Digital Disability Access Bill Passes Senate

On Sept 22, the Senate passed the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (S. 3828), a bill that updates disability access to communications services elements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

The bill takes a number of steps to update the Telecommunications Act disability access provisions to reflect the rise of broadband, including reinstating the FCC's video description rules, which were tossed by a court in 1992, and applying closed captioning rules to online video as well as TV. A similar measure already passed in the House.