disabilities

April 19, 2013 — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered a settlement agreement with the City of Jacksonville, Florida in April. The DOJ Project Civic Access initiative is a wide-ranging effort to ensure that communities comply with the ADA by eliminating physical and communication barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in community life. The DOJ evaluated 64 of the city’s facilities and identified deficiencies at each location.

April 08, 2013— The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) released a Report and Order and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) (FCC 13-45) related to the accessibility of emergency information provided in video programming. The Report and Order requires that emergency information communicated via video programming is accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. This includes the requirement of an aural presentation of the emergency information on a secondary audio stream that must be conveyed at least twice in full.

April 2013 — The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Department of Education released a Notice [FR Doc No: 2013-07879] of the publication of the final Long-Range Plan for Fiscal years 2013-2017 for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

March 2013 — The next Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) meeting will be held at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) headquarters on June 14, 2013 from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM (EST). The EAAC is an advisory committee established on December 7, 2010 under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) that focuses on evaluating and determining the most effective technologies that enable individuals with disabilities access to Next Generation 911 (NG 9-1-1).

February 28, 2013— The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy launched the new Federal Social Media Accessibility Working Group whose initiative is to evaluate and provide solutions for overcoming the challenges of accessibility of social media platforms and the content posted on same. The first resource developed and released by the working group is an evolving toolkit that provides guidance and baseline standards for agencies and companies to ensure their social content is accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities.