Rhode Island Chapter of Alexander Graham Bell Association

RIAGBELL has provided these causes to help deaf and hard of hearing people.

This cause list has been generated through suggestions, and is not in any order, and does not constitute an endorsement or sponsorship by RIAGBELL. To suggest a cause please contact us at riagbell@yahoo.com.

Table of Contents for Legal & Advocacy Page

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[Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act - H.R. 2329/S. 1410]   

[The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008 - H.R. 6320]

[ADA Amendments Act]   [Airpot Access Article]

• If this bill passes, it would require insurance companies to cover the cost of surgery for a cochlear implant.
• Please, contact your local representative and senator and urge them to push for this bill!
• Senate: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/SenEmailListDistrict.asp
• House: http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Email/RepEmailListDistrict.asp
• To see the current language of the bill, click here.

•  Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act – H.R. 2329/S. 1410

  • You most likely know someone who has a hearing loss. Whether it affects a relative, child, friend or co-worker, or even yourself, hearing loss is a prevalent and often neglected concern. Hearing loss affects over 30 million Americans or 1 in every 10 people; in fact, it's the second most common birth defect. Despite these staggering numbers and the fact that hearing aids could treat 95% of all hearing loss, Medicare and most insurance policies expressly exclude coverage, making treatment an expensive endeavor. The Hearing Aid Tax Credit (H.R. 2329 and S. 1410) is legislation drafted with these real concerns in mind. If enacted, it would provide a $500 tax credit per hearing aid available once every 5 years for dependents and for those aged 55 and older. 
  • With an average cost of $1,800 including fitting and follow-up, hearing aid treatment can result in unexpectedly high costs for the average American. The tax credit would help millions of people seeking hearing aid treatment since $500 can make the difference when deciding whether you can afford treatment. The tax credit has wide bi-partisan support, is supported by nearly every hearing health organization and advocacy group, and addresses a real and too often ignored healthcare need. Your support is needed, however, to let your Senators and Representative know that the Hearing Aid Tax Credit would make a real difference in your life.
  • So please, contact your Congressmen and tell them how the Hearing Aid Tax Credit could help you!
  • Visit www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org

• ADA Amendments Act
  
  • Last week, 300 leading activists from 21 states participated in a conference call with Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Andy Imparato from the American Association of People with Disabilities on the current status of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments Act. The ADA Amendments Act seeks to re-establish coverage of individuals whom Congress originally intended to protect from discrimination by amending the definition of the term "disability."  AG Bell Chapter leaders were invited to participate on the call. AG Bell has been working diligently with other leading hearing loss organizations to make sure the interests of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing are addressed in the new legislation. Now we need your help to continue to urge Congress to pass this legislation! 
    
  • Senators will be in their respective home states for the next three to four weeks. For more information on the ADA Amendments Act and what you can do to get involved, visit the Three Things You Can Do to Restore the ADA. For more information on ADA, click here.

• The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008 – H.R. 6320
  • The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act is being
    introduced in the House of Representatives with bipartisan
    sponsorship by Ed Markey (D-MA) and Heather Wilson (R-NM). Hearing
    Loss Association of American is one of over 200 organizations that
    is part of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology
    (COAT).
  • A SUMMARY OF HR6320
    • COMMUNICATIONS ACCESS
      
      ľ Requires access to phone-type equipment and services used
      over the Internet
      
      Current law: Section 255 of the Communications Act only requires
      access to telecommunications product and services
      
      ľ Adds improved accountability and enforcement measures for
      accessibility, including a clearinghouse, outreach, and reporting
      obligations by providers and manufacturers
      
      ľ Requires phone-type products used with the Internet to be
      hearing aid compatible (HAC)
      
      Current law: HAC is required on all wireline and many wireless
      phones
      
      ľ Allows use of Lifeline and Link-up universal service funds
      (USF) for broadband services
      
      Current law: Discounts are only available for products, services on
      telephone network
      
      ľ Allocates up to $10 million/year from USF for equipment used
      by people who are deaf-blind
      
      ľ Requires support for real-time text data transmissions to
      facilitate access to next generation 9-1-1 systems by people with
      hearing loss
      
      ľ Clarifies scope of relay services to include calls between
      and among people with disabilities and requires Internet-enabled
      service providers to contribute to the interstate relay fund
      
      Current law: interpreted by FCC to only cover calls between people
      with disabilities and people without disabilities; only PSTN-based
      and VoIP service providers must contribute
      
      
    • VIDEO PROGRAMMING ACCESS
      
      ľ Requires closed captioning decoder circuitry in all video
      programming devices, including PDAs, computers, iPods, cell phones,
      DVD players, TIVO devices and battery-operated TVs
      
      Current law: Decoder circuitry is only required on TVs with screens
      at least 13 inches
      
      ľ Extends closed captioning obligations to television-type
      video programming distributed over the Internet: covers web-based
      video services that offer previously shown television programs and
      live video streaming that would otherwise be covered by the FCC¡¦s
      captioning rules
      
      Current law: Closed captions required on most televised analog and
      digital broadcast, cable and satellite TV shows
      
      ľ Requires easy access to user interfaces (controls) on video
      programming devices by people with disabilities, including audio
      output for people who are blind and visually impaired and one-button
      access on remote controls to closed captioning and video description
      functions
      
      ƒæ Restores FCC¡¦s video description rules and applies them to
      digital programming
      
      ľ Requires access to televised emergency information via audio
      output for on-screen text by people who are blind or visually
      impaired
      
      ľ Requires audio access to on-screen program selection menus
      displayed on video programming devices for people who are blind or
      visually impaired
  • Call or fax today to encourage your member of Congress to become a
    sponsor of this bill.
    
    The top priority is to get the support of members of the House
    Committee on Energy and Commerce, which must be the first to pass
    the bill. Your calls and faxes are needed! The official list of
    committee members is at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/membios/110fullmship.shtml
    
    

• Airport Access Article
• DOT hears criticism of rights plan for deaf flyers
  By Andrew Compart, Travel Weekly
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Editor: A while ago we published a story about proposed rules by
  the Department of Transportation that would greatly improve
  access to information by air travelers with hearing loss. As you
  might expect the airlines aren't crazy about having to implement
  these proposals. The following story has the latest on this
  situation. It originally appeared in Travel Weekly and is shared
  here with their kind permission.
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  A multiyear effort at the Transportation Department to create a
  consensus on rights for deaf and hearing-impaired air travelers
  is coming apart, with airlines blasting a DOT proposal supported
  by the community's advocates.
  
  The criticism concerns a DOT notice of proposed rulemaking in
  February to create numerous requirements for airlines, including
  giving deaf and hearing-impaired travelers "prompt" access to
  the same information provided to other passengers.
  
  Among other things, that would mean providing captioning on
  televisions and other audiovisual systems on airline-owned,
  -leased or -controlled property at U.S. airports and providing
  captioning for in-flight safety, informational and entertainment
  content on new aircraft.
  
  The proposed rules also would require airlines to train
  employees to communicate with hearing-impaired individuals.
  
  The rules would apply not only to U.S. carriers but also foreign
  carriers for flights that land or take off from a U.S. airport.
  
  Advocates for the hearing-impaired were thrilled with most of
  the proposals.
  
  "Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals have been excluded from
  air travel services and information for too many years," Kelby
  Brick, director of law and advocacy for the National Association
  of the Deaf, said when the DOT issued its proposal.
  
  But in comments filed with the DOT last month, the Airline
  Transport Association accused the DOT of overstepping its bounds in the proposal. It said the Air Carrier Access Act requires
  only that airlines provide nondiscriminatory access to air
  travel, not to every aspect of air travel.
  
  "The DOT has conflated civil rights with customer service
  matters that it should leave to the competitive marketplace to
  address," the ATA said.
  
  The ATA also argued that the proposal "involves significant
  costs that impose an undue burden on airlines." Both the ATA and
  the Regional Airline Association claimed that the DOT
  underestimated the costs and overestimated the benefits. The
  National Air Carrier Association expressed the same concerns.
  
  Foreign airlines also almost unanimously opposed the proposal,
  arguing that the U.S. did not have the authority to apply the
  rules to their flights and that the requirements could put them
  in conflict with disabled traveler rules in their home
  countries.
  
  That's the same argument those carriers made about a DOT
  proposal, still under consideration, to expand existing
  disabled-traveler rules for U.S. airlines to foreign airline
  flights that use U.S. airports.
  
  The DOT issued that notice of proposed rulemaking in November
  2004, in response to an amendment to the ACAA that prohibits
  foreign air carrier discrimination against disabled travelers.
  
  Groups representing the hearing-impaired have been pushing for
  air travel rules for more than a decade. They moved closer to
  their goal in August 2002 when the DOT asked the National
  Council on Disability, an independent federal agency, to submit
  a proposal to improve air travel access for deaf,
  hearing-impaired and deaf-blind travelers.
  
  The NCD quickly assembled a working group that included
  representatives of hearing-impaired communities, airports and
  airlines.
  
  But the airlines were never persuaded that government regulation
  was the way to improve the services. Those objections were made
  even more clear when the airlines filed their comments to the
  DOT last month.
  
  The ATA emphasized that the DOT "should not consider our active participation in the work group as an endorsement of the
  petition."
  
  Copyright 2006 Travel Weekly, Reprinted with Permission