Jennifer Simpson Interview with NextGenWebJuly 8, 2009

Geoff Basye, NextGenWeb:

As the FCC continues to accept public comments as it works to integrate a national broadband strategy due to the president in February. NextGenWeb joins with Jennifer Simpson with the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology. We appreciateyou spending time with us today. Lets talk about the mission of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology. Could you discuss the mission and highlightits members?

Jennifer Simpson, American Association of People with Disabilities:

We refer to ourselves as COAT. Our mission is to advocate for legislative and regulatorysafeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. The basic idea is thatwe don’t want people with sensory disabilities to get left behind in the technologymarketplace. Our members are mostly nonprofit disability organizations with over 240affiliates in 47 different states. Of these 90 are national organizations, and 150 are state or local based organizations.The steering committee for COAT consists of five national disability advocacyorganizations, these are American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD),American Council of the Blind (ACB), American Foundation for the Blind (AFB),Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), and National Association of the Deaf (NAD).We are all non profit national organizations and have members.COAT affiliates are in 47 of the states and DC. Egs.: Mississippi Association of the Deaf,, Nevada Council of the Blind, Wisconsin Center for Deaf Blind, Independent Living Ctr of Joplin, MO, Hearing Loss Association of Salt Lake UT, etc. We have severalcaptioning and video description organizations as affiliates, as well as some universityresearch centers. COAT, also, has not done any advertising or recruiting for thesemembers, our members joined strictly through word of mouth.We also have 8 International Friends of COAT, organizations or entities in Africa, China,Europe, Australia. We found they were looking to the U.S. for what leadership andimplementation we are doing and to let us know of their efforts. The reason why we areso diverse and have grown so strong is simply because of our agenda. We started with 5organizations in March 2007 and we are huge now. We have never recruited affiliatemembership. It is all because of what we stand for and are asking for. What COAT isasking for here is the Commission takes the bold step of building into the national broadband plan the principle of disability accessibility. That is, the incorporate theunderlying non-discrimination principles found in the Americans with Disabilities Act

2(ADA) into the national plan. I don’t think any other country in the world that has anational broadband plan has incorporated such a principle. I would like to see the U.S. bethe leader here with the national broadband plan. This principle would pertain to uses,applications and other ways that broadband is used.

Geoff Basye, NextGenWeb:

That a great seg-way to my next question. For the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology’s recent NOI (Notice of Inquiry),the filing submitted to theFederal Communications Commission, you state urge “that all members of the target population should have access to broadband in a manner that is effective, accessible, andaffordable, and explore ways to maximize broadband utilization within the target population” Can you please elaborate on this point?

Jennifer Simpson, American Association of People with Disabilities:

First of all, COAT sees people with disabilities as members of the target population thatare underserved in the nation’s broadband plan.This is because, for a number of mostly sociological reasons, such as income andeducation, people with disabilities are among the least likely to own computers, haveinternet access or to use the internet the same way others might. We are asking the FCCto make sure that they don’t leave us out and for the first time to have a national plan thatmakes sure that this underserved population is considered from the point of view of the principal. AAPD believes the FCC should make the point to see the way to put the US atthe forefront of broadband.By effective access we mean being able to use the machinery to get online. This is abouthaving a computer, being able to operate it and use it for the purpose that the user wants.That is, if all of this is on site, there are no policy or protocol barriers to personal use.This is also about relevant applications that work for people with disabilities that have been developed as a result of focus group and consumer work with people withdisabilities. It’s not about what other people think people with disabilities should have.Difference is whether it’s done FOR people with disabilities or it originates from theneeds of people with disabilities. Sometimes applications for the mainstream work for our community, e.g., AOL Instant Messaging was a huge step forward for the deaf community, they are vey text directed using community and other text messaging. ButGPS and mobile connection to broadband offer some interesting directions for peoplewith disabilities. Designers and developers of new products should be thinking throughthe needs of consumers with disabilities when they think about navigation and locationtechnologies.By accessible, we mean that the user with a disability has physical access to the computer or internet access site. Too often public sites internet access are not actually physicallyaccessible to a wheelchair user or other disabled individual , they have odd barriers and protocols at the location, we are looking at broadband deployment for residential use as a