Republicans accuse Markey of rigging hearing for the disabled

Tempers flared during a Thursday hearing on a bill to make the latest technologies more accessible to the deaf and blind, with Republicans accusing Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) of rigging the discussion to favor people with disabilities.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the ranking member of a House subpanel on communications, technology and the Internet, honed in on a witness lineup that featured Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro and Jesse Acosta, a retired army sergeant major who lost his vision serving in war.

"The gentleman from Massachusetts is setting up a war hero against a person who is the CEO of an association,” said Stearns during a hearing on Markey's Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009.

Pressing further on the issue, Stearns said, “You’ve got to be very careful not to move on an emotional basis. Creating an emotional setup between a CEO and a war hero isn’t the way to do it.”

Echoing the complaint, Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) accused Markey of “intimidation” after he invited Acosta to directly address Shapiro.

“Mr. Shapiro, you just saw how the new tone in Washington is,” Terry said.

Markey’s bill updates technology requirements so that consumer electronics are accessible for people with disabilities. For instance, the legislation would ensure the availability of closed captioning on the latest devices and bring captions to online video.  

Industry heads and advocates for the blind and deaf split over whether the legislation is ready to move ahead, with CTIA executive vice president Bob Franklin and U.S. Telecom President Walt McCormick pushing for changes to it. 

Acosta said the bill is “urgently” needed, while Shapiro said it could create onerous requirements for start-ups.


“You cannot require every new technology to be responsive to every disability,” Shapiro said.

Markey blasted that characterization of the bill, citing exceptions in the measure for companies that cannot meet the requirement.

He also panned an editorial from Shapiro published in yesterday’s Washington Times called Dems Want to Redesign your iPhone, which he said was deceptive for failing to highlight the key exceptions in his bill.