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  DBTAC: Southeast ADA Center

Quick Facts

• There are 54 million Americans with disabilities, and 8 to 12 million of these suffer from visual disabilities and will directly benefit from video description ... Less than 1% of video programming is described...you have an audience, with purchasing power, who wants access to your programming.
  (Statement by Chairman Kennard, Federal Communications Commission on Video Description, November 18, 1999)
   
• Public entities and public accommodations must reasonably modify their policies, practices, and procedures to avoid discrimination. However, if a public entity can demonstrate that modification would fundamentally alter the nature of its service, program, or activity, it is not required to make the modification.
  (TAM II-3.6000; TAM III-4.2000). (Editor's Note: Please note the narrow defense to this obligation.)
   
• 8% of World Wide Web users report having a disability.
   
• People who are blind and/or have low vision are as likely as the general population to use personal computers, the Internet and online services.
   
• 77% of persons with severe speech disabilities who use Alternative & Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices express a desire to 'surf the net'.
  (Source: Washington Watch, a publication of UCPA, May 13, 1997)
   
• 8.6 million persons in the United States have visual disabilities.
  (Source: National Center for Health Statistics, as reported in Video Accessibility Report, 11 FCC Rcvd at 19254 Sec. 96).
   
• According to a recent survey conducted by the Washington Business Group on Health (WBGH) and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, companies that have integrated their disability plans report an average annual reduction of 14% in their total disability bill. Of those respondents who have been able to measure the impact, 66% of 349 respondents stated integration of disability management has increased productivity.
   
• Under Title III of the ADA, when fixed seating or fixed tables are provided, accessible seating must be provided, if readily achievable. If it is not readily achievable to provide the minimal number of accessible tables in all areas where fixed tables are provided, then the services must be provided in another accessible location, if doing so is readily achievable. However, these alternate location(s) must be available for all customers and not just people with disabilities. It is illegal to segregate people with disabilities in one area by designating it as an accessible area to be used only by people with disabilities.
   
• Discrimination by air carriers is not covered by the ADA but rather by the Air Carrier Access Act (49 U.S.C. 1374).