June 22, 2020, is the comment deadline for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal on expanding audio description requirements. As we mentioned in a previous article, each year for four years the FCC proposes to expand its video description regulations by phasing them in for an additional 10 designated market areas (DMAs), beginning on January 1, 2021.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced on February 18th a "landmark settlement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)" similar to one reached with Harvard University last November.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced on November 27th a "landmark settlement with Harvard University that institutes a series of new guidelines to make the university's website and online resources accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

If you are a user of captions, remember that you can always send your comments about problems with captioned programs to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a NBCUniversal petition for a limited waiver of video description requirements on behalf of USA Network (USA), owned by NBCUniversal.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will host a forum regarding the use of Enhanced Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) procedures for live captioning of local news programs. The forum will be on Friday, May 10, 2019, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., Eastern Time. It will be webcast with open captioning at www.fcc.gov/live.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing a report to Congress to inform about the availability, use, benefits and cost of video description. The Commission is asking TV stations and broadcast networks, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), providers of video description, consumers of video description and anybody related to this topic to provide their feedback.

We are honored to have Maria Victoria Diaz, Dicapta's President, appointed for a second term with the FCC's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC). The DAC provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on a wide array of disability matters specified by the Federal Communications Commission.

G3ict The Global Initiative for Inclusive Accessibility of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) released its Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation (DARE) Index 2017-2018 last month. The index measures the progress made by the 177 countries, that signed the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in promoting and implementing digital accessibility.