Lawmakers begin push to extend Internet services to disabled

Lawmakers want to put legislation helping the deaf communicate with speakers at the other end of an iPhone and providing closed captioning for videos on websites like Hulu on the fast track.

At a hearing Wednesday on a bill meant to extend Internet services to the disabled, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he aimed to win congressional approval by the end of the year.

Kerry’s bill would give a number of new requirements for the Federal Communications Commission to impose on various technologies. It is meant to update the Americans with Disabilities Act so that the latest technologies are in line with that bill’s fundamentals.

“Delay is unacceptable,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who introduced the bill in the House and testified before the Kerry’s Senate Commerce communications subcommittee on Wednesday.

Markey said 40 percent of those who do not have broadband Internet have a disability, reflecting the need to update laws to ensure all people have access to new technologies.

Quick passage could be a challenge, given industry concerns about parts of the bill.

Walter McCormick, the president of US Telecom, pointed to definitions in the House and Senate bills he saw as problematic. Others have raised questions about the cost of implementing the bill.

Markey pushed back against some of those arguments Wednesday, saying the cost of closed-captioning was overestimated by 20-fold when this service was first mandated for television.

The bills would bring the two-decade-old Americans with Disabilities Act in line with new technologies, such as ensuring that closed captioning is available for online video.

The effort to change the disabilities law could also give a preview of upcoming battles over a wider communications law revamp, Kerry said, providing “an interesting case study for how [stakeholders] are going to approach” the process.