Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990
The
Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990
mandated that all new television sets built after July 1, 1993
for sale in the United States and having a screen 13 inches or larger
must include caption-decoding technology.
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed to
ensure equal opportunity for persons with disabilities. The ADA prohibits
discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, State
and local government services, businesses that are public accommodations
or commercial facilities, and in transportation. Title III of the ADA
requires that public facilities, such as hospitals, bars, shopping centers
and museums (but not movie theaters), provide access to verbal information
on televisions, films or slide shows. Captioning is considered one way
of making such information available to people who are deaf or hard
of hearing. Title IV of the ADA mandates the establishment of telephone
relay services for people who use TTY's (teletypewriters). More information
is available at www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/.
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The U.S. Congress included television captioning requirements
in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act requires that video programming
be closed captioned, regardless of distribution technology (i.e., broadcast,
cable, satellite), to ensure access for persons who are deaf or hard of
hearing. Some exemptions were included to prevent undue economic burdens.
To implement the closed captioning requirements included in the Act, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established rules and implementation
schedules for the captioning of television programming. The complete set
of rules is available at www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/ccrules.html.
Additional consumer information is available from the FCC at
www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/closedcaption.html.
Rehabilitation Act - Section 508 Accessibility
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as strengthened
by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 requires that Federal agencies
make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to
people with disabilities, including employees and the general public.
The requirements of Section 508 apply to an agency's procurement of
EIT, as well as to the agency's development, maintenance or use of EIT.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions that
support the agency's mission, regardless of format, must be open or
closed captioned if they contain speech or other audio information necessary
for the comprehension of the content. All training and informational
video and multimedia productions that support the agency's mission,
regardless of format, must include an audible description of the video
content if they contain visual information necessary for the comprehension
of the content. Visit the Section 508 web site
www.section508.gov
for more information.
