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THE HONORABLE SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN
US Senate
331 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3553phone
Fax: (202) 228-3954

email: web contact form: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

Dear Senator Feinstein,

Please consider this as my letter of strong support for Cerritos College’s request for an appropriation of $600,000 to train realtime writers and closed captioners. I feel that funding this appropriation in Fiscal Year 2009 is of utmost importance for constituencies across the state of California.

Without assistance from Congress, 30 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans will not be able to fully and actively participate in their professional, educational and civic lives. Captioning offers the deaf and hard-of-hearing community the opportunity to get news and other vital information from live television. Moreover, this is an issue not only of public safety, but also public health. Consider that a lack of captioning can lead to feelings of isolation and depression for individuals with hearing loss.

There is a shortage of captioners in the workforce. Yet, there is growing demand for these highly skilled individuals. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires 100% of all new English-speaking broadcast programming to be captioned by January 1, 2006. That deadline has come and gone. There are not enough realtime writers and captioners to meet this unfunded mandate. Furthermore, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires 100% closed captioning for all new Spanish broadcast programming by January 1, 2010. America is not close to achieving this goal. Graduates from Cerritos College would help with the need of captioners and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) providers within the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The individuals who become captioners will have a career that will offer them endless possibilities in the future.

Through specially trained realtime captioners or CART providers, the content of lectures, school assemblies, graduation ceremonies, business meetings and other live events can be presented on a monitor or projection screen while the event occurs. This technology expands access for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and it also allows schools to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA identifies CART as a reasonable accommodation for a deaf or hard-of-hearing student as part of their individualized education plan.

Thank you for your support of this appropriation request. I hope you will be able to make funding Cerritos College’s request a top priority. They already have a well-established court reporting program. They are in a great position to train captioners for our future workforce.

Sincerely,

NAME

CC: Mark Wallace, CERRITOS COLLEGE
FAX 562.467.5075 email: