Letter to the Editor Published in the February 28 Issue of the Staunton News Leader
Filed under: ADA Accessibility and Advocacy, Legislative Updates
Cuts target those residents who have disabilities
February 28, 2010
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to consolidate disability service agencies into the Department of Rehabilitative Services, and thereby saving the commonwealth $0.8 million is a mistake. While the state Association of the Deaf cannot speak for department and VBPD, we can speak for the Va. Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
VDDHH was established by an Act of the General Assembly in 1973 because of a long hard fight by the deaf community for an agency which truly serves our community. VDDHH does just that. There is no other single service agency that understands the needs, the language, the culture and shared history of the deaf community. The quality assurance screening of interpreters performed by VDDHH is excellent, the Virginia Relay Services supervised by VDDHH are among the best in the nation, and the expertise, specialized knowledge and resources of the agency could never be provided by the juggernaut of the DRS, as the governor claims. There is nothing to guarantee services to the deaf community will continue to be available seamlessly through DRS. For the past few years, DRS has been providing services on a tier system, not opening all tiers to all people. We are afraid with this system, services to the deaf community will be spotty at best.
The governor’s proposal claims the savings associated with this consolidation comes from “eliminating the positions of the director from DBVI, DDHH and V.B.P.D., as well as other efficiencies.” It says “there are no deputy directors or clear successor at these agencies to assume the role of leadership and guide the services to the respective consumer groups.” We beg to differ. Ron Lanier has directed VDDHH ably and well for 12 years. The VAD has already written to the governor to reappoint Mr. Lanier.
Consolidating agencies, which serve such a diverse population into the DRS, is going to cost Virginia taxpayers much more than a “savings” of $0.8 million. The VAD is adamantly against this proposal.
Once again, our legislators are targeting a minority population in their hurry and haste to go back to the future.
RACHEL BAVISTER, Staunton
- Thanks to Staunton, VA’s NewsLeader
FCC Announces New Closed Captioning Complaint Procedure
TDI eNotes – February 26, 2010
In this issue:
- FCC ANNOUNCES NEW CLOSED CAPTIONING COMPLAINT PROCEDURE
FCC Announces New Closed Captioning
Complaint Procedure
TDI Editor’s Note:
This action by the FCC is in response to part of TDI’s Petition for Rulemaking regarding captioning quality standards filed on July 23, 2004. The new procedure was first announced by the FCC on November 7, 2008 pending review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which became effective as of February 19, 2010. Thanks to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Northern Virginia Resource Center (NVRC) for their part in sending out this announcement.
Consumers can now file complaints directly with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), thanks to new closed captioning complaint rules by the FCC effective February 19, 2010. These new closed captioning rules, requested by TDI and other consumer groups in 2004, make it easier for consumers to report closed caption problems. When you see a television program that has no captions, missing captions, delayed captions, captions that are garbled, displayed too fast, or unreadable, please file a complaint with the FCC.
Filing Closed Captioning Complaints
Closed captioning complaints must be filed within 60 days of the captioning problem.
File your complaint with the FCC. The FCC will send your complaint to your video programming distributor (the TV station or your cable or satellite TV service). The distributor must respond to your complaint within 30 days.
Online
You can file your complaint by using the FCC’s online Disability Access Complaint Form #2000C at https://esupport.fcc.gov/sform2000/formC!input.action?form_page=2000C
**TDI Editor’s Note:
Disability Access Complaint Form 2000C on the FCC’s website erroneously states that if your complaint is about closed captioning, you must first contact the station or video programming distributor. Cheryl Heppner at NVRC corresponded with the staff at the Disability Rights Office in the FCC who assured us that, in accordance with the new rules, the FCC will accept this web form without your first trying to contact the video programming distributor. The form will be changed shortly, but in the meantime, contacting the station is not required.
File your complaint by email to fccinfo@fcc.gov
Fax
Fax your written complaint to 1-866-418-0232
Letter
Mail your complaint letter to:
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554
For more information:
Click here at http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm?sid=&id=d1e3 for more information about filing complaints, or call the FCC for assistance, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (eastern time), at 1-888-225-5322 or 1-888-835-5322 TTY.
See the Closed Captioning Factsheet for more information about closed captioning athttp://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/closedcaption.html.
OR
You may file your complaint with the video programming distributor (the TV station or your cable or satellite TV service). The distributor must respond to your complaint within 30 days. If the distributor cannot solve the problem, or you are not satisfied with the response you receive (or if you receive no response), you can send your complaint to the FCC.
New Contact Information Requirements
The FCC also adopted new rules requiring video programming distributors to make their contact information available to consumers. Specifically, video programming distributors are required to make two kinds of contact information available:
- Contact information for the receipt and handling of immediate closed captioning concerns by consumers, such as when captions suddenly disappear or become garbled while watching a program.
- Contact information for written closed captioning complaints.
This contact information must be provided:
- on the video programming distributor’s website
- in billing statements (when billing statements are issued), and
- when extended listings are published in telephone directories.
Video programming distributors must provide this contact information to the FCC by March 22, 2010. The FCC will publish a Public Notice when this contact information is available in a searchable database on the FCC website. This contact information will also be available by calling the FCC call the FCC for assistance, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (eastern time), at 1-888-225-5322 or 1-888-835-5322 TTY.
2010 Elections: How budget cuts impact people with disabilities
By Michael Carrasco, DC Disability Examiner, 2/23/10
There is a lot of debate going down in Richmond, Virginia. The General Assembly has passed the mid-point of their 60 day session and the Governor has presented state lawmakers with his recommendations to the state budget. Many disability organizations and advocates have been concerned about what Governor McDonnell would do considering as the Attorney General for Virginia he submitted an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court trying to undermine the civil rights of persons with disabilities.
Many disability activists are concerned that these recommendations are a way to dismantle the few services that Virginia provides. Hisrecommendations include:
• Eliminating coverage of consumer directed personal/respite/companion care services. Covered by Virginia’s Medicaid waivers. This removes the independence those with disabilities have in being able to independent hire and fire their care attendants. With this gone, this leaves those with disabilities with the options of going into a institution or having agencies provide their care givers, which with care giver demands, is going to be difficult to accommodate.
• Starting July 1, 2010 freezing new enrollment in FAMIS (the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security) program. This is the insurance safety net that covers children and pregnant women and the Governor’s office estimates that over 28,000 Virginians will not be enrolled when the freeze takes effect!
• Reduces some Medicaid waiver services provided individuals on the Intellectual Disabilities, Individual and Family Developmental Disabilities Support, Elderly or Disabled with Consumer Direction, HIV/AIDS and Technology Assisted Medicaid waivers.
• Eliminates 4 state disability service agencies and incorporates their responsibilities into one already existing agency. The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired, the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the state’s developmental disability council, the Virginia Board for Persons’ with Disabilities are all to be consolidated into the Department of Rehabilitative Services, who will provide the services that these agencies did.
- Thanks to NVRC, Fairfax
Video Tour at NAD
See Part 1 and 2:
http://ideafnews.com/new/
- Thanks to NC
Resources: Classroom Acoustic Handouts for Parents, Workplace Accommodations
Filed under: ADA Accessibility and Advocacy, Education, Employment Assistance
The Access Board produced 5 handouts on classroom acoustics for parents; you can see them online at http://www.quietclassrooms.org/ada/ada.htm. There are also printed copies available in Spanish.
Workplace accommodations under title 1 (and 2) can include assistive listening systems. See more detail at http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/about/bulletins/als-index.htm and http://www.access-board.gov/research/interference.htm. Assembly areas that provide amplification are required to install ALS.
The Access Board is also working on referencing S12.60-2002 in the International Building Code. This would provide for much-needed local enforcement and would facilitate (via harmonization) inclusion in the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG).
- Thanks to Lois Thibault, US Access Board and NVRC, Fairfax
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