Disability Coalition Reports Problems in Digital Television Transition

DISABILITY COALITION REPORTS PROBLEMS IN DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology]
The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) made a formal report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week about some of the problems that the transition to digital television poses for people with disabilities. COAT responded to the FCC's solicitation this summer for comments in a routine review of rules and policies affecting the conversion to digital television. Analog television transmission will end on February 17, 2009, when digital transmission should be fully implemented. "There are some real mess-ups with passing through closed captions during this transition," says Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), a leading coalition affiliate. "Our members tell us about cable converter boxes not working and about captions that 'slide off the TV screen,' are garbled, or are somehow lost in transmission. In one case, the cable company had to bring out three different converter boxes to the subscriber's home before the closed caption function could be located and captions could be displayed with the TV program."
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