Disability Rights Groups ask FCC for Emergency Stay on Closed Captioning Ruling

DISABILITY RIGHTS GROUPS ASK FCC FOR EMERGENCY STAY ON CLOSED CAPTIONING RULING
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC 10/15, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Seven leading disability advocates have asked the Federal Communications Commission to set aside a recent move making it easier for non-profit TV broadcasters to avoid providing closed-captioning for the deaf. The FCC "departed from long practice and improperly established a new class of programming that is exempt from the closed captioning requirements without proper notice and comment," charge the groups in a emergency stay petition filed on October 12th. They include the National Association for the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America, and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). In mid-September the Commission gave closed captioning exemptions to two religious broadcasters. Both groups claimed that providing on-screen video text, which allows people with hearing disabilities to follow television programs, represented an excessive financial hardship. The FCC granted the waivers, but went further, noting that in future cases if a non-profit demonstrates that it receives no compensation from video program distributors and that "in the absence of an exemption, may terminate or substantially curtail its programming," the FCC will expedite a closed captioning exemption request. Since then the Commission has been faced with an uproar of protest from accessibility rights organizations.
http://lasarletter.com/freepage.php?id=200610151