ACTION ALERT! YOUR COMMENTS ARE NEEDED!
US Department of Justice Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
The US Department of Justice (the Department) is proposing to revise the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published in the Federal Register on June 17, 2008.
The Department is interested in receiving comments from a cross section of people who are impacted by the regulations.
We encourage you to provide your comments with personal stories to make it clear to the Department that their regulations will have an impact on real people.
DATES: All comments must be received by August 18, 2008.
HOW TO FILE COMMENTS
Information regarding how to file your comments comes directly from the Department of Justice website on the ADA: www.ada.gov
Submit electronic comments and other data to http://www.regulations.gov When submitting comments electronically, you must include CRT Docket No. 106 in the subject box, and you must include your full name and address. Please note that when you go to the website and input: “CRT Docket No 106” it links you to the site that says:
“Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities; Correction”
You will also see:
“Send a Comment or Submission 
click on that and it will take you to the page you need to file your comments.
We appreciate the time you take to draft up and send in your own comments. Please send a copy of your comments, and send any questions to: Lise Hamlin .
THANK YOU!
We have drafted suggested comments under Title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities):
- changes in rules regarding the requirements for assistive listening systems, and
- changes in rules regarding movie captioning
To see the entire DOJ NPRM, go to www.ada.gov
SAMPLE COMMENTS:
Before the
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
In the Matter of:
Americans with Disabilities Act ) 28 CFR Part 36
Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public ) CRT Docket No. 106
Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities )
COMMENTS OF
[Your Name]
[Your name] hereby submits comments in response to the US Department of Justice’s (the Department) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the above proceeding.
[Say who you are, that you have a hearing loss, and any brief remarks about your hearing loss that you would want to include. For example: My name is Jane Doe. I have had a significant hearing loss for 25 years. For the last 25 years, I have used whatever technology that is available to help me use my residual hearing to the fullest extent. I use hearing aids, assistive listening systems and devices, and open and closed captioning, telephones equipped with volume control handsets and visual alarms as accommodations for my hearing loss. In the 25 years of my hearing loss, I have had many experiences requesting accommodations for my hearing loss in public accommodations and at commercial facilities.]
My comments address the Department’s questions regarding assistive listening systems and movie captioning.
Question 1: The Department believes it would be useful to solicit input from the public to inform us on the anticipated costs or benefits for certain requirements. The Department therefore invites comment as to what the actual costs and benefits would be for these eight existing elements, in particular as applied to alterations, in compliance with the proposed regulations (side reach, water closet clearances in single-user toilet rooms with in-swinging doors, stairs, elevators, location of accessible routes to stages, accessible attorney areas and witness stands, assistive listening systems, and accessible teeing grounds, putting greens, and weather shelters at golf courses), as well as additional practical benefits from these [[Page 34513]] requirements, which are often difficult to adequately monetize.
Assistive Listening Systems: Benefits
Assistive listening systems (ALS) are vital to people with hearing loss. They provide access in a way no other system provides: they allow someone like me who has lost a significant amount of their hearing to hear music, voice, and sounds once again.
There are times when I believed I would never again attend a large pubic event, or even a meeting of more than 10 people. With my hearing aids alone, I simply could not hear what was going on. Assistive listening systems allow me to attend public events with friends and family once more. A listening system is not a luxury to me: it is the best way I know to be able to take part in events once again.
Public address systems do not help me in the same way they help people who can hear well. In fact, most public address systems are pretty much useless to me. It that’s all that’s available, I may as well not go at all.
If the 2004 ADAAG standards are not adopted for assistive listening systems, I am not the only one to suffer. There are about 31.5 million Americans who have a hearing loss. Without these regulations in place, we will find these services inaccessible for years to come.
The 2004 ADAAG provides a huge benefit to me when it includes standards for neckloops: a hearing aid compatible coupling device that allows me to turn off the microphone in my hearing aid and listen directly through the neckloop. I have attended many shows and movies that do not have neckloops and found I was unable to use the receivers provided by the management. Neckloops provide me with a huge benefit at not much cost: neckloops cost approximately $50.00 each.
Question 24: Should the Department require that, one year after the effective date of this regulation, public accommodations exhibit all new movies in captioned format at every showing? Is it more appropriate to require captioning less frequently? Should the requirement for captioning be tied to the conversion of movies from film to the use of a digital format? Please include specifics regarding how frequently captioning should be provided.
The Department should require movie theaters enable the display of captions and display the captions provided for any movie at all showings, unless such would impose an undue burden.
The availability of captions has become commonplace, with the majority of first-run movies being produced and distributed for display with captions. Yet, at the same time, less than one percent (1%) of movie showings in America today are shown with captions. Because captions can and are being shown today, there is no reason and no need to tie the requirement of showing captions to the conversion of movies to digital format. Captioning is becoming increasingly inexpensive and feasible to provide. Captioning technology has changed significantly since the passage of the ADA and there is absolutely no reason to exempt a multi-billion dollar business from the requirements of the ADA.
Thank you for this opportunity to provide my comments.
Sincerely,
Your Signature
Print your name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone number
Email Address
Date:
### |
