[Senate Report 111-386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
111th Congress
2d Session SENATE Report
111-386
_______________________________________________________________________
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY
ACT OF 2010
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
on
S. 3304
December 22, 2010.--Ordered to be printed
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
one hundred eleventh congress
second session
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman
DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas
JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine
BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey GEORGE S. LeMIEUX, Florida
MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas
TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
MARK WARNER, Virginia
MARK BEGICH, Alaska
Ellen Doneski, Staff Director
James Reid, Deputy Staff Director
Bruce Andrews, General Counsel
Ann Begeman, Republican Staff Director
Brian Hendricks, Republican General Counsel
Todd Bertoson, Republican Senior Counsel
111th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 111-386
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TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY ACT OF 2010
_______
December 22, 2010.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Rockefeller, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 3304]
The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to
which was referred the bill (S. 3304), to ensure that
individuals with disabilities have access to emerging Internet
Protocol-based communication and video programming technologies
in the 21st century, having considered the same, reports
favorably thereon with an amendment (in the nature of a
substitute) and recommends that the bill (as amended) do pass.
Purpose of the Bill
The purpose of S. 3304 is to update the communications laws
to help ensure that individuals with disabilities are able to
fully utilize communications services and equipment and better
access video programming.
Background and Needs
Although Congress has previously acted to ensure access to
communications devices by people with disabilities, these laws
were last updated in 1996. Since that time, the communications
marketplace has undergone a fundamental transformation, driven
by growth in broadband. Internet-based and digital technologies
are now pervasive, offering innovative and exciting ways to
communicate and share information.
Through increased mobility and the use of data, the benefits
of modern technology have profoundly altered our everyday
lives, streamlining tasks and allowing mobile access to the
Internet and a diverse menu of applications and services. Smart
phones, global positioning systems (GPS), and video
conferencing are but a few of the many technologies that
Americans rely on daily. Many of these advances have improved
the communications capabilities of individuals with
disabilities. Nevertheless, the extraordinary benefits of these
technological advances are sometimes not accessible to
individuals with disabilities.
Various studies have found that people with disabilities
suffer disproportionately higher rates of unemployment and
poverty than those without disabilities. For example, in 2008,
only 40 percent of working-age people with disabilities were
employed, while almost 80 percent of those without disabilities
were working.\1\ If certain current and emerging technologies
are not accessible to the disabled community, this economic
disparity may increase. Enhanced accessibility could help
diminish this economic divide.
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\1\ See, e.g., Cornell University, 2008 Disabilities Status Report-
United States, Rehabilitation and Training Center on Disability
Demographics and Statistics, p.32 (online at http://
www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/disabilitystatistics/).
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Elderly Americans are also affected by this measure. The
number of people over age 65 living in the United States is
approximately 40 million, or 13 percent of the total
population. One estimate shows that by 2050, that number is
expected to increase to 88.5 million, or an estimated 20
percent of the population.\2\ This growth may be accompanied by
a jump in the number of Americans with vision and hearing
impairments who will need accessible communications products
and services.
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\2\ United States Census Bureau, The Next Four Decades-The Older
Population in the United States: 2010-2050 (May 2010) (online at
www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p25-1138.pdf).
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Access to communications devices and video programming is
also important to American service members, especially those
injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Current studies indicate that
13 percent of combat troops wounded in hostile operations
sustain penetrating eye trauma resulting in vision impairment.
Additionally, between 12 percent and 20 percent of deployed
forces have traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 64 percent of
service members who suffer TBI test positive for visual
dysfunction.\3\ Finally, 58,000 veterans have reported ringing
in their ears after returning from deployment to Iraq or
Afghanistan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
reports that hearing loss will affect 800,000 veterans by
2011.\4\
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\3\ Geoffrey Ling et al., Explosive Blast Neurotrauma, Journal of
Neurotrauma (June 2009).
\4\ Army Times, War is Hell-On Your Hearing (Apr. 24, 2010) (online
at www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/offduty