June 2012 Technology and Disability Policy Highlights

This month, President Barak Obama issued an Executive Order, “Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment,” which emphasizes that access to broadband is essential to the United States’. The Order establishes a working group which is tasked to “develop and implement a strategy to facilitate the timely and efficient deployment of broadband facilities” on federal properties. 

Judge Michael Ponsor of the District Court of Massachusetts rejected the motion to dismiss the court case against Netflix for failing to provide closed captions on most of its “Watch Instantly” programming streamed on the Internet.  Netflix argued that the case should be dismissed on the grounds that the ADA does not apply to web-only businesses and that the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) “’carves out’ all video programming streamed over the Internet as separate from the ADA.”

In the regulatory arena, the FCC issued a Consumer Guide outlining rules “adopted to implement the video description provisions of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA),” which became effective July 1, 2012.

*The above is an overview of this month's issue.  To access the full content, please view either of the attachments below.