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News Notes From The American Council of the Blind
June 2003* Video Description survives big attack in U. S. Senate!
thanks to the great advocacy of ACB members and many many other friends of video description, the restoration of the DVS rule remains a part of the committee bill to reauthorize the FCC. The compelling fairness of our cause and the voice of our people were heard loud and clear in the Senate; despite active opposition from MPAA and some of their associates.
An amendment was added to make video description restoration more attractive to all blindness organizations. This amendment requires the FCC after reinstating the DVS rule, to undertake a serious review of voicing scripted text crawlers and other printed information to the screen. The review would be to determine the extent to which such additional accessibility would be feasible from an economic, technological and public interest point of view. Such a review would in fact be a good thing to once and for all deal with whether the additional access is really possible or necessary beyond the requirements of the original rule and could be done without interference with video description of programming.
Our deepest gratitude goes out to all who made the calls and sent the emails, faxes, and letters. We ask that you continue to stay in touch with your Senators to insure they know you appreciate their efforts and vote in favor of restoring video description once the bill works it's way to the floor. the next challenge is the House of Representatives and with the determination we used with the Senate on our side, let's go for it!
* Big surprise in store for Banquet goers at ACB convention!
What? Charlie Crawford cooking the meal? Let's not get too wild about all of this eh? We do however have something that will make the evening just a thrill especially if there is anyone a century old coming out for our big end of convention event! Curious? You'll love it!
* Project Action helps disabled transit riders and peds!
ACB Executive director Charlie Crawford and Pedestrian Coordinator Phil Strong spent two days at the steering committee meeting of Easter Seal's Project Action where they worked to advance our interests. These included better bus stop design and location with accessibility in mind, better rural transportation and information access to what is available, and closing the gap between when folks need to request and when they get paratransit. We are pleased to report we were very successful and there will most likely be good funding for activities to achieve these goals.
* ACB puts transportation issues on Congressional road map.
this was a good week for our agenda in transportation. We've had some real success with key people in Congress in educating them to our issues and we have every reason to be optimistic about the outcomes.
In a related story to hill issues, We are very pleased with the Senate version of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA,) which has all the major pieces we have been talking about in our education white paper and we congratulate Melanie and Krista for all the work they and all of our friends have done on this!
to tell the truth, if everything continues the way it is going in congress, our legislative education goals will have surely experienced a banner year! Thanks to all for everything you do and for the caring you put into your great efforts. We are all uplifted by the spirit and giving of all ACB members and friends.
* Hotels barking up the wrong tree with ACB!
Guide dogs should have something to wag about this week! Not only did we see GDUI up to visit with Bush Administration departments, but we have been made aware of two ACB submitted guide dog-hotel discrimination complaints about to be resolved. We need to keep it all under the rug until the ink is dry and the rights of dogs and handlers are preserved in ways that are truly effective, but progress is surely being made for guide dogs and their handlers everywhere.
* News notes to take a week off.
Now what could delay news notes? Wedding bells are about to ring! She's a wonderful girl and he of course is the pride of the family! It will be truly marvelous, but don't know if going from the wedding right on to the convention will allow any time for doing up the news.
News notes is a compilation of the highlights of the events of the preceding week and is not intended to provide a comprehensive listing of all activities, or treatment of the topics mentioned. For information and more detailed treatment of especially legislative concerns, call the Washington Connection at 800-424-8666 nights and weekends eastern time. Be sure to read the Braille Forum each month and check in with the ACB web site and radio respectively.
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