House and Senate Conferees to Take Up Bill That Includes Grants to
Train Realtime Captioners Who Meet the Communication Access Needs of People
with Hearing Loss
VIENNA, Va., April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Court
Reporters Association today urged U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., a member
of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and
Competitiveness, to lend his support in conference and vote to approve the
College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (H.R. 4137, S. 1642),
better known as the Higher Education Reauthorization bill.
The bill includes language creating a grant program to train realtime
writers to provide captioned information and communication access for the
30 million Americans who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Rep. Ron Kind,
D-Wis., and Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., championed passage of the House
language. Now, said NCRA Executive Director and CEO Mark J. Golden, "NCRA
is working diligently with Congressman Altmire in conference toward
ensuring that the correct language is included in the final conference bill
that is presented this year to President Bush for his signature and
approval." In the last two Congressional sessions, this language has passed
the Senate unanimously thanks to the unwavering support of Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa.
The House-passed portion meets the mandates of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, which set a 2006 deadline by which all new broadcasts in
English were to be captioned. That deadline has come and gone, and the
requisite hours of captioning are not being met. With 30 million deaf and
hard-of-hearing Americans nationally, and almost 1.2 million in
Pennsylvania alone, closed captions are critically important to their
livelihoods and safety.
NCRA's Golden said, "If the House and Senate conferees approve this
language, it will demonstrate that Congress truly believes that people with
hearing loss deserve full and effective communication access which can only
be provided by qualified stenographic realtime writers. The bill's funding
will go a long way in helping to bring more realtime writers into the
workforce and meet the growing demand for this necessary service."
The National Court Reporters Association, a 23,000-member nonprofit
organization, represents the judicial reporting and captioning professions.
Web site: http://www.ncraonline.org.
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