FCC ACTS TO ENSURE THAT DEAF-BLIND INDIVIDUALS HAVE ACCESS TO 21 st CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES

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On April 4, 2011, the Commission established a National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution

Program (NDBEDP) to enable low-income individuals who are deaf-blind to access 21

st Century communications services. The pilot program will help ensure that qualified individuals have access to the Internet, and advanced communications, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and information services.

This action implements a provision of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). The CVAA allocated $10 million annually from the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund for this nationwide equipment distribution effort. The Commission concluded that the best approach would be to establish a two-year pilot program, with the option of extending this for a third year, so that the Commission can assess the most efficient and effective method of administering the NDBEDP on a permanent basis. Under the NDBEDP pilot program, the Commission will certify and provide funding to one entity in each state to distribute equipment to low-income individuals who are deaf-blind.

The Commission will make the full amount of the authorized funding, $10 million, available for each year of the pilot program. Of this amount, the Commission will set aside up to $500,000 per year for national outreach efforts. Each state will initially receive a minimum initial funding allocation of $50,000, with the balance of the available funds allocated in proportion to each state’s population. Certified programs will have to submit documentation to support claims for reimbursement for NDBEDP equipment and related services, up to each state’s funding allocation. Certified programs must submit reports on their activities and expenses every six months, disclose potential conflicts of interest, and conduct annual independent audits

The Commission adopted the following rules and policies for the NDBEDP pilot program:

· Certified Programs: Entities must apply for certification to receive funding support under the NDBEDP pilot program within 60 days of the effective date of the rules. The Commission will certify only one entity for each state.

· Consumer Eligibility: “Individuals who are deaf-blind,” as defined in the Helen Keller National Center Act, are eligible to apply for equipment. Because of the unusually high medical and disability-related costs incurred by these individuals, the Order sets a low-income eligibility threshold of 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.· Equipment: The Order permits distribution of specialized and off-the-shelf equipment, separately or in combination, as long as it meets the needs of the deaf-blind individual and makes communications services covered under the CVAA accessible. The reasonable costs of the equipment distributed, warranties, maintenance, repairs, and refurbishing will be covered.

· Related Services: The reasonable costs of state and local outreach efforts, individual assessments of a deaf-blind person’s communications equipment needs, equipment installation, and individualized training of consumers on how to use the equipment will also be covered under the NDBEDP.

Action by the Commission, April 4, 2011, by Report and Order (FCC 11-56). Chairman Genachowski, and Commissioners Copps, McDowell, Clyburn and Baker. Separate Statement issued by Commissioner Copps.

It Starts Here « ChangingAging.org

by Dr. Bill Thomas

Lately I’ve been writing about the impending collision between the Post War generation (often referred to as the “Boomers”) and the Iron Law of Aging.

Let’s review that Iron Law…

Every day we all wake up one day older.
The problem is that the generation that lionized youth, the generation that once pledged to “never trust anyone over thirty” is now caught in the jaws of a cultural vice they helped construct.

This will create a challenge of massive and sustained cultural challenge— how do we dismantle the mythology that our youth obsessed culture has constructed around normal aging? How can we re-establish the virtues currently hidden within aging?

Under normal circumstances we might turn to the mass media and ask them to help us tell our story. These outlets (print, broadcast and electronic) reach hundreds of millions people everyday.

We are saved!

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Except we’re not.

The mass media is the most ageist element of our society. These outlets would rather suffer anaphylactic shock than commit time, resources and energy telling a pro-aging story. Regular readers who have been following Kavan’s news digest posts know exactly what I am talking about.

Well– we could cry the pro-aging message from the rooftops.

Except- it’s cold and windy up there and nobody will hear us. Rooftops!

There is one more option… It’s BIG. It’s powerful. It’s under our control. The answer is…
Social Media.

Social Media is the catchall name for things like Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube– you know, the most popular parts of the internet.

One little problem. Although Social Media provides us the tools it does not tell our story.

We have to tell the story.

Three things makes this hard to do.
1) What are all these blinky things, buttons, widgets and toggles? How do they work? Who has the time to figure all this stuff out? Uggh.

2) “Sure,” you say, “I’ve got things to say but dang how do you come up with new and interesting things everyday?” Building an audience– like the one here at Changing Aging requires a fresh, regular supply of new content. Hmmmm.

3) People ask, “If I put my stuff out there, how do I can I get people to read it/watch it/use it?”

The answer to each of these problems is embodied in a new approach that Kavan and I have been working hard to develop.

The answer is…
The Changing Aging Blogstream

The blogstream is a cooperative effort by people with a pro-aging vision that facilitates the creation, sharing and distribution of pro-aging content within the social media universe.

Working together magnifies our voices and maximizes our influence.

We will all create interesting social media content and then share that content with each other.

As a result, your blog will have access to the ideas and creations of the best and coolest pro-aging thinkers and your insights and ideas will also wind up on their blogs as well.

The blogstream will also include regular web-based instruction in how to use social media tools.

We will have instruction that will help elders and the people who love them use social media tools to tell THEIR stories.

We will have beginning, intermediate and black belt social media courses that will help the people who learn these skills become masters of social media.

There is more….

Right now I want folks to think about the power and wisdom of cooperation, sharing and learning.

Our cause is just,
the time is right,
now we must take hold of the tools that will help us
change the world.
Get a sneak preview here.

It Starts Here « ChangingAging.org

FCC’s Performance Management Weaknesses Could Jeopardize Proposed Reforms of the Rural Health Care Program

Telemedicine offers a way to improve health care access for patients in rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Health Care Program, established in 1997, provides discounts on rural health care providers’ telecommunications and information services (primary program) and funds broadband infrastructure and services (pilot program). GAO was asked to review (1) how FCC has managed the primary program to meet the needs of rural health care providers, and how well the program has addressed those needs; (2) how FCC’s design and implementation of the pilot program affected participants; and (3) FCC’s performance goals and measures for both the primary program and the pilot program, and how these goals compare with the key characteristics of successful performance goals and measures. GAO reviewed program documents and data, interviewed program staff and relevant stakeholders, and surveyed all 61 pilot program participants with recent participation in the program.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that the FCC Chairman assess rural health care providers’ needs, consult with knowledgeable stakeholders, develop performance goals and measures, and develop and execute sound performance evaluation plans. In its comments, FCC did not agree or disagree with the recommendations, but discussed planned and ongoing actions to address them.

Report Highlights

Full Report

RLTV - TV for Boomers and Older Individuals

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There has been plenty of coverage lately on the importance of the youth vote on Election Day. It's as though politicians think older voters - one in three Americans - can be taken for granted.

The readers of Aging And Disability In America probably don't know John Erickson, but they should. John is the Chairman of RLTV and founder of Erickson Retirement Communities, and is leading the way in making sure that the voices of Americans 55 and older are heard.  People 55+ - and that includes John himself - make up one-third of America and care deeply about not only issues that affect them personally, but also how today's decisions will affect the future for their children and grandchildren.

John's rallying call to this powerful group of 70 million Americans can be found here:

http://johnerickson.tv

He's also led the way on RLTV with Prime Votes, an initiative to help inform boomers and seniors about the important issues in the mid-term elections.  Prime Votes features nightly updates with Sam Donaldson and John Palmer as well as two national forums hosted by Cokie Roberts to air this week on RLTV and C-SPAN.

More about Prime Votes, as well as John's discussion of many important national issues, can be found at the johnerickson.tv site. 

Transforming Caregiving: RESPECTING ELDERS

Why Do so many people talk baby talk to elders? Could an elder supreme court judge possibly enjoy being patted on the head? And for that matter, how do they get away with it? What keeps elder parents, pianists or Marines from kicking a few shins?Transforming Caregiving: RESPECTING ELDERS

A Day in the Life of a Person with a Cognitive Disability

by Tom Babinszki

Talk to someone about disabilities and I can assure you that normally, that person would at once think of wheelchair users or blind people. But although these are major disability groups, there is also one group which is less recognized yet is as equally significant as the ones mentioned above.

This group consists of persons with cognitive disabilities. People who have this type of disabilities have limitations in their ability to perceive, recognize, understand, and/or respond to information.

Here, we will provide you with a close look at someone who has this disability, the challenges he faces, and how he uses technology to lead a productive and independent life.
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Sign Language Used in Technology

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by Tom Babinszki

We all know that sign language is used by people who are deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with other persons. But while this form of communication is essential to this group, only a small percentage of hearing people know this language.

To address this issue, developers of technologies have created ways to use sign language in software and similar products. Below we offer a glimpse of some of these assistive technologies. You may be surprised by how innovative these products are.
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BP Blogger-Communication Jan Feb 2010

The latest edition of the BP Blogger (Cutting Through the Foggy Myths Using Best Practice Guidelines in Long Term Care) for January/February is now available. BP Blogger is produced by the Centres of Excellence in Inter-professional Practice and Collaborative Geriatric Care and The Long-Term Care Resource Centre (SHRTN), Hamilton, Ontario.

Myth Busting: Communication Issue - Inside this issue:

Myth 1:Aphasia is like dementia

Myth 2:Access is about physical barriers

Myth 3:Aphasia means having no thoughts or feelings

Myth 4:Residents with aphasia can’t communicate

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Z on TV: Go to C-SPAN radio for the hard truth on health care - Sun critic David Zurawik writes about the business, culture and craziness of television - baltimoresun.com

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by David Zurawik
In August, I wrote about C-SPAN's telecast of a town hall meeting in Virginia as one of TV's best moments of health care coverage. Amid all the confusion, here was one program that showed the warfare up close and personal and offered you the chance to get up from the TV set smarter than when you sat down. Read it here.

I didn't think C-SPAN could do much better than that, but last week it did with overrnight radio broadcasts of the Senate Finance Committee Mark-Up sessions. They started at 11 p.m., and ran almost all night. They are replays of broadcasts on C-SPAN radio, WCSP-FM (90.1), that aired during the day, and they will resume this coming week when the committee goes back to work on the legislation it is drafting.

What a fabulous inside look at the manuevering, compromising, character and politicking of the handful of men and women who to large extent are deciding the shape and scope of health care reform (or non-reform) for the nation by nature of the bill they will send to the floor of the Senate. I learned more in two nights of lying awake and listening than I did in two months of watching TV coverage of President Obama's smile-for-the-camera super-spin and oppositional "Death Panels" counter-spin. Finally, with C-SPAN radio, some clarity!
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Gov't bill would make Internet more accessible for disabled via real-time texting, closed captioning

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This month, as Congress returns from break, health care reform is not the only imperative issue on their plate. A new bill will aim to make content on the Internet more friendly to those with disabilities.

The "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009" (H.R. 3101) plans to modernize disability standards by making such accessibility features as closed captioning, video description and real-time texting a standard for Internet technologies.

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How Jane Fonda Became the Face of the Aging Adult Social Media World | Geek Sexy | Fast Company

Image by t_a_i_s via Flickr

BY James Andrews

Over the past year I was introduced to Jane Fonda and have become known as her "tech guy" (a funny term she referred to me as on NBC's Today Show). In truth, I am a part of a trio that included my blogging wife, who gave a 71-year-old Jane Fonda a really great rationale at our first breakfast together as to why she should be using social media and by the end her lightbulb went off.

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Intergenerational Disengagement

Does it matter if older people and young people don't communicate with each other? The International Longevity Centre got funding for a survey on intergenerational relations and found that 55% of respondents of all ages think different generations find it difficult to communicate with each other. - Posted by Kevin Harris in the Neighbourhoods blog.

Telemarketing Sales Rule (``TSR''); Final Rule Amendments

SUMMARY: The Commission adopts two final amendments to the TSR. The first is an amendment making explicit a prohibition in the TSR on telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages without a consumer's express written agreement to receive such calls. This amendment also requires that all prerecorded telemarketing calls provide specified opt-out mechanisms so that consumers can opt out of future calls. The amendment is necessary because the reasonable consumer would consider prerecorded telemarketing messages to be coercive or abusive of such consumer's right to privacy. The second amendment modifies the method for measuring the maximum call abandonment rate prescribed by the TSR's call abandonment safe harbor. The new method will permit sellers and telemarketers to calculate call abandonment rates for a live calling campaign over a thirty-day period, or any part thereof. This amendment is necessary because the current ``per day'' standard effectively precludes the use of predictive dialers with small calling lists. DATES: The amendments are effective October 1, 2008.