Russell Harvard's Testimony: Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet Committee скачать в хорошем качестве

Russell Harvard's Testimony: Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet Committee

WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF RUSSELL HARVARD ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF AND THE COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS FOR ACCESSIBLE TECHNOLOGY Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation U.S. Senate Innovation and Inclusion: The Americans with Disabilities Act at 20 May 26, 2010 Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Ensign, and Members of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss innovation and inclusion 20 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. My name is Russell Harvard and I am an actor, recently sprouted in the film business and looking forward to growing in my field. I am proud to say I performed the role of Daniel Day Lewis’s son in the double Oscar winning film, There Will Be Blood, and had the privilege of playing the villain in CSI: New York with my friend, Marlee Matlin. I also perform a strong thread of songs in American Sign Language. I am deaf, the third generation of deaf individuals in my family. I am honored to offer my testimony today on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf and the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT). COAT is a coalition of over 300 national, state, and community-based organizations dedicated to making sure that as our nation migrates from legacy telecommunications to more versatile and innovative digital communication technologies, people with disabilities will not be left behind. This coalition’s rapid growth and attraction to organizations across the nation demonstrates the urgency of the issues being discussed at this hearing. COAT works on behalf of over 36 million individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, more than 25 million individuals who are blind or who have vision loss, over 70,000 persons who are both deaf and blind, and millions of individuals with other disabilities who need accessible communications. I join all COAT affiliates in being excited about the promises of new Internet Protocol and digital technologies. Like all consumers, we look forward to the benefits of technological advances. Unfortunately, history has shown that, all too often, people with disabilities have been left out or left behind as these advances have taken place. Typically, it has taken acts of Congress to put us on a level playing field with our hearing and sighted peers. For example, I can remember when our family needed a separate decoder box to receive and display captions on our television sets. Without a requirement for television sets to decode captions, television set manufacturers did not include this feature on their own. When our decoder box got too hot, the captions would flicker, making them hard to read. As a consequence, the family member who got to use the decoder box first was the only one who could really enjoy – and understand – his or her television program. What really sticks out in my mind is not being able to watch any programs shown just before All My Children. My step-mom kept me from watching any television for an hour before that show, so the decoder box would be cool enough to display steady captions for her favorite program! I’m grateful that in 1990, Congress took care of this problem. In that year, not only did you enact the Americans with Disabilities Act, you also enacted the Television Decoder Information about COAT and a list of COAT affiliates is available at http://www.coataccess.org. Circuitry Act, which required all televisions with screens at least 13 inches in size, to receive and display closed captions. The Decoder Act made video programming technology more accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Now we need to take another step forward and make it equally accessible. At the outset, I want to say that, like the “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act” (H.R. 3101), the “Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act” (S. 3304) is a major step forward toward expanding communications protections for people with disabilities. Today I will address the various provisions that concern access to video programming by people who are deaf or hard of hearing. I understand that my colleagues on this panel will address other provisions. Ensuring Accessible Television Programming over the Internet This Subcommittee is all too aware that our television environment moved recently from analog to digital technology. I know that you went to great lengths to make sure that all Americans were aware of this major change in the way we watch television. This move has changed the viewing experience of many Americans. Not only is the digital picture clearer and – I am told – its sound crisper, but more and more, television programming is no longer tethered to what we have come to know as a “television set.”