Last month the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrated its 23rd anniversary. Former Congressman Tony Coelho, primary author and sponsor of the ADA, was hoping the Senate would celebrate the anniversary by taking a step closer to making information and communications technologies more accessible to persons with disabilities. That hasn’t happened.
In June, Coelho moderated a Senate briefing on “The Impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on Global Commerce and the International Accessibility Eco-System”. The briefing included more than 200 representatives from government, the tech industry, academia, and the disability community. Among the provisions of the CRPD, which is legally binding in 131 countries, are obligations to make information and services accessible for persons with disabilities.
Panelists at the briefing agreed that making digital experiences accessible to everyone would be challenging. But they emphasized that accessibility would drive innovation and commerce, both within the United States and globally. U.S. ratification of the CRPD, panelists said, would benefit U.S. companies, employees, and consumers. By embracing the task of information accessibility, U.S. businesses would expand their global reach, create jobs, and provide consumers with advanced technologies at a lower cost.
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez sponsored the briefing. While he and other supporters of the CRPD would like to see the Senate give its advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty, it seems that the Senate is too busy dealing with the recent disclosures of NSA’s massive personal data collection.
Seems rather ironic, doesn’t it? The federal government can record your phone calls, photograph your snail mail, and monitor your Internet use. But it can’t address the issue of guaranteeing information access to people with disabilities.