Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology

For Immediate Release
March, 2008

Contacts:
Rosaline Crawford (NAD) 301-587-1789
Karen Peltz Strauss (CSD) 202-363-1263
Jamie Pope (AADP) (301) 495-4403

COAT Applauds NARUC Resolution Supporting Equal Access to Communications Technologies

Washington, D.C. – The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) applauds the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) for passing a "Resolution to Support Equal Access to Communication Technologies by People with Disabilities in the 21st Century." NARUC’s resolution generally supports the COAT legislative agenda and specifically endorses two proposals involving the nation’s Universal Service Fund (USF).

“NARUC was among the first groups to recognize the need for access by people with disabilities to the public phone network in the 1980s, when it filed the very first petition to get the FCC to approve interstate telecommunications relay services,” says Karen Peltz Strauss of Communication Service for the Deaf, “We’re thrilled that NARUC has continued to recognize the importance of accessibility through its support for these new proposals.”

The first proposal allows the Link-Up and Lifeline Assistance phone discount to be applied to the cost of broadband service for individuals who rely on video communications over the Internet.

“The ability for low income eligible consumers to apply their Lifeline and Link-up discounts to broadband service would give people who communicate primarily in sign language the opportunity to apply these subsidies to a form of phone service that better meets their needs,” said Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf. “Right now, eligible consumers can only use these discounts for regular wireline voice phone services but video phone service, preferred by many people with disabilities, requires a broadband connection.”

The second proposal would create a small set-aside of funds from the USF to help pay for the cost of specialized telecommunications equipment for about 70,000 eligible persons who are deaf-blind. “With this new program, America’s deaf-blind population will have the same universal phone service everyone else takes for granted,” says Jamie Pope, at the American Association of the Deaf-Blind. She adds, “These funds will also act as an incentive to the manufacturers of specialized devices to make the equipment we need to call our loved ones, secure and maintain employment, and be active participants in American society.”

NARUC is the trade association that represents state public service commissioners who regulate utility services such as electricity, gas, telecommunications, water, and transportation, throughout the country. As regulators, NARUC members are charged with protecting the public and ensuring that rates charged by regulated utilities are fair, just, and reasonable.

The NARUC resolution.

The COAT-endorsed draft legislation.

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, or COAT, launched in March 2007, is a coalition of organizations, that advocates for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. COAT consists of over 175 national, regional, state, and community-based affiliates dedicated to making sure that as the nation migrates from legacy public switched-based telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with disabilities will benefit like everyone else. Support for COAT’s agenda includes International Friends of COAT who realize that what happens in the U.S. to impact disability often benefits the more than 650 million people with disabilities worldwide.

More information about this dynamic coalition is available at the COAT website or write to COAT, c/o American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), 1629 K Street N.W., Washington, DC 20006.

AAPD is a steering committee and founding member of COAT.