	December 1994

Universal Access to Telecommunications Networks

During the last Congress two bills which included telecommunications accessibility language were introduced: HR 3626 (The Antitrust Reform Act of 1993) and SB 1822 (The Communications Act of 1994). Unfortunately, neither one of these bills passed, however, they do foreshadow things to come in the 104th Congress.

HR 3626 contained access language which was agreed upon by the consortium for Citizens with Disabilities and the seven regional bell telephone companies. The Bell companies agreed to make their network services accessible and manufacture accessible telecommunications equipment unless it would create an undue burden. If the manufacturing requirement created an undue burden, the Bell companies agreed to manufacture equipment which would be compatible with existing adaptive telecommunications.

SB 1822 took the next step by expanding the network services accessibility requirement to all providers of telecommunications services (not just the Bells). In testimony before the Senate, Paul Schroder (now with the American Foundation for the Blind in Chicago), emphasized the importance of "universal design," that telecommunications networks and equipment must offer input and output in multiple modes including audio, visual and tactile, and text.

These issues of telecommunications network and equipment access, in addition to advocacy promoting the universality of closed captioning and audio description of video programming will be on the agenda in the next Congress. The disability community will be working on these issues to insure that telecommunications is accessible to all Americans.


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