only if it is "achievable." This basically opens the door for manufacturers to be able to say "we can't do it" and apply for waivers. It also appears to mean that manufacturers would legally be able to come out with the latest and greatest small cell phones and then claim it was not doable to include closed caption display capability.

Here's what you need to do:

Use the information above to craft your message.

Call or fax the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee now (list below) and ask them to make H.R. 3101 as strong as possible.

Send e-mail messages through the members’ websites available at http://www.house.gov.

Contact them today!

House Committee on Energy and Commerce
(in alphabetical order by State)

Parker Griffith (R-AL-5)

202-225-4801 Phone
202-225-4392 Fax

Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA-14)

202-225-8104 Phone
202-225-8890 Fax

George Radanovich (R-CA-19)

202-225-4540 Phone
202-225-3402 Fax

Henry Waxman, Chair (D-CA-30)

202-225-3976 Phone
202-225-4099 Fax

Mary Bono Mack (R-CA-45)

202-225-5330 Phone
202-225-2961 Fax

Christopher S. Murphy (D-CT-5)

202-225-4476 Phone
202-225-5933 Fax

Cliff Stearns (R-FL-6)

202-225-5744 Phone
202-225-3973 Fax

John Shimkus (R-IL-19)

202-225-5271 Phone
202-225-5880 Fax

Baron P. Hill (D-IN-9)

202-225-5315 Phone
202-225-6866 Fax

Charlie Melancon (D-LA-3)

202-225-4031 Phone
202-225-3354 Fax

Bart Stupak (D-MI-1)

202-225 4735 Phone
202-225-4744 Fax

Fred Upton (R-MI-6)

202-225-3761 Phone
202-225-4986 Fax

Mike Rogers (R-MI-8)

202-225-4872 Phone
202-225-5820 Fax

Roy Blunt, Deputy Ranking Member (R-MO-7)

202-225-6536 Phone
202-225-5604 Fax

Lee Terry (R-NE-2)

202-225-4155 Phone
202-225-5452 Fax

G. K. Butterfield (D-NC-1)

202-225-3101 Phone
202-225-3354 Fax

Robert E. Latta (R-OH-5)

202-225-6405 Phone
800-278-8203 Fax

Zachary T. Space (D-OH-18)

202-225-6265 Phone
202-225-3394 Fax

Bart Gordon (D-TN-6)

202-225-4231 Phone
202-225-6687 Fax

Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7)

202-225-2811 Phone
202-225-3002 Fax

Joe Barton, Ranking Member (R-TX-6)

202-225-2002 Phone
202-225-3052 Fax

Rick Boucher (D-VA-9)

202-225-3861 Phone
202-225-0442 Fax

Peter Welch (D-VT-AL)

202-225-4115 Phone
202-225-6790 Fax

Yet Another Step Forward for Equal Access!

2010-07-15T21:02:00.015-04:00

Earlier today, S 3304 had a markup together with three other bills and nominations. They recommended that it be moved to the Senate floor for a vote.

Caption Action 2 does not know yet what the fate of the deaf-blind provision was, but, according to the National Journal, "The panel approved a substitute that included as its text a modified version of the technology accessibility bill the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee approved last month."

Additional media coverage appeared in:

Broadcasting and Cable
The Hill
CED Magazine

What's next? FULL floor/committee votes are coming soon! This is when all the work you have put into contacting your representatives and senators, will pay off. Our supporters will have to work to get additional support from other representatives and senators.

Cosponsor 53 Joins HR 3101!

2010-07-02T22:06:00.007-04:00

HR 3101 just got its 53rd cosponsor!

Let us welcome Democratic Representative William Lacy Clay (MO-1)!

Democrats - 51, Republicans - 2

From $10 Million to Zero...for Deaf-Blind People!

2010-07-01T22:41:00.022-04:00

Today the National Association of the Deaf posted about the markup of HR 3101. One sentence caught our eye:

For example, advocacy efforts will be needed to recover the section in H.R. 3101 which provided funding for specialized communications equipment needed by people who are deaf-blind, such as refreshable Braille devices. That section was not included in the new H.R. 3101.

What? This means that there is now NOTHING in HR 3101 for deaf-blind people. Before, there was something:

(3) ANNUAL AMOUNT- The total amount of universal service support that may be obligated or expended under this subsection for any fiscal year may not exceed $10,000,000

To see for yourself the difference(s), compare Old_HR3101.pdf and New_HR3101.pdf (both are on the blogroll).

How much does a refreshable Braille device cost? We checked the manufacturers' websites. On the HumanWare site, we found products, but no prices. Customers have to contact the company to get prices. There was a price on the site of Freedom Scientific: almost $4,000. On Amazon.com, there was an Alva braille display costing "only" about $6,300. The least expensive one we found was the Seika braille display, costing about $2,500.

If you are deaf-blind, it is not too late. The bill has another markup to go through before it reaches the full House floor. If the deaf-blind community wants to get this provision restored in the final version of HR 3101, it has to get active and put pressure on Energy and Commerce Committee members.

HR3101 Forwarded to Full Committee!

2010-06-30T16:12:00.006-04:00

Caption Action 2 just watched the webcast of HR3101's markup. There were some amendments proposed and it has been forwarded to the full committee.

Subcommittee Markup of H.R. 3101, the “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009

The page also has the video in downloadable format as well as the opening statements and the amendments.

Multichannel News published a detailed news report on the markup.

Moving Forward! Markup Time!

2010-06-29T19:25:00.008-04:00

Today the news came in the afternoon: HR 3101 has a markup session tomorrow (June 30, 2010) at 2:00 pm in the House subcommittee! Like the hearing, it is going to be streamed live online with captions. Caption Action 2 will not be attending, but the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology will be there to represent the interests of the deaf and blind communities.

What is a markup? According to Wikipedia, a markup is a process of amending legislation. Each piece of the bill is read, and subcommittee members can offer amendments (suggested changes). There can be some debate. No changes are actually made to the bill, but they do vote on the suggested changes. Finally, there is a vote to move the bill out of the subcommittee.

Catch the markup - during and after - on the Subcommittee website. If you live in metro DC, you can also go in person - the markup session is being held in Rayburn 2123.

What happens next? As already stated, there is a vote on whether to move the bill out of the subcommittee. If you watch the markup session, you will see the results of that vote, live! Then, the full committee (Energy and Commerce) has to have its own markup session, AND a vote on whether to move the bill to the full House! If and when the bill moves to the full House, that is when the support of cosponsors is going to become very, very important - those cosponsors will be the bill's defenders on the House floor!

HR 3101 is moving forward! We're not home free yet, but we are moving! No word on when there will be a markup for S 3304, the senate version, but that is bound to happen soon too!

Caption Action 2 Is One Year Old!

2010-06-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Caption Action 2 just turned a year old! But, we don't want to grow up!

Starting with just one member early in the morning of June 25, 2009, we have grown to over 14,000 deaf and blind people, family, and friends.

What a year it has been! In one year:

* Support for HR 3101 (also a year old now!) in the House of Representatives was tripled.
* Newspaper reporters took notice, and began to write articles (such as the recently published New York Times article)
* Many bloggers, both deaf and blind, posted blogs and vlogs about HR 3101, and later, S 3304.
* Jamie managed to visit the office of every one of the 435 Representatives in Congress. Jamie even met two Representatives in person, one of whom signed on.
* We have had two hearings, one for HR 3101, and one for S 3304. The previous version of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act didn't even get a hearing!
* We got a Senate version of HR 3101. The previous version of the bill didn't even get a Senate version.

So we have come a long way, baby! But..and this is a huge but..

Time is running out.

Congress is sensitive to events of importance. The upcoming 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26 is such an event. Passing HR 3101 and S 3304 would make Congress "look good" at a time when the media is likely to be paying more attention to people with disabilities and their issues. Indeed, during the hearings, this upcoming anniversary was frequently mentioned, a sure sign that Congress is most willing to pass our bills prior to July 26.

Lots of other issues are clamoring for Congress' attention. On Capitol Hill, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease! So it is very, very, very important that the nation's deaf and hard of hearing, and blind and visually impaired, their families, and their friends, bombard Congress with calls and emails before July 26.

So, let's make that one final effort to show Congress that we want equal access!

Operation PAH Also Means...?

2010-06-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Operation PAH can also stand for Parents, Associates (friends) and Hearing allies. This suggestion comes courtesy of our friends at the National Association of the Deaf. Many if not most of you have already contacted Congress, but what about your families and friends (both hearing and deaf)?

It has been nearly a full year. In fact, in just 2 more days it will be a full year since HR 3101 was introduced! Yes, we have had two hearings in recent months! But, a hearing is not equal to a vote. These bills STILL have not been moved out of subcommittee let alone to the full House or Senate floors!!

The only way this is going to happen is if we put pressure on our representatives and senators. Ask your families and friends (or is it friends and families?) to contact their own representatives and senators. It is easy! Just go to http://www.house.gov for Representatives and plug in the zip code plus 4. For Senators, go to http://www.senate.gov and select the state from the drop down list.

Confirm with your family and friends that they did contact their representatives and senators! Then shoot Caption Action 2 an email (deafness.guide (at) about (dot) com or a tweet (@deafnessguide) to let us know what representative or senators your family or friend called so we can increase the Operation PAH counter!

This is only the beginning of Operation PAH! Caption Action 2 will be at the National Association of the Deaf conference in Philadelphia July 6 to July 11. We won't be at the other conferences and expos this summer..we need YOU to be an ambassador for Caption Action 2 and encourage people you meet at those other conferences and expos, to contact their representatives and senators.

Our workshop at the NAD conference is called "Advocating for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act." It will be on Thursday, July 8, 1:30-2:30 pm, in Franklin 1.

We've got to make this huge push, NOW. This it, now or never. We are down to the wire. July 26 is the 20th anniversary of the ADA and so Congress is more willing to listen between now and July 26. Congress goes on break on August 2, and after that, it will take a miracle to move these bills! Congress will be too focused on trying to keep their jobs, and in some cases, some of them have already lost their jobs!

Failure is not an option. The future of deaf babies,,,whether they sign, talk, cue, use cochlear implants, or use hearing aids, is at stake. The future of blind children, whether they use braille or voice technology, is at stake. One way or another, we have to, we must, get these bills passed!

New York Times! And Operation PAH Begins!

2010-06-21T21:09:00.019-04:00

NEW YORK TIMES!

Today, one of the "big boys" in mainstream media took notice of the need for more captions on the Internet: The New York Times! In his article, "On Web Video, Captions Are Coming Slowly," reporter Brian Stelter turned the spotlight on the current state of captioning online. Stelter does an admirable job of capturing the full picture: he mentions CNN.com (no captions), CBS (no captions at this time), Netflix, YouTube, and even Hulu.

As online video becomes ever more popular, deaf viewers face the prospect of a partly inaccessible Internet.
- Brian Stelter, New York Times

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) and HR 3101 are not mentioned, but Rosaline Crawford, director of the law and advocacy center for the National Association of the Deaf, is quoted. There is also a very brief mention of the S 3304 hearing.

OPERATION PAH!

With the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act coming up on July 26, the next few weeks are extremely critical for the deaf and blind communities. It is imperative that people call or email their Representatives and Senators. Right now, both HR 3101 and S 3304 are stuck in their respective subcommittees. Until they move out of the subcommittees, there can not be a full vote. Our best chance to get them to move the bills is right now, BEFORE July 26.

To make a real impression on Congress, we need 1,000 calls and emails made to Representatives and Senators. You heard us, 1,000! Caption Action 2 is launching Operation PAH. Why are we calling it Operation PAH? In deaf culture, the ASL idiom "PAH" means "finally, at last, success, or I did it." For the purposes of Operation PAH, the letters P-A-H stand for:

Push
and
Hammer

So get started making those calls and sending those emails to your Representatives and Senators! After you contact your Representative and/or Senator, take a moment and let Caption Action 2 know about it. Send us an email (see the Contact Caption Action 2 on the right side of page) , contact us through Facebook, or send Jamie a reply tweet at @deafnessguide. Tell us whose office you contacted. We will update the counter at the top and side of this page, showing how many calls and emails have been sent to Congress.

Operation PAH GOAL: 1,000!

Advisory Shmisory. Shapiro Can Stuff the Advice!

2010-06-18T09:00:00.004-04:00

In both Gary Shapiro's written testimony for the HR 3101 hearing and his Washington Times editorial, Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, pushed the inane idea of an advisory committee:

From the written testimony:

As an alternative, CEA has proposed the development of an advisory committee consisting of all affected stakeholders working together to develop industry-led technical solutions for IP-based video programming services and devices. After the advisory committee completes its work and develops suggested solutions, the advisory committee would then determine whether to recommend that the FCC promulgate rules to accomplish the recommended solutions. For any such requirements, the FCC would also be afforded flexibility to exempt certain Internet-based video programming services and devices.

From the Washington Times op-ed:

Dems want to redesign your iPhone

As an alternative to the new mandates, the CEA has proposed the development of an advisory committee consisting of all affected stakeholders working collaboratively to develop industry-led solutions for Internet-protocol-based video programming services and devices. This committee would determine the most feasible technical solutions, and then provide its recommendations to the FCC. This approach would see the government setting the goals, but allow the technology industry to work out the details - using engineers, not lobbyists.

"I propose we make the text bigger and the sound be able to be turned off."

By the time industry was able to implement a committee's "advice," the technology would have already been replaced many times over! Plus, this sounds like Shapiro would prefer to force disabled consumers to wait for retro-fitting of devices. Determine solutions and provide recommendations to the FCC? Make disabled consumers wait for accessibility while the FCC makes decisions, which could take quite awhile at the pace that things happen in Washington?

This concept is the biggest piece of impractical fiction to come from Shapiro and the CEA. It essentially says deaf and blind people are second class citizens who do not deserve accessibility right out of the box, but must be forced to wait!

In a competitive business, it is highly unlikely that Shapiro has "before product launch" in mind with regard to an advisory committee. Does he really expect companies to share proprietary designs with each other in the name of accessibility? We think not! No, he expects us to wait until AFTER product launch, be patient non-complainers, and show appreciation for "voluntary" efforts at accessibility. That is unfair and outright discrimination against deaf and blind people.

Sorry Shapiro, Voluntary Doesn't Work!

2010-06-15T09:00:00.004-04:00

Perhaps Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, who fervently believes voluntary actions are enough, would like to answer the following questions...

Why is it, Mr. Shapiro, that after Congress passed the television decoder circuitry act, we did not get a substantial voluntary increase in closed captioning? Why is it that for six years, from 1990 to 1996, there was only a small increase in closed captioning?

If "voluntary" efforts had worked, Congress would not have had to pass the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That law made closed captioning on television mandatory.

Shapiro mentions voluntary around 56:40 in the video;

"While we share the goal of providing access to technology to all persons, our experience has taught us that voluntary multi-stakeholder, open, due process standard setting efforts are a better way to go than simply mandating every function of every product be accessible to people with every type of disability. To put it simply, mandating universal design is an innovation killer. Innovation leads to accessibility, not the other way around."

Industry has proven through failures such as what happened from 1990 to 1996, that it can not be relied upon to do the right thing voluntarily.

Want another example of industry failure to do the right thing? Web video has been around since at least 1999. As far back as 1999 we deaf and hard of hearing were being left out of the new world of Internet video.

If voluntary actions were enough, and if industry could be counted on to do the right thing, industry would have held off on launching Internet video until it could have found solutions to have captions on said video. Instead, industry rushed to launch video on the web, and deaf and hard of hearing people and their needs be damned.

One more example. When portable DVD players were introduced to the market, we bought one. Only to discover that it was not capable of displaying closed captions on its seven inch screen.

Another example - when national mobile digital TV services like FloTV and MobiTV launched, there was no captioning.

See Flo TV Super Bowl Ad? Flo TV Doesn't Caption!

Flo TV Can't Commit to Captioning!

MobiTV Does Not Caption Either...

This is what we are trying to put an end to through HR 3101...the CONSTANT rush to "market" or "internet" without taking into consideration that a sizable audience is being left out right from the start! Leaving us out prior to product launch means we are considered second class citizens!

So sorry, Mr. Shapiro, your beloved mantra of "Voluntary is the way to go!" is a big fat lie!!

Boucher a Victim of Misinformation?

2010-06-13T09:00:00.010-04:00

Politicians do not write their own speeches. Thus, Representative Rick Boucher, chairperson of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, may have been a victim of misinformation provided by his scriptwriter. During his introduction to the HR 3101 hearing, Boucher made an apparently incorrect statement...

What happened? Between roughly 10:30 and 11:35 on the hearing video (Download or Stream), Boucher talks about the steps that industry is already taking to make services and devices accessible to the hearing and vision impaired. As an example, he cites Disney and CBS as already captioning online. But, one problem with that! CBS does not seem to be captioning online at all!

The text, as seen on the video captions:

We will learn this morning about the steps that industry is already taking to make services and devices accessible by the vision or hearing impaired. For example, my iphone can be made accessible to the visually impaired straight out of the box with the touch of an existing button. With the rapid growth of smart phones, increasing number of Americans can download inexpensive third-party applications that perform functions like text to speech and speech to text. In the video programming arena, an increasing amount of video content is now available on the Internet in a closed captioned format, including the video programming of Disney, CBS, noncommercial station WGBH and videos on YouTube. CBS offers video description of its television programming notwithstanding the absence of any legal requirement that it do so.

Caption Action 2 contacted Boucher's office to make them aware that CBS is not captioning online. Boucher' s office wrote back to say that they would look into it. At the same time, Caption Action 2 double-checked by going to CBS.com and tried to find a captioned video - nothing!! We tried two different browsers, thinking that maybe the captioning button would not display in Firefox but might display in Internet Explorer. Nothing.

If Boucher's office does investigate, and finds that there is indeed no captioning on CBS online, we will have proven a point about the need for HR 3101! Again, we wish to emphasize that Rick Boucher is not to blame for this misinformation; politicians do not write their own speeches. Someone else who did not do their homework properly, wrote that speech for Boucher.

Update: Boucher's office wrote back when questioned about CBS. He was supposed to have said NBC.com.

HR 3101 Gets Cosponsor 52!

2010-06-11T14:47:00.006-04:00

The dust hasn't quite settled from yesterday's flurry of two new cosponsor announcements. We've got our 52nd cosponsor!

Emerging from the dust comes New York Representative Yvette Clark (D-11).

Democrats - 50, Republicans - 2

We're on a roll! Keep contacting your representatives!

Shapiro's Words Belong Where the Sun Don't Shine

2010-06-10T19:43:00.027-04:00

Today at the HR 3101 hearing, the speaker most opposed to the bill was Gary Shapiro (gshapiro@CE.org), the president of the Consumer Electronics Association. Most of the media coverage focused on Shapiro. Although speakers Sergeant Jesse Acosta (American Council of the Blind) and Lise Hamlin (Hearing Loss Association of America) made some powerful statements, they were either barely mentioned or not mentioned at all, by the media.

Mr. Shapiro made so many wrong statements that it would be difficult to address them all in just one blog post. This is the first of a series of blog posts examining - actually, tearing apart - Mr. Shapiro's words. Let's begin with what he said regarding "undue burden," as quoted in Broadcasting and Cable:

These technologies have a shelf life of two or three years at the max and you have to respond quickly. This would put a choke collar on innovation.

Mr. Shapiro, that is actually why we need HR 3101! If technology keeps changing at breakneck speed, without requiring accessibility to be built-in, deaf, hard of hearing, and blind people will be left out again, and again, and again!

A friend who saw that statement by Mr. Shapiro sarcastically told Caption Action 2, "Why build elevators or ramps for handicapped? The building only might be there for 50 years."

Furthermore, requiring accessibility will not stifle innovation. If companies want to make money, they will keep innovating! Did requiring the closed caption decoder chip in all television screens 13 inches or larger stifle innovation in the television industry? We think not!

Oops! No, It is Now 51 Cosponsors!

2010-06-10T19:24:00.016-04:00

Turns out that Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) also just signed on to HR 3101! Since her name has already been added to the bill while Representative Matsui's is still awaiting addition (Matsui announced her support via a press release that was distributed at today's HR 3101 hearing), that means Eshoo is the real 50th cosponsor! Like Matsui, Eshoo is on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet!

Now we have support from three members of the subcommittee, aside from sponsor Representative Ed Markey!

Democrats - 49 Republicans - 2

We Got Our 50th Cosponsor!

2010-06-10T18:05:00.011-04:00

That's how many cosponsors we now have!

Caption Action 2 just got the exciting news today! We just had our FIFTIETH, count them, 50th, HR 3101 cosponsor!

It's none other than Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA-5), member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet!

Democrats - 48, Republicans - 2

Update: From Matsui's press release;

"As we continue our efforts to expand broadband access to more and more Americans, disabled Americans must not be left behind. Every American - including those who are disabled - requires access to updated technologies for personal use, to compete for a job, and to be able to communicate and work in a sound environment.

"We are seeing a greater need to assist a number of our service members who are returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan disabled and are seeing to return to some sense of normalcy. Access to modern technology will help them achieve that.

"Disabled Americans should have access to the same communications products and services that everyone else does.

" I applaud my good friend Congressman Markey for his leadership on providing greater technological access to disabled individuals. His legislation, HR 3101, would help ensure that the disabled are able to fully access and utilize broadband services and video programming devices.

"I plan to add my name today as a cosponsor of this important legislation.

"We must modernize technologies to make certain that disabled Americans are able to enjoy the benefits of an increasingly diverse and innovative menu of applications and services. It is my hope that all stakeholders continue to work together to advance this legislation in an expedited fashion."

SPECIAL BULLETIN: HR 3101 HEARING!

2010-06-04T20:26:00.004-04:00

A GIANT STEP FORWARD IS TAKING PLACE! On Thursday, June 10, 2010 there will be a hearing in the House on HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act!

Time: 10:00 am
Place: 2123 Rayburn House Office Building
Online live video captioning: Yes! We do not have the exact URL yet, but it most likely can be accessed via the House Subcommittee Hearings page: http://tinyurl.com/32gtmlr - They will be updating this page soon.

Read more;

CAPTION ACTION 2 SPECIAL BULLETIN: HR 3101 HEARING!

Caption Action 2: June 2010 Newsletter

2010-06-03T20:47:00.004-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for June 2010. We have so much this month we hardly know where to begin!

For starters, Caption Action 2 is one year old this month! We began early in the morning of June 25, 2009. So is HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which was introduced on June 26, 2009!

Read more;

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/465737

HR 3101 Gets Two More Cosponsors!

2010-05-26T20:43:00.008-04:00

Earlier today, Caption Action 2 found that two more HR 3101 cosponsors joined the listing. Let us welcome Representatives Gerald Connolly (VA-11) (our own representative!) and Nita Lowey (NY-18). Both Reps are Democrats.

Democrats - 47, Republicans - 2

Major Milestone: Senate Hearing!

2010-05-22T15:34:00.014-04:00

Less than a month after it was introduced, S 3304, the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act, is getting a hearing in the Senate! The hearing will be held Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 2:30 pm in the Russell Building, room 253. Why are we getting a hearing so soon when it has been almost a year since the introduction of the House bill HR 3101? Answer: the Senate bill is cosponsored by the subcommittee chairman, John Kerry!

Link: US Senate Hearing on S.3304-H.R.3101 Issues Set for Wed May 26, 2:30 PM Russell Building Room 253

It really makes a huge difference when the bill is supported by the chairman. S 3304 has only three cosponsors, whereas HR 3101 has 47! The number of cosponsors is not what matters in terms of determining whether a bill gets a hearing; support from the chairman and other members of the subcommittee are what matter! In fact, Mr. Kerry said (in part):

no one should be or has to be excluded from modern communications and the new economy because of a disability

So things are looking good in the Senate! This is a very big deal; most bills do not even make it to the point of getting a hearing. The (hearing) media has been contacted, and hopefully someone will cover the hearing.

What will happen next? Caption Action 2 checked with someone more familiar with politics than Caption Action 2 (we are advocates, not politicians!) and we were told that the bill could get reported out of the Subcommittee to the full committee. There would not be another hearing, but the full committee could vote. Then it could go to the full Senate for a vote - but that depends on the Senate Majority Leader, in this case Senator Harry Reid.

Again, we are doing good in the Senate so far! However, we still have a problem in the House with subcommittee chairman Rick Boucher not moving the bill to the floor for a hearing. Almost 50 cosponsors including one on the subcommittee itself, and Boucher still has not moved it. The hope is that passage in the Senate will send a strong message to the House.

Is Your Cable Company Preventing Our Success?

2010-05-19T20:16:00.011-04:00

Is your cable company resisting HR 3101 and S 3304? Maybe, if what Caption Action 2 was told by Senator Bill Nelson's office is any indication! When CA 2 told Nelson's office (Clint Odom) that we are seeking cosponsors for S 3304, the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act, this was the response:

Odom: I think Sen. Nelson would like to support a consensus bill like the one that was worked out in the House. I understand there are still some very important stakeholders who have not yet come to the table.

I think everyone wants to see this bill enacted.

CA 2: Do you know who these stakeholders are that have not yet come to the table? I don't mean general stakeholders like "television industry" or"cell phone manufacturers," but more specific like "CBS TV" or "XYZ Phone."

Odom: For instance, where has Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter Communications been in the process?

This is the first time Caption Action 2 has gotten specific names. Up until now, it has only been the industry organizations, as in this COAT report on meeting with industry representatives. What does this mean? Was Odom just throwing out names, or was he implying that Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter Communications actually are resisting HR 3101 and S 3304?

We don't know. But if we were to find out that our own cable service was hampering the passage of HR 3101/S 3304, we would be quite upset to say the least. Industry associations like the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) are one thing, it is another when it is your own cable company!

Adapt Shmapt. Here's a Comeback!

2010-05-14T21:03:00.015-04:00

Someone forwarded us a copy of a response they received from their Senator's office after writing her to ask for cosponsorship of S 3304, the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act. This is what Senator Amy Klobuchar's office wrote:

Thank you for contacting me about the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act. I appreciate hearing from you on this particular piece of legislation.

As you may know, S. 3304 would require technology companies, phone manufacturers and Web vendors to adapt their products to deaf or blind customers. It was introduced in the Senate on May 4, 2010, and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. I will keep your comments in mind should this or related legislation come before the full Senate for a vote.

Jamie was so disgusted that she called Klobuchar's office and got the name of the staff person who handles S. 3304. Then she shot an email to that person stating:

There is one problem with that statement. If a product needs to be adapted for deaf, hard of hearing, and blind people, that means it was not accessible in the first place! That's why we need this bill - so that products will be accessible to begin with.

Less than an hour later, Daniel Schill (daniel_schill@klobuchar.senate.gov) responded, asking for any materials on S 3304 that he could share with Senator Klobuchar.

So keep this comeback in mind if you get a letter from your Senator (or Representative - we are still working to get HR 3101 passed!) talking about how the bill(s) would require companies to adapt their products.

Update: Klobuchar attended the Senate hearing on S 3304/HR 3101, held May 26. If you watch the video, she appears near the end.

Link: History on Capitol Hill: Senate Hearing on S 3304/HR 3101

Do VOIP Services Have to Pay Into TRS? Yes and No!

2010-05-10T18:22:00.071-04:00

Caption Action 2 was both right and wrong about Voice Over IP (VOIP) services not having to pay into the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) fund. Here is why, and what we learned after consulting with both the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Exchange Carrier Association, Inc. (NECA), as well as doing some additional research. The information in this post is very important because it affects the health of the TRS fund!

Two Kinds of VOIP

Interconnected VOIP

Turns out there are two different kinds of VOIP. The first kind is Interconnected VOIP. It is called Interconnected because it "touches" the regular telephone network (public switched telephone network). Someone who uses an Interconnected VOIP provider like Vonage can call any number. A more formal definition of Interconnected VOIP Service can be found in 47 CFR 9.3:

Interconnected VoIP service. An interconnected Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service is a service that:

(1) Enables real-time, two-way voice communications;

(2) Requires a broadband connection from the user's location;

(3) Requires Internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment (CPE); and

(4) Permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network.

Non-Interconnected VOIP Service

The other kind of VOIP, non-interconnected VOIP, is called that because it never "touches" the public switched telephone network. HR 3101 defines non-interconnected VOIP as:

‘(56) NON-INTERCONNECTED VOIP SERVICE- The term ‘non-interconnected VoIP service’--

‘(A) means a service that--

‘(i) enables real-time voice communications that originate from or terminate to the user’s location using Internet protocol or any successor protocol; and

‘(ii) requires Internet protocol compatible customer premises equipment; and

‘(B) does not include any service that is an interconnected VoIP service.

Why We Were Wrong

We thought that all VOIP services did not have to pay into the TRS fund. According to the NAD, that was true at the time HR 3101 was introduced. In fact, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology had produced a position statement that warned of the threat to the TRS fund if VOIP services did not have to pay into the TRS fund. However, according to the NAD, after HR 3101 was introduced, the FCC recognized the risks to the fund and used its authority to require Interconnected VOIP to pay into the TRS fund.

This was confirmed by Jill Cardoso of NECA, who pointed Caption Action 2 to a PDF file, a Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet. In that file, we found this language: "Section 64.604 requires that every common carrier and interconnected VoIP provider contribute to the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund on the basis of its relative share of interstate end-user telecommunications revenues..."

Why We Were Right

Although Interconnected VOIP is indeed required to contribute to the TRS fund, Non-Interconnected VOIP like Skype, is NOT required to contribute. This was confirmed by the NAD.

Hey! That's Not Fair!

HR 3101 has language that would require BOTH interconnected AND non-interconnected VOIP to contribute to the TRS fund, as follows:

SEC. 715. INTERNET PROTOCOL-BASED RELAY SERVICES
Within one year after the date of enactment of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, each interconnected VoIP service provider and each provider of non-interconnected VoIP service shall participate in and contribute to the Telecommunications Relay Services Fund established in section 64.404(c)(5)(iii) of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 64.404(c)(5)(iii)), as in effect on the date of enactment of such Act, in a manner prescribed by the Commission by regulation to provide for obligations of such providers that are consistent with and comparable to the obligations of other contributors to such Fund.’’

However, S. 3304 does NOT require both interconnected and non-interconnected VOIP to contribute to the TRS fund - ONLY interconnected.

SEC. 715. INTERNET PROTOCOL-BASED RELAY SERVICES.
‘Within 1 year after the date of enactment of the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act, each interconnected VoIP service provider shall participate in and contribute to the Telecommunications Relay Services Fund established in section 64.404(c)(5)(iii) of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 64.404(c)(5)(iii)) as in effect on the date of enactment of such Act, in a manner prescribed by the Commission by regulation to provide for obligations of such providers that are consistent with and comparable to the obligations of other contributors to the Fund.

Will This Impact the TRS Fund?

Will the fact non-interconnected VOIP does not have to pay into the TRS fund, hurt the TRS fund? Maybe! Caption Action 2 went back to Jill Cardoso to ask her if the TRS fund was seeing any reduction. Her answer was "We will have to wait and see once we start billing the new Fund year in July. " In the meantime, she suggested we compare the data in the April 30, 2010 NECA filing on NECA.org to the previous year's NECA filing.

The filing contains multiple Exhibits. The exhibits seem to present a variety of possible scenarios for the TRS fund's health. In each exhibit, the total collections for 2008 is 776,075,728. The total collections for 2009 is 850,161,288. This shows an increase, yes, but read on...

Exhibit 3-8a :

The projected total for 2010 is 765,445,973 - a DECREASE of about $85 million from 2009.

The projected collections for 2011 through June 2011 is only 287,904,061.

Exhibit 3-8b:

Projected 2010 total: 688,711,873 - a DECREASE of about $161 million.

Projected total through June 2011: 222,874,238

Exhibit 3-8c:

Projected 2010 total: 670,429,101 - a DECREASE of about $179 million.
Projected total through June 2011: 207,380,145

Exhibit 3-8d:

Projected 2010 total: 593,695,001 - DECREASE of about $257 million
Projected total through June 2011: 142,350,323

So What Does All this Mean?

Unless the law is updated, non-Interconnected VOIP will continue to be exempt from having to pay into the TRS fund. If both HR 3101 and S 3304 pass, Congress will have to work on reconciling the two bills, and hopefully the reconciled version would apply to both types of VOIP services.

But in the meantime, every time that someone chooses to use a non-interconnected VOIP service like Skype as their sole means of telephone communications, the TRS fund loses a source of funds.

Better Chance in the Senate? We Think So!

2010-05-09T08:37:00.038-04:00

Although there are some concerns about some of the language in S. 3304 (the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act) as seen in the COAT press release, Caption Action 2 believes we have a better chance in the Senate with S. 3304! Here is why:

A More Supportive Chairman

S. 3304 is in the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's Subcommitee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. (Remember that HR 3101 is in the House's Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.) S.3304's sponsor Senator Mark Pryor is on the Subcommittee, just like HR 3101's sponsor Rep. Ed Markey is on the Subcommittee. That's the similarity. The reason we think we have a better chance with S. 3304 is that with S. 3304, the chairman of the subcommittee, Senator John Kerry, is a cosponsor. In contrast, with HR 3101, chairman Rick Boucher is not a cosponsor. The icing on the cake is that there is already another cosponsor on the subcommittee, Senator Byron Dorgan.

Need More Cosponsors

What this means is that if chair Sen. Kerry wanted to move S. 3304 to the floor for a vote in the Subcommittee, he could. However, S. 3304 needs more cosponsor support before Kerry can move the bill. This was confirmed by Sarah Holland in Senator Pryor's office, who wrote to Caption Action 2: "The best chance we have of seeing this legislation pass the Senate and become law is to have more cosponsors."

So let's get started! As with HR 3101, the key is cosponsors on the subcommittee, though we also need more cosponsors outside the subcommittee. At this time, the only Senator outside of the Subcommittee who cosponsors S. 3304 is Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). If your Senator is on the list of Subcommittee members below, please make sure to take a few minutes this week and call or write your Senator to ask him or her to cosponsor S. 3304! (Also help spread the word on S. 3304!)

Senators on the Subcommittee
(Links are to email pages)

Alaska - Senator Mark Begich, (202) 224-3004
Florida - Senator George LeMieux, (202) 224-3041, @george_lemieux; Senator Bill Nelson, (202) 224-5274, @senbillnelson
Georgia - Senator Johnny Isakson, (202) 224-3643
Hawaii - Senator Daniel Inouye, (202) 224-3934, @Daniel_Inouye
Kansas - Senator Sam Brownback, (202) 224-6521, @sensambrownback
Louisiana - Senator David Vitter, (202) 224-4623
Maine - Senator Olympia Snowe, (202) 224-5344
Minnesota - Senator Amy Klobuchar, (202) 224-3244
Mississippi - Senator Roger Wicker, (202) 224-6253
Missouri - Senator Claire McCaskill, (202) 224-6154, @clairecmc
Nebraska - Senator Mike Johanns, (202) 224-4224
Nevada - Senator John Ensign, (202) 224-6244, @SenEnsign
New Jersey - Senator Frank Lautenberg, (202) 224-3224, @franklautenberg
New Mexico - Senator Tom Udall, (202) 224-6621, @SenatorTomUdall
South Carolina - Senator Jim DeMint, (202) 224-6121
South Dakota - Senator John Thune, (202) 224-2321
Virginia - Senator Mark Warner, (202) 224-2023 [Warner is our own Senator!]
Washington - Senator Maria Cantwell, (202) 224-3441

Here is the language in S. 3304 that refers to captioning on the Internet:

`(2) DEADLINES FOR INTERNET-DISTRIBUTED PROGRAMMING-

`(A) Within 18 months after the submission of the report to Congress required by section 201(b) of the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act, the Commission shall prescribe regulations that include an appropriate schedule of deadlines for the provision of closed captioning of video programming distributed to the public over the Internet.

`(B) Consistent with the regulations promulgated under subsection (b), the regulations prescribed under this paragraph shall ensure the accessibility of video programming, except for consumer generated media (as such term is to be defined by the Commission), through the provision of captions on--

`(i) preproduced video programming that was previously captioned for television viewing;

`(ii) live video programming; and

`(iii) video programming first published or exhibited after the effective date of such regulations provided by or generally considered to be comparable to programming provided by multichannel programming distributors.'.

Caption Action 2: May 2010 Newsletter

2010-05-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for May 2010. We are glad to see that Caption Action 2 continues to grow, because if HR 3101 does not pass this Congress, we are going to need a very strong support base for the next Congress! So, don't leave the Caption Action 2 Facebook group just because of this. Stay with us!

TWO MORE COSPONSORS - REPUBLICANS!

Following an intense lobbying effort on April 15, which was the National Association of the Deaf's Virtual Legislative Day in support of HR 3101, the first two Republicans signed on! (Read about Caption Action 2 on Capitol Hill) This is a major milestone for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, because in the previous Congress, no Republicans signed on. So we are especially glad to welcome Representatives Parker Griffith (Alabama) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida), as co-sponsors 45 and 46.

ONE MORE COSPONSOR - FRANK PALLONE, JR!

Right before this newsletter "went to press," we found out that Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-New Jersey) had signed on to HR 3101. That makes Pallone the 47th cosponsor for HR 3101.

So now we have more than TRIPLE the total number of cosponsors the bill had when it was first introduced in the previous Congress. That is truly amazing, and shows an increasing awareness on the part of Congressmen and Congresswomen that there is a need for this legally guaranteed accessibility.

IGNORANT REPRESENTATIVES

Thanks to people sharing what happens after they contact their Representatives, Caption Action 2 is realizing what we are up against. One thing we are up against is ignorance. In the blog post Rep. Frank Wolf Ignorant About HR 3101! we share a response Wolf's office sent to someone, plus our own letter to Wolf's office. Wolf's office mistakenly thought that HR 3101 would require the alteration of technology! Then in the follow-up blog post, we share the response Caption Action 2 received from Wolf's office.

CONFERENCE, CONVENTION, and EXPO SEASON!

With the start of the warm weather, conference, convention, and expo season is here! At the Celebrate Communication expo hosted by the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People on May 1, Caption Action 2 joined forces with the National Association of the Deaf to educate people about HR 3101. We passed out several pre-printed notecards with key highlights of HR 3101 and website URLs. Will there be a conference, convention, or expo in your area anytime soon? Advocate for HR 3101 there! Although the word is clearly spreading about HR 3101 - most of the people we encountered at Celebrate Communication had at least heard about HR 3101 - there are still plenty of people out there who have never heard of HR 3101, and these are the people we need to reach. Contact Caption Action 2 through Facebook or email (email address is on the blogsite) if you would like advice on how to advocate at your local conference, convention, or expo.

Another great opportunity to spread the word about HR 3101 is at deaf awareness events! This time of year many amusement parks, stadiums, and aquariums have deaf awareness days. Ask the organizers of your local deaf awareness days if you can pass out information about HR 3101 there.

RICK BOUCHER CARTOON

As everyone knows, we need for Representative Rick Boucher, the chairperson of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, to move HR 3101. Boucher has been supportive of other bills that benefit deaf and hard of hearing people, but not HR 3101. Tamara Davidson captures the situation perfectly in her cartoon, "Rick Boucher, Move HR 3101 Already!"

FUTURE PLANS FOR CAPTION ACTION 2

In the event that HR 3101 does not pass this Congress, Caption Action 2 plans to become a more political force. This is an election year for Congress, with every Representative having to fight to keep their job. Even Rick Boucher is under siege, as reported by Politico. Let's use this to our advantage! Contact your Representative OR your Representative's challenger, and let them know that your vote is going to go to whomever supports the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act! At the same time, we must work hard to make sure that every single one of the 47 cosponsors to date keeps his or her job, because we will need their support again.

Read full details about how this new tactic works in the just published blog post, "Announcing Operation Backscratcher."

We believe that Caption Action 2 can have real influence on at least some Congressional elections, because usually when it is not a presidential election year, fewer people vote. So our votes are worth more!

UNIVERSAL SUBTITLES!

Word is spreading quickly about a new project to develop a subtitling widget for websites. There are already websites that allow you to quickly and easily subtitle a video, but there has never been a widely available widget. Details are at http://www.mozilla.org/causes/subtitles/, on a captioned YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MjtY4pooFA, and a blog at http://blog.universalsubtitles.org/.

COMPLETE COSPONSOR LIST

Alabama:
Representative Griffith, Parker

Arizona:
Representative Grijalva, Raul

California:
Representative Berman, Howard
Representative Filner, Bob
Representative Lee, Barbara
Representative Napolitano, Grace
Representative Sanchez, Linda
Representative Schiff, Adam
Representative Stark, Fortney Pete

District of Columbia:
Representative Norton, Eleanor Holmes

Florida:
Representative Hastings, Alcee
Representative Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana

Georgia:
Representative Lewis, John

Guam:
Representative Bordallo, Madeline

Illinois:
Representative Schakowsky, Janice

Indiana:
Representative Carson, Andre

Kansas:
Representative Moore, Dennis

Kentucky:
Representative Chandler, Ben

Maine:
Reprsentatative Pingree, Chellie

Maryland:
Representative Van Hollen, Chris

Massachusetts:
Representative Capuano, Michael
Representative McGovern, Jim
Representative Neal, Richard
Representative Olver, John
Representative Tierney, John

Minnesota:
Representative McCollum, Betty
Representative Peterson, Collin

Missouri:
Representative Cleaver, Emmanuel

New Jersey
Representative Payne, Donald
Representative Rothman, Stephen

New York:
Representative Engel, Eliot
Representative Hinchey, Maurice
Representative Israel, Steve
Representative Maffei, Daniel
Representative Maloney, Carolyn
Representative Slaughter, Louise
Representative Towns, Edolphus

Ohio:
Representative Kilroy, Mary Jo
Representative Ryan, Tim

Oregon:
Representative Blumenauer, Earl

Pennsylvania:
Representative Kanjorski, Paul

Tennessee:
Representative Davis, Lincoln

Texas:
Representative Doggett, Lloyd

Virginia:
Representative Moran, Jim

Senate version of HR301 Introduced!

2010-05-04T08:00:00.004-04:00

The Senate version of HR 3101 was introduced today by Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)!

Pryor wants improved Internet access for deaf, blind

Sen. Pryor pushing bill to adapt Net, tech for deaf, blind

Pryor's version is called the "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act."

Update: The National Association of the Deaf posted the PDF version of the bill, which is 46 pages long.

Update 2: The bill is now known as S3304. Read COAT's press release, Senate bill introduced: "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act "(S. 3304).

Announcing Operation Backscratcher!

2010-05-03T19:49:00.030-04:00

Caption Action 2 is announcing the start of Operation Backscratcher! What is that? Are you scratching your head in puzzlement? Here is what Operation Backscratcher is all about...

But first, if HR 3101 does not pass this Congress, we are going to need a very strong support base for the next Congress! So, don't leave the Caption Action 2 Facebook group just because of this. Stay with us!

You've heard of the old saying, "You scratch my back and I will scratch yours?" That is certainly true in politics! So Operation Backscratcher uses that concept.

An example of Operation Backscratcher in action: Over the weekend, we became fed up with waiting for our own representative, Gerry Connolly, to sign on. So we contacted the campaign of a challenger: Pat Herrity. We told the Herrity campaign that if Mr. Herrity would commit to supporting the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act when it is re-introduced in Congress next year, we would tell deaf and hard of hearing people in our district to vote for Mr. Herrity. We sent the same message tonight to the campaign of Keith Fimian, who is also competing to be the Republican challenger to Connolly.

Today, we got a fast response from the Herrity campaign saying that Mr. Herrity was researching the bill and would make a decision soon.

That's how Operation Backscratcher works! This is an election year for Congress. Time is running out to get HR 3101 passed this year, so it is time to look ahead, and plan ahead. Not only is it an election year for Congress, it is also an "off year" with no Presidential election! That means far fewer people will vote. Ergo, the value of the deaf and hard of hearing vote increases substantially!

Tell your Representatives who have not signed on to HR 3101, that they will NOT get your vote this year. Then contact the campaigns of their challengers and try to get them to pledge their support for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Document any response you get as you will need the proof if the challenger wins. Now is the time to start building relationships with candidates because if they win, we will have a better chance of getting their support if we have established relationships with them.

Do this regardless of whether you vote Democratic and the challenger is Republican, or vice versa. Mr Connolly is Democratic and his challengers Mr. Herrity and Mr. Fimian are Republican. Normally Caption Action 2 votes Democratic but if either Mr. Herrity or Mr. Fimian is willing to support our bill, we will vote Republican.

In addition to Operation Backscratcher, we also need an Operation Retain! What is Operation Retain? We have to work HARD to make sure that every single one of the bill's cosponsors KEEPS his or her job as a Congressional representative. That means voting for them, and encouraging everyone in your community to do the same.

Let's start flexing our political muscle as deaf and hard of hearing people, families, and friends!

New Jersey Representative Is 47th Cosponsor!

2010-05-03T16:40:00.002-04:00

Caption Action 2 just learned this morning that HR 3101 got its 47th cosponsor.

Let us welcome New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone (D-6)!

Democrats - 45, Republicans - 2

Rep. Frank Wolf's Office Responds!

2010-04-27T19:58:00.013-04:00

Today Caption Action 2 received a quick response from Rep. Frank Wolf's office. Janet Shaffron wrote:

Thanks for your e-mail about H.R. 3101. We used the Congressional Research Service summary of the bill, which I’ve pasted below, for the short description included in the constituent response letter, and it is helpful to have your insight on the legislation as we continue to review the measure. Thanks again for providing your explanation of the bill.

Below this, Shaffron copied and pasted the content of the CRS summary, with one key sentence bolded. The sentence, which is highlighted in the graphic underneath, is "Requires, unless it would be an undue burden (significant difficulty or expense), that equipment and services for advanced communications be usable by individuals with disabilities."

HOW can that be interpreted to mean that HR 3101 would require the altering of technology as stated in the previous blog post?! Did Wolf's office read that sentence and twist it around to mean that HR 3101 would force technology companies to change their technology??

If this is an example of why we are having difficulty getting Representatives to support HR 3101, no wonder we are having trouble! This is what we need to educate Representatives about. Requiring that technology be accessible does not mean changing the underlying technology! It means adding things on top of the technology, such as video captions or a CC button on a remote control! Indeed, after Caption Action 2 forwarded Shaffron's email to a key HR 3101 advocate, that advocate remarked, "A clear sign of the need for remedial education."

Rep. Frank Wolf Ignorant About HR 3101!

2010-04-26T18:17:00.017-04:00

A constituent of Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), shared a very disappointing and extremely ignorant response received from his office in response to a request to co-sponsor HR 3101. Mr. Wolf's office wrote that HR 3101 "would require companies to alter the technology to make those services available to persons with disabilities." Caption Action 2 showed this response to a key HR 3101 advocate, who was appalled by the ignorance shown by Mr. Wolf's office.

Representative Frank Wolf serves Virginia's 10th District, which consists of Loudoun, Clarke, Fauquier, Warren, Frederick, and Prince William counties. At least two of those counties are considered part of Northern Virginia and the metro Washington, DC area.

Tonight, Caption Action 2 emailed Janet Shaffron (janet.shaffron@mail.house.gov) in Wolf's office. The email sent to Shaffron follows, and Rep. Wolf's constituents are encouraged to contact his office (Update: Caption Action 2 received a response from Wolf's office!):

Hello Janet,

One of Mr. Wolf's constituents emailed me about the response received from your office regarding a request for support for HR 3101. According to the response, your office stated that HR 3101 "would require companies to alter the technology to make those services available to persons with disabilities."

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that misunderstanding. HR 3101 would require that accessibility be taken into consideration in the DESIGN stage of products. In other words, no more leaving deaf and hard of hearing, and blind, people out when new products are introduced.

Furthermore, there would be practically no alteration of technology. Closed captioning is a technology that has existed for years, and is already available on the Internet. Google recently introduced a voice to text recognition technology that generates automatic closed captions for its YouTube website. Some TV broadcasters such as ABC.com closed caption their programming online. Hulu.com reformats closed caption files so that a good bit of their programming has captions. HR 3101 would recognize the fact that television has moved to the Internet, and extend closed captioning requirements from regular television to the Internet. Only regular TV. Video programming produced by ordinary people, such as a YouTube video of Grandma's grandbaby learning to walk, would not have to be captioned.

Televisions with screens 13 inches or larger are already required to have closed caption display capability. In today's world, that legal requirement is already seriously outdated and does not cover modern video programming devices. HR 3101 would update the law so that all video programming devices would have to be capable of showing closed captions.

HR 3101 would also require simplified access to closed captioning on remote controls and on-screen menus, and would also make the same more accessible for blind people. This does not involve altering technology - it is something as simple as adding an easy to find button or menu option.

The requirement for video description for blind people would simply restore limited access to video programming for blind people. This does not involve alteration of technology in any way; it simply involves someone voicing a description that is "broadcast" over an audio channel.

Last but not least, when companies add or include accessibility in their products, they sell more! There are millions of deaf and hard of hearing people in this country who are not able to purchase or enjoy multimedia products due to the lack of captions. That's a lot of pent-up purchasing power. For example, I have never subscribed to Netflix, but they have finally started to closed caption their streaming videos. Now I am considering becoming a Netflix subscriber. I was planning to buy an iPhone, but after learning that the iPhone does not support Flash and therefore captions on YouTube and other sites don't work, I am considering a Google Android phone instead because the Android does support Flash.

Last but not least, HR 3101 seeks to put an end to the cycle of new technology being introduced, then companies having to "catch up" and "retrofit" for accessibility. I was on Capitol Hill two weeks ago and stopped in Mr. Wolf's office because I am a Northern Virginian. The reason I was on Capitol Hill is because I accompanied the National Association of the Deaf Board of Directors as they met with various Congressmen's staff. In fact, I would like to close by quoting something the NAD Chief Operating Officer told the staff: "Every day that HR 3101 does not pass, is another day we don't have equal access."

I hope that with this information, you will reconsider your constituent's request for cosponsorship of HR 3101. Mr. Wolf would be joining his fellow Republican colleagues, Parker Griffith and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, in cosponsoring HR 3101.

Bipartisan Support at Last!!

2010-04-16T18:17:00.020-04:00

Today the advocates for HR 3101 got the news they had been waiting a long time to hear: Not one, but two, Republican representatives signed on to HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act! Representatives Parker Griffith (AL) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL).

Even better yet, Parker Griffith is on the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet!

Want to thank Griffith and Ros-Lehtinen? In Griffith's office, email Marcus Huskey, marcus.huskey@mail.house.gov, and in Ros-Lehtinen's office, email Sarah Gamino, sarah.gamino@mail.house.gov!

Wondering about that "1" next to Griffith's name? That is because of this footnote on the subcommittee membership web page: "Mr. Griffith was appointed to the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr. Greg Walden (R-OR) from the Committee on Energy and Commerce on February 23, 2010. Mr. Walden served on this Subcommittee in the 111th Congress until his resignation." PLUS, there is another footnote for Rep. Robert Latta! His footnote is: "Mr. Latta was appointed on April 15, 2010, to the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) from the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010. Mr. Deal served on this Subcommittee in the 111th Congress until his resignation."

Back on Capitol Hill with the NAD!

2010-04-15T20:17:00.060-04:00

Today Caption Action 2 was privileged to join the National Association of the Deaf Board of Directors on their visits to Congressional representatives as part of the NAD Virtual Legislative Day in support of HR 3101.

The Team

Shane Feldman, and Sean Gerlis (morning) and Michael Berger (afternoon) and myself met with staff for representatives from the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

Rep. John Dingell

The first meeting was with a staff person in representative John Dingell's (Michigan) office. The room we were supposed to use was not available, so we went to the cafeteria to hold our meeting. The staff person had some questions which were expected, and we had answers ready for him. Shane shared a story about how he was not able to help his hearing child with video on the Internet. I told my "And Your Name is Jonah" experience from the early teen years. Sean talked about his family with a strong deaf heritage. We left feeling that the staff person was not that enthusiastic about HR 3101.

Rep. Rick Boucher

Here' s where things began to get interesting. Capitol Hill is a place where you can just walk into any office, so we did just that! As we were walking around talking and tweeting, I looked up and saw we were right in front of Representative Rick Boucher's (VA) office! Boucher is, as you know, the chairperson of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, so we went into the office to talk to the staff. I mentioned to the staff that I had corresponded with someone in the office but could not remember who. The desk person went and got someone from her office - Amy Levine! Amy Levine is the key person in Rick Boucher's office. The three of us talked briefly with Levine, who said something a bit odd: she said something about not wanting to move the bill to the floor because they did not want to move a bill that might be defeated?? Say what?? We left Boucher's office a bit puzzled.

Rep. Kathy Castor

We also met with a staff person in representative Kathy Castor's (FL) office. The person the team had an appointment with was not available, so another staff person met with us. This staff person did not know about HR 3101 so we spent the appointment time educating her about it. It was hard to gauge her level of enthusiasm but she took a lot of notes. When I mentioned Caption Action 2, she wrote down the URL for the Facebook page. She also mentioned that they were pretty focused on jobs at the moment, so I brought up the fact that HR 3101 could create jobs for real-time (live) captioners.

Seth Gerlis from iDeafNews joined us in Castor's office, and did some videoing of us. Don't know when the iDeafNews report on the NAD Board visit to Capitol Hill will air on YouTube.

Rep. Gerry Connolly

We had some extra time, so before heading to lunch we stopped in our own representative's office - Gerry Connolly (VA). I asked for Dominic, but he was out, so we met on the spot with Matthew. Matthew listened to us with an open mind, and it was very helpful for me to have the NAD there with me this time!

After a much-needed lunch (walking around Capitol Hill makes a person hungry!) we met up with two more staff officers. The first one was in representative Mike Rogers (MI) office and the second in representative Marsha Blackburn (TN) office.

Rep. Mike Rogers

We didn't have to convince the staff person in Mike Rogers' office of the importance of HR 3101. Instead, HE was the one talking about how important it was! HE was the one talking about how sometimes government intervention is necessary because in this case, "the marketplace has failed." Shane declared that his words were "music to his eyes." (Mine too!) And this is from a Republican representative's office!

We discussed the history behind HR 3101 - why we got the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 for captioning chips, and why we got the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for captioning on TV. However, now that TV has moved to the Internet, we are behind again! As I declared, "history is repeating itself." Will Rogers sign on to HR 3101? All we can do is wait and see! It was such a positive meeting that at the end I exclaimed "I wish we could clone you!"

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

Our team's final meeting was in rep Marsha Blackburn's (TN) office. The staff person there seemed concerned about potential cost, so we explained how the cost was minimal - just the reformatting of captions from regular TV, for the Internet. I brought up the example of PBS, which Caption Action 2 blogged about not long ago. We also discussed Hulu's voluntary but unfortunately limited, captioning. (Limited because Hulu can not always get the captions from the broadcasters.) As we were leaving, the staff person was saying he would review HR 3101. I told him that compared to the 1200+ page health care bill, HR 3101 was only 44 pages. He looked pretty glad to hear that!

Rep. Fred Upton

As the meeting with Blackburn's office started and ended early, I suggested a last stop at rep. Fred Upton's (MI) office. Upton had earlier given some indications of possibly being supportive. A staff person there was willing to talk with us for a bit. Shane did most if not all the talking.

Other Team Visits

The other NAD Board member teams visited rep. Joe Barton's (TX) office, rep Anna Eshoo, rep Christopher Murphy (CT) , rep John Shadegg (AZ), rep GK Butterfield (NC), rep Lee Terry (NE), rep John Shimkus (IL), rep Steve Buyer (IN), Peter Welch (VT), and of course rep Rick Boucher (VA). Plus there was another meeting with office of rep Jay Inslee (WA), who is supportive of deaf and hard of hearing people.

At all the meetings, I mentioned Caption Action 2 as an example of how many people want to see this bill pass. The staff seemed impressed when I told them how many members we have now (over 13,500) and how it is growing now by an average of one new member an hour! I think I saw a few eyes widen. They were clearly beginning to see just how important HR 3101 is to the deaf and hard of hearing community. (At each meeting, we also brought up how others also benefit - blind people, autistic people, people learning English as a second language, and children learning to read).

Last Visits

After the NAD Board headed out for a board meeting, I stayed on Capitol Hill for a little while longer. A nice staff person printed out the House Energy and Commerce membership list for me, and I used a wall directory to quickly locate additional members in the Cannon house building. Then I visited those members' offices to drop off postcards about HR 3101.

Most offices were just hello and drop off info, but in the office of rep. Zack Space I met the staff person who had corresponded with her earlier. She mentioned the FCC National Broadband Plan, implying HR 3101 might not be needed. I reminded her that although Chapter 9 of the Broadband Plan is largely based on HR 3101, the FCC does not have any real authority over the Internet! That is why we need HR 3101. Plus, she remembered the earlier Caption Action 2 blog post about Space from December 2009! She told me that after that blog post had appeared, her office had gotten several emails! Caption Action 2 readers ARE having an impact. And, she told me that she uses Google to find blogs that post about her boss. If she is doing that, that means other Hill offices are probably doing the same thing! So if you blog about HR 3101, be sure to mention your own representative's name - it will get noticed by his or her office thanks to Google!

Caption Action 2: April 2010 Newsletter

2010-04-09T23:15:00.003-04:00

This is the Caption Action 2 newsletter for April 2010 - and this is perhaps the most important newsletter we will ever send out. Why is it so important? It is important because we are fast approaching our make or break time for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009. We must get this bill passed within the NEXT FEW MONTHS, or we will have to wait until the next Congress in 2011. This is an election year for Congress, and after the summer the Representatives will be very focused on keeping their jobs and it will be very very difficult to get their attention about a bill like ours.

NEWEST COSPONSORS

March was a rather productive month for getting cosponsors - we now have 44!

California
Representative Schiff, Adam

Florida:
Representative Hastings, Alcee

Illinois
Representative Schakowsky, Janice (Schakowsky's return as a cosponsor is very important, because she is on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the parent committee for the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet which has our bill)

New York
Representative Engel, Eliot (see a captioned vlog by Sean Gerlis about how he got Engel to sign on! http://tinyurl.com/ya4dlxm)
Representative Maffei, Daniel

Ohio
Representative Kilroy, Mary Jo

The current score is 44 Democrats, and ZERO Republicans. If your Representative is a Republican, you must do all you can to get him or her to sign on to HR 3101! Without any Republican support, our bill has little chance to pass!

HR 3101 VIRTUAL LEGISLATIVE DAY!

Put April 15 on your calendar, be it an old-fashioned paper calendar or an Outlook calendar! On that day, deaf and hard of hearing people nationwide will be calling and emailing their Representatives to ask for support for HR 3101. The National Association of the Deaf, the organizer of HR 3101 Virtual Legislative Day, has a captioned and signed video blog about this, featuring Leah Katz-Hernandez, who has also testified at Federal Communications Commission hearings on broadband access for people with disabilities. Watch Leah at http://bit.ly/dwAdb4!

Plus, on Facebook, sign up to join the April 15 Legislative Day at http://bit.ly/cEywVO! Our Representatives need to hear from A LOT of us AT ONCE in order to get the message that this is truly a very important bill - we need it to guarantee ourselves and our deaf, hard of hearing, and blind children an accessible future on the Internet! Tell your friends, and family about April 15! Spread the word to the blind and visually impaired community, too!

A NAD membership is not required to take part in the Virtual Legislative Day. All that's needed is to know your representative's name and phone number. Then call, email, or fax them.

Kids can call their Representatives, too! Especially teenagers - the future voters.

You can help spread the word on Facebook by posting something like this in your status:

Join HR 3101 Legislative Day on April 15! See blog at http://bit.ly/dwAdb4 and sign up at http://bit.ly/cEywVO!

What else can you do on April 15? You can contact your local newspaper to tell them about HR 3101! Media coverage is the only way to get the word out to deaf and hard of hearing, and blind, people who are not aware of HR 3101.

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SUPPORT FOR HR 3101!

One of the most exciting things that happened for the deaf and hard of hearing and blind community in March was that the FCC released the National Broadband Plan! Chapter 9 of the Plan addresses access for people with disabilities, and it is largely based on HR 3101. You can download the Chapter at http://tinyurl.com/yh86hn3 in Adobe PDF. Page four is very important because it states: "Congress, the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) should consider modernizing accessibility laws, rules and related subsidy programs."

Also important is page 5, which states: "Internet-based video programming does not have captions or video descriptions offering an account of what is on the screen."

But that is not all! Both the FCC Chairman and Commissioner have openly stated support for HR 3101 in public statements. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski mentioned HR 3101 in his statement at a March 10 National Broadband Plan and Accessibility for People with Disabilities event. You can read Genachowski's statement at http://tinyurl.com/yfy6ep9, and here is a direct quote:

"Third, the plan will recommend that the FCC, Congress, and the Justice Department update our accessibility laws and policies - and ensure that they are enforced. I believe that legislation introduced by Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) - the "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" (H.R. 3101) - should be a starting point for legislative discussions to achieve many of these updates."

Next, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps mentioned HR 3101 at a March 9 America's Digital Inclusion Summit. You can read that statement at http://tinyurl.com/yb2p6vr, and here is a direct quote from his introduction of Representative Edward Markey,the sponsor of our bill:

"In the current Congress, he has introduced the "Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" (HR 3101) to help ensure that as technology changes, our nation's commitment to ensuring access for all keeps pace."

BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

Before Janice Schakowsky signed back on to HR 3101, Caption Action 2 had blogged about both her and Lois Capps, who still has not returned as a cosponsor. In the blog post Capps and Schakowsky, Come Back Already!! CA 2 shared a telephone relay conversation with Capps' office: http://tinyurl.com/yatx4wh.

Unfortunately, during March, we learned reasons why two representatives would not sign on: Zach Wamp (http://tinyurl.com/yzu7r9n) and Howard Coble (http://tinyurl.com/ycsdxmf).

As the month drew to a close, we learned that some representatives were raising objections about the potential cost of captioning on the Internet. So we turned to a very reliable source for answers: http://tinyurl.com/y9nq5ep.

We also made improvements to the usability of one of our most important spreadsheets - the Us Too excel spreadsheet! This spreadsheet shows which of three bills related to deafness and hearing loss Congress representatives are supporting. We added colors: Red for HR 1646, Blue for HR 3024, and Green for HR 3101. Now it is easier to see at a glance if your reprsentative already supports other bills but does not support HR 3101. A phone number column has also been added to further improve usability. Download this crucial tool at http://tinyurl.com/yktpvbk

MEDIA COVERAGE

Just before the April newsletter "went to press," the Yuma Sun published an article about HR 3101: http://tinyurl.com/yzwaxgq This article mentions both Caption Action 2, and Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA is a COAT affiliate).

COAT UPDATE

This newsletter would not be complete without the usual COAT update! COAT now has around 300 affiliates (see http://www.coataccess.org/node/2), including a growing number of captioning service providers! The only states that do not have COAT affiliates yet are Idaho and Wyoming!

In March, the National Organization on Disability stated its support for COAT and HR 3101 in a statement, which you can read at http://www.coataccess.org/node/6722.

Caption Action 2 noticed that the National Federation of the Blind was not a COAT member, and contacted NFB. NFB informed Caption Action 2 that while NFB does not wish to become a COAT member at this time, the NFB does endorse HR 3101.

COMPLETE COSPONSOR LIST

Arizona:
Representative Grijalva, Raul

California:
Representative Berman, Howard
Representative Filner, Bob
Representative Lee, Barbara
Representative Napolitano, Grace
Representative Sanchez, Linda
Representative Schiff, Adam
Representative Stark, Fortney Pete

District of Columbia:
Representative Norton, Eleanor Holmes

Florida:
Representative Hastings, Alcee

Georgia:
Representative Lewis, John

Guam:
Representative Bordallo, Madeline

Illinois:
Representative Schakowsky, Janice

Indiana:
Representative Carson, Andre

Kansas:
Representative Moore, Dennis

Kentucky:
Representative Chandler, Ben

Maine:
Reprsentatative Pingree, Chellie

Maryland:
Representative Van Hollen, Chris

Massachusetts:
Representative Capuano, Michael
Representative McGovern, Jim
Representative Neal, Richard
Representative Olver, John
Representative Tierney, John

Minnesota:
Representative McCollum, Betty
Representative Peterson, Collin

Missouri:
Representative Cleaver, Emmanuel

New Jersey
Representative Payne, Donald
Representative Rothman, Stephen

New York:
Representative Engel, Eliot
Representative Hinchey, Maurice
Representative Israel, Steve
Representative Maffei, Daniel
Representative Maloney, Carolyn
Representative Slaughter, Louise
Representative Towns, Edolphus

Ohio:
Representative Kilroy, Mary Jo
Representative Ryan, Tim

Oregon:
Representative Blumenauer, Earl

Pennsylvania:
Representative Kanjorski, Paul

Tennessee:
Representative Davis, Lincoln

Texas:
Representative Doggett, Lloyd

Virginia:
Representative Moran, Jim

Not Receiving CA2 Bulletins On Facebook? Here's a Fix

2010-04-09T00:34:00.003-04:00

Have you received the April bulletin in the Caption Action 2 Facebook Cause group? If not, follow these instructions. If so, pass it on to someone who has not but is on the group.

Facebook's Causes Support has said that members need to make their emails available to them.

Here are two ways to check - first click on Account in the blue Facebook bar on the right.

Under Account settings;
- under the Settings tab, in Email, do you have a valid email address listed?
- under the Notifications tab, in Other Applications, is Causes checked?

Back to Account in the blue bar, then Application Settings;
- In Causes, click on Edit Permissions. On the Additional Permissions tab, is "Send Me Emails" checked?

Update: Jamie Berke found another way...
- Uncheck "Send Me emails,"
- Then click OK. Reopen Edit Settings. "Send Me Emails" has disappeared.
- Close the Edit Settings box
- Go into Causes. There will be a blue box saying "Give your email address to Causes?"
- Click "Yes, share my email." The blue box will disappear.
- Go back to Account in the blue Facebook bar on the upper right corner of the screen, then Application Settings.
- Click on Edit Settings next to Causes.

In the Additional Permissions tab, "Send Me Emails" has now become "Access My email address."

Do NOT uncheck it. The blue "Give your email address to Causes?" box will return.

Pass this on to everyone who has not received their Cause bulletins. This will make sure that they will be received.

HR 3101 - No Protection From YouTube Gap

2010-04-06T20:21:00.006-04:00

Caption Action 2 is posting this blog to correct a mistake. We thought that HR 3101 would have protected the deaf and hard of hearing community from situations like what is happening now with the iPad and YouTube. Sadly, the answer is, NO, HR 3101 would not have protected us!

Jamie contacted Rosaline Crawford, the director of the National Association of the Deaf's law and advocacy center to get clarification on how HR 3101 would have applied in this situation. Rosaline's response was that "H.R. 3101 was not intended to fill the gap that has appeared between YouTube videos and the iPad." However, there is the hope that if HR 3101 passes, the fact captions would be required for TV on the Internet would "encourage" the availability of captions on other video formats and platforms.

So, we were wrong. HR 3101 would not have guaranteed that we would not be left out from the start when products like the iPad were launched. For that kind of protection we would need ANOTHER law.

It is known that HTML 5 is still being worked on by the W3C as seen by a comment in the previous post. It is not known when it will be finalized.

Accessibility/HTML5 captions v2

Fortunately, HTML 5 uses easily-found and used subtitling utilities like Subtitle Workshop, SubStation Alpha, and Aegisub.

iPad Fail? Say It Ain't So!

2010-04-05T22:15:00.006-04:00

Yes, you heard right... Something's missing on Apple's iPad. Amy Cohen Efron put out a vlog, iPad #fail!, demoing this problem.

What's the problem?

It doesn't show YouTube/Google captions/subtitles.

Is it a software glitch or an incompatibility?

Update: As it turns out, the iPad uses HTML 5 and not Flash, which is why closed captions don't show up. Previously, Caption Action 2 blogged about the lack of captioning support in HTML 5, HTML 5 Has No Captioning Provisions?. In addition, these articles further verifies that the iPad uses HTML 5.

Brightcove readies its video platform for the iPad, announces HTML5 support

IPad Can’t Play Flash Video, but It May Not Matter

The First Apple iPad-ready Websites Makes HTML5 Look Boring

You Too Can Experience HTML5 on YouTube

Cartoon - Rick Boucher, Move HR 3101 Already!

2010-04-04T10:15:00.014-04:00

Tamara Davidson has done another cartoon for Caption Action 2. This time the cartoon is about Rick Boucher, the chair of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, which has HR 3101! Davidson has put on Boucher's desk three documents representing the three bills that benefit deaf and hard of hearing (HR 1646, HR 3024, and HR 3101) - with HR 3101 set aside. This represents the fact Boucher supports HR 1646 and HR 3024, but not HR 3101!

This is the second cartoon by Davidson for Caption Action 2. (Her first one.) She is also the creator of the Boucher and Kerry buttons that had to be temporarily removed to make room for the April 15 Virtual Legislative Day.

But What About the Cost?

2010-03-29T21:38:00.002-04:00

Recently, Caption Action 2 received an email from a HR 3101 advocate who told CA 2 that when they contacted their Representative, the response was that the Representative was concerned about the cost to caption on the Internet.

Is this a legitimate concern? No, it is not! For an answer, Caption Action 2 turned to Larry Goldberg of WGBH. Why Mr. Goldberg? PBS is captioning quite a bit online, and everyone knows PBS is not exactly rolling in dough. So how is PBS doing it?

Mr. Goldberg's response: "All of the PBS programs which have captions on them on the PBS websites were already captioned for broadcast, so with a little human intervention and a little automation, it doesn’t cost that much at all. I would say the same is probably true for the captions seen on many TV shows on Hulu.com, ABC.com, NBC.com, Fox.com and others."

Human intervention? A little automation? Caption Action 2 requested further clarification from Mr. Goldberg, who replied:

"The automated part is the transformation of the caption files from the broadcast closed-captioning data format into the web timed-text data format.

The human intervention is the possible need to edit the files slightly due to addition or deletion of ads, and thus change the timing."

So if you contact your Representative and he or she replies that they are concerned about the potential cost of captioning regular TV on the Internet, you can truthfully tell them that the cost is minimal.

Why Representative Howard Coble Is Not Signing On

2010-03-25T19:11:00.009-04:00

Today Caption Action 2 discovered that Representative Howard Coble (R-NC) had signed on to HR 1646, the Hearing Aid Tax Credit. A call was made to his office to ask that he also sign on to HR 3101. The result was a disappointing email, which honestly stated why Coble would not be signing on to HR 3101 at this time.

John Mautz in Coble's office wrote:

"He said that he'd rather not sponsor - it's substantive and he'd rather wait for the committee of jurisdiction to approve it for consideration by the House. "

It was just one sentence. The part about waiting for the Subcommittee to move the bill is no surprise, but the part about "substantive" is new. Substantive means that Coble feels the bill is packed with too much for his office to be able to evaluate at this time.

HR 301 Now Has 44 Cosponsors!

2010-03-16T22:44:00.011-04:00

Caption Action 2 just learned tonight that two new cosponsors signed up on HR 3101!

Let us welcome Representatives Daniel Maffei (NY-25)

and Adam Schiff (CA-29).

Both Representatives are Democrats.

Democrats - 44, Republicans - 0.

Republican Zach Wamp Will Not Cosponsor HR 3101

2010-03-15T20:00:00.011-04:00

Today Caption Action 2 got an email from John Frierson, a senior legislative assistant in Representative Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee)'s office. What Frierson had to say, made it apparent that Wamp will not be cosponsoring HR 3101 anytime soon. Frierson did not actually use the words "he will not cosponsor," but Caption Action 2 knows from experience that the language he used is typical Capitol Hill-speak for "fuggedaboutit." Frierson wrote;

We will continue to review the legislation and any changes that are made as bill moves through Congress. I will be sure to follow up with you with any further updates.

Again, it was a pleasure speaking with you, and Mr. Wamp and I are sympathetic to your issue He will keep your views in mind should the bill come up for a vote. I’m glad to see that some in the market place are including the additional resources in their broadcasts and videos that you seek and hope to see this move by companies continue.

When a Representative's office uses the words "will keep your views in mind if the bill comes up for vote" that means the Representative is not going to sign on. So if anyone from Tennessee's third district contacts Wamp's office, that is the kind of response they are going to get! Is there ANY Republican out there who cares enough about the deaf and hard of hearing and blind to sign on to HR 3101 without waiting for the bill to make it out of committee, which it won't if Rick Boucher and Henry Waxman don't move the bill??

Four Months! Yes, FOUR Months!

2010-03-14T20:27:00.008-04:00

Forget what the calendar says! We actually have just FOUR months basically left to get HR 3101 passed! Why: This is an election year for Congress. Every Congressional Representative who wants to keep his or her job, must get re-elected in November if they want to keep working on Capitol Hill. That means that our best chance to get their attention and support for HR 3101 is BEFORE they go on the Summer break (August 9 to September 10).

During the break, they will be focused on winning votes in their communities, AND after returning to work on the Hill in September, still focused on winning votes in their communities. Do you think they are going to be very productive on Capitol Hill? How easy is it going to be to get legislation passed while they are worried about their jobs? Not very!

Another reason for the urgency. Already, several representatives have announced retirements. Others have resigned. This means that if we have to start all over again in the next Congress, we not only have to rebuild our support base of previous cosponsors, we have to work to get the attention of new Representatives. AND, we know we are getting political here but it is a fact - we have been less than successful in getting Republican support. It is expected that many Democratic representatives may lose their jobs to Republicans in the November election. That could make our job even harder.

In recognition of the new reality facing us, we have changed the counter so that it ends on August 9 instead of at the end of the current Congress.

There is one ray of hope. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission expressed de facto support for HR 3101 at the March 10 event "Increasing Access to Broadband for People with Disabilities." Details are on the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) website, and if you prefer to see the video, it is at http://reboot.fcc.gov/live/.

If you have not called or written to your representative, do it now. If you have friends in the deaf or hearing community who don't know about HR 3101, tell them now. Too many people don't know about it. Contact your local newspaper to make them aware of HR 3101. Do whatever it takes!

42nd Cosponsor Joins HR 3101!

2010-03-12T19:00:00.008-05:00

Caption Action 2 just learned earlier this afternoon that HR 3101's 42nd cosponsor signed up.

Let us welcome New York State Representative Eliot Engel (D-17)!

Why did Engel sign on? He signed on because of the repeated efforts of his constituent, Sean Gerlis. Sean kept calling, and asking for an appointment with Engel's office. He never got the appointment, but to his pleasant surprise, Engel went ahead and signed on to HR 3101!
Democrats - 42, Republicans - 0.

HR 3101 Gets Three More Cosponsors!

2010-03-10T17:27:00.010-05:00

Caption Action 2 just learned this morning that three more Representatives signed up as HR 3101 cosponsors!

Janice Schakowsky (IL-9) (she came back!)

Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)

Alcee Hastings (FL-23)

All are Democrats. We still need Lois Capps (CA-23), Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8), and Bill Pascrell (NJ-8). They were previous cosponsors of HR 6320.

Democrats - 41, Republicans - 0.

Three Hundred Calendar Days Left!

2010-03-09T20:45:00.008-05:00

Take a look at that number to the right, folks. Three hundred! That's how many calendar days we have left until the end of the current session of Congress. It is actually less when you subtract holidays and weekends as well as Congressional session breaks!

So we REALLY have to push now. If we want legal protection against being left out of the vastly expanding world of Internet video. If we want the next generation of deaf and hard of hearing adults not to be left out. It is fantastic that we now have the automatic captions on YouTube (YouTube is proof that internet video can be captioned!), but what about the rest of the commercial Internet? What about national mobile digital television?

Keep contacting your Representatives! Congress.org has a transcript for a video that explains why it is so important that YOU be the one who contacts his or her Representative. If Caption Action 2 contacts a Representative on your behalf, chances are Caption Action 2 will be ignored! Read the three crucial rules for success that are posted by Congress.org in that transcript.

Even if HR 3101 does not pass, we will build a strong foundation for support in Congress, that we can continue to build on. Already we have doubled the size of that foundation this Congress, from the previous Congress. It can take multiple tries to get a bill to pass - which is why we might have to wait until as late as 2025 for legal protection from being left out on the Internet.

What's that? You don't like the idea of having to wait until 2025? You don't like the idea of having to be satisfied with whatever companies voluntarily caption? Then MAKE LOUD NOISE (with apologies to @marleematlin) and CALL or WRITE your representative, and get your friends, families, and even your enemies to do the same!

Capps and Schakowsky, Come Back Already!!

2010-03-03T18:01:00.017-05:00

Last session of Congress, two Representatives on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (parent committee of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet) were cosponsors of the previous version of HR 3101. These Representatives, Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) and Representative Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) have not come back as cosponsors yet and it has been more than eight months since HR 3101 was introduced by Representative Ed Markey.

Lois Capps

Janice Schakowsky

Caption Action 2 called both Schakowsky's and Capps' offices. At Schakowsky's, the response was "I don't see why there would be a problem with her signing on again." But at Capps' office...well, read on.

Relay: this is congress women louis capps office qq ga
Caption Action 2: hello this is jamie berke is danielle letendre there qga
Relay: ummmm... you know she is actually away from her desk at the moment would you like to lv a vm..qq ga
Caption Action 2: no let me explain why i am calling. im callign because in the previous session of congress lois cosponsored a bill. the bill is back again but she has not come back as a cosponsor yet and it has been more than eight months. ga
Relay: umm okay well I can certainly pass along a msg of support about a certain bill umm if you want to hear back from the congress women on that certain thing I can get your
contact info an we can get back to you if you want me to pass long your thoughts I can do that as well ga
Caption Action 2: is there anyone i can talk to? i would like to find out why she has not returned as a cosponsor yet ga
Relay: umm in order to better help you id at least need to know the name of the bill we can go from there ga
Caption Action 2: the bill number is HR 3101. in the previous session of congress it was known as HR 6320. ga
Relay: okay 3101 ummm sorry hang on a sec........ (typing) umm she is not on the subcommittee shes umm she does support the bill she is not on the subcommittee but when it comes to the full committee she is supportive in general which is a committee she is on she's supportive but she is supportive of it an I can certainly pass long thoughts about becoming a co sponsor ga
Caption Action 2: please do becauase i don't understand it. she was a cosponsor in the previous session of congress. why hasn't she come back as a cosponsor this time? i would like to talk to someone. ga
Relay: okay um im going to put you on hold for a second if that's okay ga
Caption Action 2: sure ga
Relay: I dont have the im not the person who handles this issue an I can pass long thoughtrs an can an will do that if she wants to hear back in a written way I can get contact info if you wanna do that.. but if I feel like were going in circles here.. ga
Caption Action 2: yes we are going in circles. you're front office staff. i want to talk to a legislative aide or director about this. she should have returned as a cosponsor by now! ga
Relay: okay an where are you calling from qq an your name pls q ga
Caption Action 2: im calling from dc and my name is jamie berke. i have been in contact with your office before. is there anyone there i can talk to for a few minutes i want to find out why she
has not returned as a cosponsor. she is not a member of the subcommittee though she is a member of the bigger committee. ga
Relay: the staffer who handles this issue is not available at the moment she is in a meeting.. what I can do I s pass long this msg an will do that.. ummm however I just want
to stress the lack of co sponsorship does not mean lack of support.. so she supports this measure she supported it in the past an continues to do so.. I can put you through to the staff member who handles this her vm if you like but
Caption Action 2: what is the name of this staff member? i will email her directly ga
Relay: Danielle Lependre gaa
Caption Action 2: thank you i have her email address already. what is your name by the way qga
Relay: my name is brenna ga
Caption Action 2: thank you bye now ga or sk

Okay, what is going on here?? It doesn't make any sense. Before, both Schakowsky and Capps were cosponsors of the bill - you can see that by clicking this GovTrack link! Why would Capps' office say that Capps is "supportive" yet Capps has not signed back on to the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act?? Clearly *something* political is going on! Caption Action 2 has no idea what is going on. All we can do is theorize.

One theory: that there is increased opposition to the bill and pressure on Schakowsky and Capps not to cosponsor again, especially since they are members of the parent committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Another theory is that maybe they *want* to cosponsor again, but can't because the chair of the Committee, Henry Waxman, is in the way. Or maybe Rick Boucher is pressuring them not to cosponsor? We don't know anything, all we can do is invent theories.

Will Schakowsky and/or Capps ever come back? We need the public support, in the form of cosponsorship, of *someone* on that Committee or Subcommittee!

SIX New Cosponsors For HR 3101!

2010-02-25T17:58:00.024-05:00

Caption Action 2 just learned today that not two, not three, but SIX representatives became cosponsors for HR 3101!

Rep Ben Chandler [KY-6]

Rep Lincoln Davis [TN-4]

Rep Dennis Moore [KS-3]

Rep Richard E. Neal [MA-2]

Rep John W. Olver [MA-1]

Rep John F. Tierney [MA-6]

All are Democrats! We need Republicans! Plus, none of the new cosponsors are on the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

Representative Tierney was a previous cosponsor. Let's welcome him back!

Slaughter and Berman Sign on to HR 3101!

2010-02-23T18:18:00.015-05:00

Two more Democratic Representatives were added to the HR 3101 cosponsor list yesterday: Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Representative Howard Berman (D-CA). (Slaughter represents Rochester, New York so the residents of that deaf-friendly town should be cheering!) Now the score is Democrats 32, Republicans 0! Why haven't any Republicans signed on yet to HR 3101 too? Surely they are hearing from deaf and hard of hearing constituents in their districts too?

Do Republicans understand the importance of this bill to deaf and hard of hearing people regardless of political party affiliation? Even the late President Ronald Reagan had a hearing aid!

ABC.Com Makes Serious Committment to Captioning!

2010-02-22T19:04:00.005-05:00

Today the word flashed around Twitter: ABC.com has made a very serious commitment to captioning online! Marlee Matlin's earlier testimony at the FCC hearing led to ABC.com's (Disney)'s decision! ABC has announced it will caption all their "long form" content online!

ABC has long been a leader in captioning, ever since the days of the captioned ABC news. Now, history repeats itself as ABC.com takes the lead in internet captioning!

This is major - so major that Caption Action 2 is at a loss for words for once! ABC.com's commitment basically says to all the other channels online, "See, we recognize that television online is the same as regular television, and therefore it should be captioned too!" It could also give a strong boost to our efforts to pass HR 3101, because we can show Congress that the will is there, and it just needs to be codified to prod the others into doing it too!

Harris Corp Says Local Mobile DTV Will be CC!

2010-02-16T22:17:00.005-05:00

Caption Action 2 just received some rather eye-opening news. Harris Corporation, a broadcast communications company based in Melbourne, Florida, posted a comment on About.com's Deafness page.

Harris said "yes" to the question of captions on local mobile digital TV. Read the full statement here.

White House Delaying Web Captioning?

2010-02-15T06:00:00.002-05:00

Is the White House delaying the captioning of their web video? On February 13, Caption Action 2 received an email from someone complaining that the White House's online videos were not captioned. What is this? Caption Action 2 investigated on February 14th.

What we found:

On WhiteHouse.gov video section: Up until February 11, the videos were captioned. After February 11, the captions stopped. Most videos between February 11 and February 13 were not captioned. On a video by video basis, in reverse chronological order:
- February 13 - John Brennan, Questions on National Security: no captions, no transcript
- February 13 - John Brennan, Speaks on National Security: no captions, no transcript
- February 12 - Obama Weekly Address: captioned! also a transcript.
- February 12 - Obama Addresses US-Islamic World Forum: has Arabic subtitling, but no English captions, and no transcript.
- February 12 - Obama Message to team USA: no captions, no transcript
- February 12 - Press Briefing: no captions, no transcript
- February 12 - Obama Lunar New Year: no captions, no transcript
- February 11 - Press Briefing: no captions, a transcript provided
On YouTube, the WhiteHouse channel, in reverse chronological order:
- February 14 - John Brennan Takes Questions: no captions
- February 13 - John Brennan Speaks: no captions
- February 12 - Obama Weekly Address: captioned!
- February 12 - Press Briefing: no captions
- February 12 - Lunar New Year: captioned!
- February 11 - Press Briefing: captioned!

So what is going on here?? Section 508 requires that Federal websites be accessible. Yet it is clear that the White House is inconsistent with their captioning! Note that they did not caption the February 12 Lunar New Year video on WhiteHouse.gov, but the same video is captioned on YouTube.

Last week, something similar happened with Hulu. When the Valentine's Day episode of Modern Family was first posted on Hulu, there were no captions. Then a day or two later, it was captioned. The same thing happened earlier with an episode of Heroes.

Are we deaf and hard of hearing people SECOND CLASS citizens who must wait until captions are added to videos?! Not even the White House will postpone posting a video until captions are added?! This is totally unfair to deaf and hard of hearing people, making us wait for captions while hearing people get to see the videos right away!

We need to demand that the White House establish a policy of not posting their videos until closed captions have been added! To do otherwise means that even the White House thinks deaf and hard of hearing people are second class citizens! If hearing people have to wait, too bad -- equal access means just that, EQUAL.

Rep, DeGette Won't Publicly Commit to HR 3101!

2010-02-12T20:17:00.009-05:00

Caption Action 2 was granted permission to share a letter from Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) to a Caption Action 2 supporter. (DeGette is on the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.) Instead of reprinting the entire letter, Caption Action 2 wishes to focus on the key statement by Representative DeGette:

Some who work for the industry argue that this would place an unfair economic burden on them, but that was also argued when closed captioning was signed into law in 1990. It is widely accepted that closed captioning has been an indispensable service for millions of Americans, and did not place an economic burden on the television and film industry.

Read the entire letter.

Note that DeGette wrote that closed captioning did NOT place an economic burden on the industry. In spite of their whining back then, that it would. DeGette also has her facts incorrect. In 1990, it was the Television Decoder Circuitry Act that was passed. Closed captioning itself did not become mandatory on television until 1996, when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed in Congress.

While it sounds like DeGette is prepared to support HR 3101, Caption Action 2 noted that NOWHERE in her letter did she state that she would cosponsor the bill. Clearly she too is "afraid" of Rick Boucher! Clearly she too will not come out on the subcommittee in support of this bill until Rick Boucher moves the bill!

What's that they say? Actions speak louder than words?

Does Comcast Even Care About Deaf?

2010-02-12T20:03:00.005-05:00

Caption Action 2 was contacted by a deaf customer of Comcast. The customer granted permission to reprint the letter, as well as the response from Comcast.

Customer's Email to Caption Action 2

I appreciate all the effort that you are doing in the Caption 2 action movement.

I wanted to ask if you are aware that Comcast cable company advertises from their homepage that you can watch tv from their site now. Only problem is that I have yet to find a way to watch any of their programming captioned. I was wondering if you had any information about that. I did email them today to ask about that as well.

Also, Some of their "OnDemand" programming appears to be without captions when the program had originally aired, it had captions. An example would be the fairly popular series, "Burn Notice", which appears on the USA network.

I also emailed Comcast very briefly about that. Are there guidelines somewhere for effective ways to complain or protest about issues like these? Who are the best people to contact about issues like these?

In the case of the issue regarding online captioning of programming, I thought Caption 2 Action might be a good place to contact.

Then the customer gave more details of their effort to get captioning on Comcast OnDemand:

Also regarding the captioning OnDemand, my father tried talking to one of the chatroom people. They bumped it up to their supervisor who decided they needed to send a pulse to his box to fix the problem. It didn't fix the problem. The sending the pulse to your box thing seems to be their solution for when they don't know what to do. We had run into that on another issue here. I know it isn't related to the Caption 2 Action goal, but it is sort of related because it is the same company and how they are dealing with hearing impaired and captioning problems.

Comcast's Unsatisfactory Response

Comcast wrote to the customer:

Thank you for reaching out to Fancast.

I understand that you want to be able to watch programs with Captions online. I do apologize however right now, this feature is not yet currently available in Fancast.

Our product team is constantly working on improving the site to make the best experience possible. Thanks for your suggestion, we'll consider your idea for a future release.

Thanks,

Iryn
The Fancast Support Team

Bottom Line!

Idea?? Comcast considers our need for closed captioning online to be an IDEA?? This is an insulting statement for them to make!! And they will quote, "CONSIDER" the "idea" for a future release? This is yet another example of why we need HR 3101! Companies just push us deaf and hard of hearing aside in the rush to market to make money! Then they say "oh, maybe we will consider it for later..."

This attitude on the part of companies is downright maddening! We need the legal protection of HR 3101 to force companies like Comcast to do the right thing because they obviously won't do it voluntarily!!

MobiTV Does Not Caption Either...

2010-02-11T20:58:00.007-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 contacted another mobile digital television company, MobiTV, in an effort to find out where they are on closed captioning. The results were not promising. Three calls were made, first to the customer service department, and then to the public relations department, twice. Finally, an email was sent to the chief technology officer for MobiTV asking questions. No response has been received yet.

Call to Customer Service

Caption Action 2 : does mobi tv have any closed captioning support? remember i said i am deaf. ga
MobiTV : no, there is no closed captioning on any of our stations. GA
Caption Action 2 : do you have any plans to add closed captioning? if you are not able to answer the question, please give me the name and number of someone at mobi tv who can answer the question. ga
MobiTV : uhm well it's not currently supported uh we consistently upgrade and expand our services and may provide it in the future unfortunately, there is no possible release date. please check our press announcements regarding our uhm check our press announcements regarding that uh uh feature at (confirming mobitv.com. GA
Caption Action 2 : what cell phones can have mobitv on them? i am thinking of buying an iPhone ga
MobiTV : uhm well uh there's over 400 different devices uh so specifically the iphone's not currently compatible. there is a compatibility list on our website and i can actually give you the website address for that hold on just a second ok i found it it's uh the compatibility list can be found at www.mobitv.com/getmobitv (confirming spelling). GA
Caption Action 2 : ok thanks. i looked at your press releases and did not see the name of any public relations person at mobi tv who i could talk to to get further clarification of your captioning plans if there are any. ga
MobiTV : currently there may not be. in the future, that's where they you'd be able to find out information on it. GA
Caption Action 2 : i understand but i need to talk to someone in your public relations department. can you give me the name and contact information for someone qga
MobiTV : you could try mobi tv headquarters at mobitv headquarters at 510 438 6624. GA

Call to Public Relations

MobiTV : ok we re always looking for ways to serve our customers but at this time we dont have anything to speak publicly

Caption Action 2 sent an email to chief technology officer Kay Johnannson. No response yet.

Last Call to Public Relations

MobiTV : umm okay uh um currently mobitv does not offer umm closed captioning and while we are looking or always looking for ways to serve our customer base we are not stating anything more publicly and thank you for your call GA

Bottom Line

It is clear from the conversations above, that MobiTV has no intention of trying to provide closed captioning support anytime soon. Caption Action 2 sent a second email to the CTO informing him about HR 3101.

Caption Action 2 was not aware that mobile digital television has evolved to become the cell phone equivalent of cable television.

Flo TV Can't Commit to Captioning!

2010-02-10T21:42:00.007-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 spoke with Matthew Hutchison, the Senior Director of Public Relations for Flo TV. It was a discouraging conversation, as shown below:

(Flo TV is a mobile digital TV broadcaster, as explained in the previous Caption Action 2 blog post)

Matthew: hi this (confirming spelling) matthew GA
Caption Action 2 : hello this is jamie berke calling back at 9 pm eastern time as agreed ga
Matthew : hello jamie GA
Caption Action 2 : i sent you an email with the questions. you know what my questions are..do you have any answers for me qga
Matthew : at this point in time flo tv (confirming spelling) does not support close captioning but it is something we are considering in the future GA
Caption Action 2 : how far into the future? do you have any rough idea of when closed captioning would be available qga
Matthew : i do not but i will keep you posted GA
Caption Action 2 : what about the Flo TV chip? could you re-engineer that to add closed captioning circuitry? then a cell phone that has Flo TV such as the iPhone, could show captions on Flo TV programming. ga
Matthew : it is not a question of the chip GA
Caption Action 2 : it is not? what is it then qga
Matthew : will you honor off the record comments qq GA
Caption Action 2 : why does it have to be off the record qga
Matthew : i m willing to address questions if in many cases the bloggers will allow us to speak on background and off the record if that s not the case i can t answer questions GA
Caption Action 2 : everything you say has to be on the record so to speak. my next question - I know that Flo TV has its own mobile TV standard. there is another standard that was just approved called the Open Mobile Digital TV standard [actually it is Open Mobile Video Coalition]. I think that's the name, from memory., that standard already supports closed captioning. Is there any way Flo TV could borrow from that standard to add closed captioning capability qga
Matthew : as stated we are looking into this when we have developments i will let you know GA
Caption Action 2 : alright. are you able to give me any idea, even a very rough one, of when you might be able to support closed captioning? a year from now? five years from now qga
Matthew : uhh i uhh i cannot commit to a time frame at this time GA
Caption Action 2 : i see that we can't discuss captioning any further. before i go..do you know about a new bill in congress, HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009? qga

[Was on hold awhile and when he came back Caption Action 2 repeated the question]

Matthew : i personally do not GA
Caption Action 2 : well that bill has a provision that will affect Flo TV, so I suggest you make closed captioning a higher priority than it is now. ga
Matthew: thank you will look into it GA

Caption Action 2 offered to tell him what that provision(s) was, but he had to run because of a family emergency. So that was the end of that conversation.

Bottom line: It looks like we deaf and hard of hearing people CAN NOT expect closed captioning support or closed captioned programming from Flo TV anytime soon.

See Flo TV Super Bowl Ad? Flo TV Doesn't Caption!

2010-02-08T18:52:00.019-05:00

What is Flo TV?? Flo TV is an example of why we need HR 3101!

Note: Caption Action 2 has contacted Flo TV with questions and is waiting for their response any time now. In the meantime, here is what we know about Flo TV, and more!

What is Flo TV

Flo TV is a mobile TV broadcaster. They broadcast mobile television to cell phones, the back of car headrests, and to a Flo TV Personal Television mobile device. Flo TV was launched in March 2007 as MediaFlo TV by Verizon Wireless and MediaFlo USA. Today they are a subsidiary of Qualcomm. That means they have had since 2007 to make themselves accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing? Did they??

No, they did not! On their FAQ page it says:

Q: Is Closed Captioning available on the FLO TV™ service?

A: No. Currently, the FLO TV service does not support closed captioning. New product features will be announced on our website.

Flo TV is apparently NOT broadcast over the Internet. It is regular digital television broadcast over UHF channels. Flo TV is available on AT&T and Verizon cell phones, and is coming to the iPhone too. A check of the AT&T Mobile TV FAQ page shows nothing about captioning. Neither does Verizon's V Cast Mobile TV FAQ.

Caption Action 2 made a call to Verizon Wireless to confirm the lack of captions. This is the relay conversation:

Verizon: my name is brandy GA
Caption Action 2: hello brandy. i have a question. I hope you can answer my question. if not please put me in touch with someone who can. I am interested in getting Flo TV which is available on Verizon's cell phones. But I am deaf. I need closed captions. Are closed captions available on Flo TV service on Verizon's cell phones qga
Verizon: ok let me pull up some let me pull up some information regarding flo tv so that i can check if closed captions is available GA
Caption Action 2: yes please. i checked their website and it looks like closed captions are not available but i wanted to double check with you. ga
Verizon: i ve looked through my information and unfortunately at this point mobile tv with flo tv does not have available closed captions yet GA

She recommended I consider buying for example, a Blackberry for Verizon service. Blackberry does have closed captioning display capability as explained in this blog post from Inside the Blackberry Accessibility Team. The iPhone can also display closed captions. WGBH Media Access Group provided Caption Action 2 with a table that lists handheld devices and their captioning capability.

Captioning Solutions for Handheld Media and Mobile Devices Comparison Chart

There was no point in calling AT & T too. The answer would be the same - no captions because Flo TV does not have them. This would be true no matter what cell phone carried the Flo TV service.

Instead, Caption Action 2 called Flo TV directly to ask for confirmation of the information on their website. Spoke with the assistant to Bill Stone, Flo TV's president. She said that the information on the website about lack of closed captioning is correct. When Jamie asked about the possibility of re-engineering the Flo TV chip, which is needed for a device to be able to receive Flo TV broadcasts -- to add closed caption decoding circuitry, the assistant said the Flo TV chips were provided by the Qualcomm Tech Department and she did not know anything about engineering. Jamie wasn't satisfied with this response, and asked for more information. That's why Caption Action 2 is still waiting for a response from someone else with Flo TV, as noted above.

Is Flo TV Breaking the Law?

The FCC captioning regulations state that a multichannel video programming distributor is covered by the law. A multichannel video programming distributor is defined in 47 CFR section 76.1000(e). According to the COAT position statement and Justia.com, a multichannel video programming distributor is defined as:"...an entity engaged in the business of making available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming."

Based on this definition and the fact that Flo TV has multiple channels, does this mean that existing law already covers Flo TV? Flo TV is a subscription service, AND they offer multiple "cable" channels such as TLC.

Does HR 3101 Apply to Flo TV?

In addition, a check of the HR 3101 bill found this language:

The term ‘video programming’ means programming provided by, or generally considered comparable to programming provided by, a television broadcast station, even if such programming is distributed over the Internet or by some other means.

Maybe "some other means" could be interpreted to include mobile digital television! Nevertheless, there are still open questions about both the existing law and the proposed law with regard to mobile digital television!

What Can We Do Now?

In the absence of a law to guarantee our right to access to services and devices like Flo TV, we deaf and hard of hearing people must take things into our own hands. We need to make such a public example of Flo TV that the next mobile television service to launch will think twice before leaving the deaf and hard of hearing out!

We can't wait for HR 3101 to be passed. Caption Action 2 suggests that deaf and hard of hearing people who want Flo TV to add captioning capability to their Personal Television device and to their mobile television broadcasts take the following actions:

Flo TV is on Facebook. Their Facebook URL is http://www.facebook.com/flotv. Become a fan of Flo TV and post complaints about their not having caption display capability!

Flo TV is on Twitter. Their Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/flotv. If you are on Twitter, post reply requests for captioning to @flotv, and include @deafnessguide so Caption Action 2 can track your Twitter posts.

Call Flo TV in their California office, at 858 587-1121 (Operator, and ask to be transferred to Flo TV). The Contact Us page is only a form with no phone number.

Flo TV's website includes a newsroom with a "in the news" section that reprints all the media coverage of Flo TV. Contact the reporters and media sources to let them know that Flo TV does not have closed caption capability. Caption Action 2 will be making some of these contacts ourselves.

Look for blogs that have blogged about FloTV. To find these blogs, use Google's blog search, Search Blogs for Flo TV. Post comments on the blogs, or contact the bloggers, to let them know about the lack of captioning capability on Flo TV.

The Bottom Line

Mobile television is starting to really grow! One look at the website/blogsite Reiter's Mobile TV Report shows this! A competitor to Flo TV is MobiTV. A search of their support knowledge base fails to turn up anything about captioning. But there's more! Free mobile digital TV is coming, according to the Los Angeles Times and other news sources. This free mobile television uses the Open Mobile Video Coalition's mobile digital TV standard for local television broadcasts (Flo TV is national broadcast), as reported by TechNewsWorld.com.

We need HR 3101!!!

New on the Blogroll: Who Cosponsors HR 1646, 3024, and 3101

2010-02-05T21:03:00.005-05:00

One of the most effective tools for getting cosponsors for HR 3101 has been to contact the offices of Representatives who already cosponsor other bills for deaf and hard of hearing people. Caption Action 2 has combined all the available information about the cosponsors of all three bills into one handy at-a-glance spreadsheet. One look at this spreadsheet and you will see immediately if your representative already cosponsors other bills for deaf and hard of hearing people. This will make it easier for you to make the argument that if your rep cosponsors those bills, he or she should also cosponsor HR 3101!

The new spreadsheet is Who Cosponsors HR 1646, 3024, and 3101. (HR 1646 is the Hearing Aid Tax Credit. HR 3024 is the Medicare Hearing Health Care Enhancement Act.) Republicans are in bold text. As you can see, the other bills have at least some Republican support, while our bill, HR 3101, has none to date!

If you can't view Excel spreadsheets, here's a free Excel viewer.

Rep. Devin Nunes Needs Contact From His People!

2010-02-04T21:44:00.005-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 called Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) office, and spoke with Damon Nelson. Nelson later wrote back:

Thank you very much. We were honestly confused with the call. That was the first time I have ever had a relay call. It was very interesting and a great experience once I understood.

I will pass this on to the Congressman. But, he has a policy of having contact with a constituent before he cosponsors legislation.

So if you live in Fresno County, California, or in Tulare County, California, please contact the office of Rep. Devin Nunes at 202-225-2523 or email damon.nelson@mail.house.gov. Cities that Nunes represents are:

Clovis
Dinuba
Lindsay
Porterville
Reedley
Tulare
Visalia

If you call Nunes' office and ask for Damon Nelson, don't worry about his reaction to the relay service - as Jamie posted on Twitter, she already broke him in!

Cosponsor 30 joins HR 3101!

2010-02-03T14:34:00.003-05:00

Caption Action 2 just welcomed our 30th cosponsor, New Jersey Representative Donald Payne (D-10)!

This doubles the number of cosponsors since the previous version of bill.

Democrats 30 - Republicans 0

Texas Deaf! Help Get Rep. Michael McCaul!

2010-02-01T19:35:00.016-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 had a very positive phone conversation with Laura Bunten (emailmccaul@mail.house.gov) in Representative Michael McCaul's office. McCaul is a Republican Congressman from Texas, and his district includes Austin, Texas. Bunten specializes in health issues, and told Caption Action 2 that Rep. McCaul "has been very supportive of deaf/blind issues."

This is the first time that ANY Congress staff person has said that a Congressman was supportive of deaf/blind issues. Therefore this gives us much hope that maybe, just maybe McCaul could be the first Republican to support HR 3101. If you live in McCaul's district, help us by calling his office at 202- 225-2401 and/or emailing Laura Bunten!

Cosponsors 28 and 29 join HR 3101

2010-01-28T21:33:00.006-05:00

Just tonight after some relaxing and researching, Caption Action 2 discovered that two more representatives became HR 3101 cosponsors!

Our new cosponsors are Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-25) from Texas and Carolyn Maloney (D-14) from New York State. We needed a Texas representative and we got one!

This brings up our cosponsor count to 29!

HR 3101 Can't Move Without Boucher! Here's Proof!

2010-01-27T20:45:00.014-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 called Representative Mary Bono Mack's (she is on the critical House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet) office. Previously, we had apparently incorrectly reported in "Two Rejections and One Sign of Hope" that Bono Mack's office had said in an email, "At this time, the Congresswoman will not be cosponsoring H.R. 3101." Caption Action 2 thought that meant that she would not support HR 3101. What her office actually meant was something else!

Jamie called Mary Bono Mack's office with the intention of trying to find out what, if anything, could get Mary Bono Mack to change her mind. What followed was a frustrating conversation with Paul Cancienne, that made it very clear what we, the deaf and hard of hearing community, are up against. Bottom line: The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 CAN NOT move without Rick Boucher, the chairperson of the House Subcommittee, letting it move!!

Cancienne: (ANS) (M) this is paul
Jamie: hello paul this is jamie berke. i am aware already that ms. bono mack has already decided not to support the bill HR 3101 but I was wondering what would get her to change her mind? I'm not giving up yet. If you were deaf like me you would not give up either. ga
Cancienne: reports that the congresswoman opposes or supports hr 3101 are false and premature. the congresswoman has simply chosen not to cosponsor this legislation. there was a blog posting roughly 2 or 3 weeks ago that inaccurately stated the congresswoman's opposition. the congresswoman does have some concerns with this bill but again she has not expressed opposition. our current attitude towards the bill right now is that its not moving thru the legislature process. until it begins to move the congresswoman's lack of formal position and her concerns will remain the same. ga
Jamie: paul, do you know the idiom about the chicken and the egg qga
Cancienne: of course I do. ga
Jamie: that's the problem here. it is a chicken and egg situation. the reason the bill is not moving is because mr. boucher is apparently not letting the bill move. at the same time, there is nobody on the Subcommittee that cosponsors the bill so there is no one to encourage Mr. Boucher to let the bill move. that is the chicken and egg problem right here. ga
Cancienne: mr boucher could move the bill with no cosponsors. hes in control of the committee if he had uh if he wanted the bill to move it would move and then we would begin that process. he doesn't need us so we are where we are.
Cancienne: if this bill begins to move im happy to resume conversations with u and any group whose interested in legislation ga
Jamie: let me try this again. maybe i was not clear enough. what i am saying is that the bill is not moving because of mr. boucher. and furthermore there is nobody on the subcommittee who supports the bill so nobody is pushing mr. boucher to let the bill move. outside of the subcommittee there are representatives signing up to cosponsor the bill. barney frank just signed on two days ago. ga
Cancienne: well maybe [there are] problems with the legislation if no one on the subcommittee is supporting it uh again mr boucher does not need us to cosponsor this bill in order for it to move and to suggest lack of co-sponsorship uh as a sign of
opposition is just incorrect. at this point understand what your trying to say but our position is going to continue to be what it is and that is until this bill begins to move the congress woman is not gonna express support or opposition ga
Jamie: i see. what if the congresswoman's constituents were to contact her? people who live in her own area? would that help qga
Cancienne: it would hold on.. uh let me think about this uh.. any time the congresswoman welcome input form her constituents but her position remains the same. the congresswoman understands the issue and the concerns that all the
sides have ga
Jamie: i see. so it boils down to mr. boucher. until he lets the bill move you won't do anything. is this correct? ga or sk
Cancienne: essentially ga

After that Jamie asked what we can do. Cancienne suggested calling Boucher's office at 202-225-3861 and speaking with/emailing Amy Levine, his counsel on the Subcommittee, amy.levine@mail.house.gov.

This conversation Jamie had with Paul Cancienne shows very clearly that people on the House Subcommittee will not support HR 3101 UNTIL Rick Boucher allows it to move in the Subcommittee! EVEN IF people contact their Congresspeople on the Subcommittee the Representatives on the Subcommittee are totally deferring to Mr. Boucher, and won't do anything without Boucher! Nobody on the Subcommittee is willing to support HR 3101 because they are waiting for Boucher!

It has already been more than seven months since HR 3101 was introduced by Representative Ed Markey. Currently 27 Representatives outside of the Subcommittee have signed on. But, it is now very painfully clear, it does NOT matter how many people sign on to the bill, IF Rick Boucher does not let the bill move!! We must continue the effort to get cosponsors as support will be needed if the bill makes it out of committee, BUT our primary efforts must be focused on Rick Boucher!!!

As Jamie posted on Twitter today, "Why, oh why, does Congress let one person have so much power??? It is unfair!! Our bill is held hostage by Rick Boucher!!"

HR 3101 Gets 27th Cosponsor

2010-01-26T15:09:00.004-05:00

Joseph Ponte alerted us to his Proof of Democracy! Re: HR3101 blog post. HR 3101 just got its 27th cosponsor!

Let us welcome Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank (D-4).

LA Times Writer Blasts HR 3101!

2010-01-25T17:05:00.012-05:00

Today's editorial in the Los Angeles Times should give every deaf or hard of hearing person reason to be concerned. The writer is opposed to HR 3101. His unwarranted argument is that because technology is advancing, there is no need for HR 3101. He doesn't mention captioning but takes aim at the entire bill.

That is definitely not true! We need HR 3101 to guarantee our legal right to access. Without it, we are at the mercy of companies that choose whether to provide access.

Deaf and hard of hearing people of a certain age may recall what happened with the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990. That bill was passed to solve a chicken or egg problem. Companies didn't want to caption until more decoders were sold. Deaf and hard of hearing people didn't want to buy decoders until there was more captioned programs!

So what happened? We got some, but not that much, increase in captioned programming. Even with all TVs 13 inches or bigger now capable of showing closed captions, broadcasters were STILL reluctant to caption. So Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which mandated a schedule of increased captioning.

The LA Times writer's claim of "steeper prices, increased bulk and reduced functionality" is the same argument companies used with the 1990 Act. Quite the opposite happened. Prices didn't increase that much if at all. The captioning circuitry was quite small and today can fit on a chip. There was more functionality in terms of people being able to turn on the captioning when needed. Turning it on was as simple as pressing a button on the remote or use of onscreen menus.

Without the Telecommunications Act of 1996 would you be able to enjoy as much programming as you do now on regular television? Would broadcasters have begun captioning out of the goodness of their hearts? Some would have. Others would have refused citing cost. And the deaf and hard of hearing would not have had a legal leg to stand on.

Do you want history to repeat itself? Yes, technology is advancing. However, as that earlier experience shows, just because the technology is available doesn't mean that the companies will do it! It is the reluctant ones who have to be forced to do it through the law.

So we must not allow the ideas posed by the LA Times writer to propagate (spread). If his type of thinking is allowed to spread, we can kiss HR 3101 goodbye and forget about having any legal protection for when companies "forget" to include closed captioning on their Internet television programming and video programming devices.

Now Caption Action 2 is Upset. Boucher Again!

2010-01-22T19:16:00.022-05:00

Today Caption Action 2 found out something that made us upset. For good reason. Remember Rick Boucher, the chairperson of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet?? He just signed on to a DIFFERENT bill that also benefits deaf and hard of hearing people: HR 3024, the Medicare Hearing Health Care Enhancement Act. He ALREADY cosponsors HR 1646, the Hearing Aid Tax Credit.

YET, Boucher won't allow HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009, to move! We need for him to allow it to move!!

WHY does Boucher so readily support those other two bills for deaf and hard of hearing people and not HR 3101?? HR 3101 is just as important, if not MORE important, than those two bills!

We don't have the answers! What we DO know, is that it is urgent, important, mega critical, imperative, that YOU call your representatives in Congress, INCLUDING and ESPECIALLY those on the Subcommittee. That you write. That you blog and publicly post your letters to your Representatives. That you contact your local media. Caption Action 2 can not do it alone!

How does this make you feel? The chairperson of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet is supportive of those other bills, but not our bill, the one that YOU need to guarantee yourself and deaf children an accessible future on the Internet!

Two Rejections and One Sign of Hope

2010-01-12T18:57:00.022-05:00

Caption Action 2 was recently notified that two representatives would not support HR 3101. The ONLY way to get them to change their minds is IF enough people contact them.

And a special treat, a vlog from Kate Breen at the end of this post.

Rejection from Member of House Subcommittee

First, on December 7, 2009, Jamie received a rejection email from two staff members in Representative Mary Bono Mack's office. This one really hurt, because Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) is on the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet! That is the Subcommittee that has HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009. The email came from Paul Cancienne (Paul.Cancienne@mail.house.gov) and Chris Foster (Chris.Foster@mail.house.gov). This email stated:

At this time, the Congresswoman will not be cosponsoring H.R. 3101.

But that doesn't have to be the final answer! If we, the deaf and hard of hearing community, can show Representative Bono Mack how much this bill means to us by bombarding those two men with emails, maybe we can get her to change her mind! Anyone can send an email to those two men because the Subcommittee represents the entire United States. However, it would be even better if people who live in Mary Bono Mack's district, the 45th district of California, would contact those two men! Check http://bono.house.gov/District/interactivemap.htm to see if you live in Mary Bono Mack's district, or if you know someone else who does!

Update: What the message above meant was that Bono Mack is not opposed to HR 3101, but neither will she support it. See the newer blog post HR 3101 Can't Move Without Boucher! Here's Proof! for an explanation.

A Form Letter = Rejection

After having talked with Jim Richardson (Jim.Richardson@mail.house.go v) in Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)'s office, Caption Action 2 had high hopes because Richardson specializes in disability issues. Then yesterday, Caption Action 2 got a form letter from Tiahrt's office that said "While I do not sit on this committee, if this bill reaches the floor of the House, I will be sure to keep your concerns in mind." That translated into a rejection, because it essentially means "I am not going to cosponsor the bill, but if it somehow moves, I will remember what you said."

Deaf and hard of hearing people and families in Kansas' 4th District (check http://www.tiahrt.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=9&sectiontree=9 to see if you live in Kansas' 4th District or if you know someone who does) should send email to Jim Richardson telling them how important HR 3101 is to them and asking that Tiahrt change his mind about not cosponsoring HR 3101.

Any Hope Here? Maybe!

Today Caption Action 2 had a positive telephone conversation with Jordan Downs, a disability and ADA issues specialist in Representative Gregg Harper's (R-MS) office! Downs is eager to hear from deaf and hard of hearing people in Harper's district - the third district of Mississippi. Check http://harper.house.gov/district to see if you live in his district or if you know someone else who does! Downs can be contacted at Jordan.Downs@mail.house.gov.

Disability specialists like Downs could be key to the HR 3101 campaign. Who else would better understand our needs and be best able to convince the Representatives to cosponsor HR 3101?

Kate Breen Vlogs About HR 3101!

Today Kate Breen (breen315) uploaded a signed video to YouTube about HR 3101:

Update: Joseph Ponte alerted us to his HR-3101 Help the cause! post in his I'm Sorry, Say That Again... blog.

January - Get Ready to Push for HR 3101!

2010-01-05T22:08:00.004-05:00

A new year is here, and with it, our last and best chance to push for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (HR 3101)'s passage. Representatives will not be back at work until January 12, but the staff is already back in their offices. Now is the time to contact the Congress staff to ask that their bosses, the Representatives, cosponsor HR 3101.

Operation Get a Republican

One of our greatest needs at the moment, is to get Republican support for HR 3101. Last year, none of the Representatives who cosponsored the previous version of the bill were Republican, and that may have contributed to the bill's failure. Caption Action 2 has been in contact with many Republicans' offices, and we are hopeful that soon, we may have our first Republican cosponsor.

Several staff in Republicans' offices have told Caption Action 2 that they will review the bill and bring it up to the Representatives for consideration. These Republican Representatives' offices have said they will review the bill:

Representative Boehner, John (Ohio) - Note: Boehner leads Republicans in Congress. If we could get Boehner's support, that will really pave the way! Check http://johnboehner.house.gov/District/ to see if you live in his Ohio District.
Representative Broun, Paul (Georgia)
Representative Cole, Tom (Oklahoma) - Note: Cole is the only Native American in Congress.
Representative Davis, Geoff (Kentucky)
Representative Jenkins, Lynn (Kansas)
Representative Posey, Bill (Florida)
Representative Rogers, Mike (Michigan)
Representative Shaddegg, John (Arizona)
Representative Smith, Lamar (Texas)
Representative Tiahrt, Todd (Kansas)
Representative Westmoreland, Lynn (Georgia)
Representative Wilson, Joe (South Carolina)
Representative Wittman, Robert (Virginia)

If any of these are your Representatives, please contact them! Check the updated Congress Staff spreadsheet on the blogroll to the right; we have added DC phone numbers. If other people besides Caption Action 2 contact them, it will improve the chances of their becoming cosponsors!

Just getting the offices to say in writing that they will review the bill is an accomplishment. At least 10,000 bills are introduced in each Congress! THAT's the kind of competition for attention that we face.

Time is Short!

Caption Action 2 has been told by at least one staffer that it could be at least a few weeks before we hear anything from them. That means we may not see new cosponsors until February! We have less than a year, maybe eight months, to get this bill passed in both the House and the Senate. The eight month estimate was arrived at by subtracting holidays, weekends, and Congressional break periods. Add to that the fact that this is an election year for Congress, and we could be dealing with some very distracted Representatives.

Caption Action 2 January Newsletter

Some of the information here has been taken from the January Caption Action 2 newsletter. Read the full newsletter here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/363952

Cosponsor #26 for HR 3101!

2009-12-17T21:14:00.005-05:00

Today we learned that Representative Bob Filner (D-CA) has signed on to HR 3101! Now we have 26 cosponsors for HR 3101, all Democratic though. We STILL need a Republican.

How did Bob Filner come to sign on to HR 3101? Caption Action 2 tracks cosponsors for two other bills in Congress that also benefit deaf and hard of hearing people: the Hearing Aid Tax Credit (HR 1646) and the Medicare Hearing Health Care Enhancement Act (HR 3024). Filner recently signed on to HR 3024, so Jamie called Filner's office to speak to his legislative director about HR 3101. That call was yesterday. Today, Jamie got an email from Filner's office informing her he would be cosponsoring HR 3101 too.

If Jamie can do it, so can you. So let's hit the phones and make those calls! Send those emails as well.