Digital Accessibility and Disability Rights: A Legislative History
By: Maya Chandrakasan
On July 26th 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act — known as the ADA — was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. Today as we celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the passage of this groundbreaking act, I’ll be writing about why Senator Markey’s record on and advocacy for people with disabilities is so important and how he will continue to lead on these vital issues in the future.
For the past few summers, I have worked on digital accessibility projects for Perkins School for the Blind. Before I started, I hadn’t really thought about accessibility beyond a general lack of ramps and elevators in public spaces and was subsequently shocked to discover how inaccessible so many aspects of life were for people living with disabilities — especially life in the digital world. If not designed properly, messaging services can be inaccessible to use with a screen reader for people with visual impairments, flashing ads on websites can cause seizures for people with conditions like epilepsy, color-coded graphics without text can confuse those who are colorblind, and people who are hard of hearing are unable to watch video programming without closed captioning.
These are just a few examples of the struggles that people with disabilities experience with technology everyday. Recognizing these challenges, Senator Markey introduced the 21st century Communications and Video and Accessibility Act (CVAA) in 2010 to take 1990s-era accessibility laws and update them to be on par with the technologies of today.
Some notable provisions of this legislation include:
- Requires videos to be closed captioned
- Requires advanced communications services and products to be accessible by people with disabilities
- Requires access to web browsers on mobile devices by people who are blind or visually impaired
- Applies the hearing aid compatibility mandates to telephone-like equipment used with advanced communications services.
- Directs the allocation of up to $10 million per year from the Interstate TRS Fund for the distribution of specialized equipment to low-income people who are deaf-blind, to enable these individuals to access telecommunications service, Internet access service, and advanced communications.
More recently, Senator Markey has led on the Disabilities Education Act — building on the 1990s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) — which he reintroduced in October 2019 that ensures students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind receive the proper educational accommodations and services they need to succeed. He will continue to fight to pass this bill and fully fund these services.
In addition, Senator Markey will fight for Medicare for All to ensure that comprehensive healthcare needs like hearing aids, eyeglasses, essential assistive technologies, and long term supports and services (like home care and living assistants) will be covered under a single-payer system to help low income people living with disabilities afford the rising costs of healthcare services.
Other areas of his advocacy include fighting against the discriminatory ADA Education and Reform Act, pushing for accessible prescription drug label information for the visually impaired, and cosponsoring the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act to make air travel more manageable for people with disabilities.
We’ve made an extraordinary amount of progress when it comes to disability rights over the years but not nearly enough to level the playing field. As a member of the subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Senator Markey will continue to push for digital accessibility and an inclusive internet policy; he’ll fight for affordable home care and assistive technologies; he’ll push for funding and accommodations to help kids and educators with disabilities navigate school systems.
But what ultimately makes Ed so unique is that he has shown he will not only address disability rights directly, but that he will keep accessibility in mind when advocating for sweeping and transformative changes like those called for in the Green New Deal — which explicitly mentions disability rights. Senator Markey’s unwavering commitment to listening and legislating to meet the needs of those with disabilities is a testament to his character.
For those of us who do not live with a disability, it’s easy to overlook the day to day struggles that people who do live with one face — I know I certainly did — but Ed consistently centers these struggles in his legislation. He has made sure to apply an inclusive lens from the big fights on environmental legislation, to smaller — but nonetheless non-trivial — fights on prescription drugs labeling to make sure that no one gets left behind.
If we send him back to the Senate, Senator Markey will not only pass robust policy related to disability rights but make sure that accessibility is a priority in all legislation to build an inclusive society for all.
