DEC 11 1995 XX Apopka, Florida XX Dear XX I have been asked to respond to your recent letter to Attorney General Janet Reno with respect to the current practice of CD-ROM manufacturers to produce programs that provide information to the user through speech and sound rather than text. You have asked the Attorney General to intercede with the manufacturers of these products to ensure that these products are made accessible to people with hearing impairments. Your letter was referred to me because the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division is responsible for implementing the Attorney General's authority to enforce titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability by State and local governments and public accommodations and commercial facilities. We also enforce title I of the ADA in cases that allege disability-based employment discrimination by public entities. These ADA enforcement responsibilities are assigned to the Attorney General as the nation's chief law enforcement officer and head of the Department of Justice. In enforcing the ADA, this Department represents the law enforcement interest of the United States. The Department is not authorized to act as an attorney for, or representative of, any individual. After carefully reviewing your letter, we have determined that no action by the Department is appropriate because you have not alleged a violation of the ADA or any other Federal statute that is enforced by this Department. However, the World Institute on Disability is working on a project regarding accessibilty of multimedia technology. For more information on their efforts, you may contact Betsy Baya at (510) 01-04101 - 2 - 251-4355. Additional resouces on this subject are also available from the National Center for Accessible Media at 125 Western Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02134, (617) 492-9258 (Voice or TDD). I regret that we cannot assist you in this matter. Sincerely, John L. Wodatch Chief Disability Rights Section cc: Records; Chrono; Wodatch; McDowney; Blizard; FOIA n:\udd\blizard\drsltrs\not_ada\XX \young-parran 01-04105 XX XX XX Tuesday, September 26, 1995 Ms. Janet Reno Attorney General The United States of America The US Justice Department 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC To: Ms. Reno Attorney General I would like to tell you about something which is sweeping across this nation at alarming rate: the hearing impaired do not seem to qualify for rights nor even simple courtesy. Do not get me wrong, I'm no longer claiming prejudice, because "prejudice implies a deliberate bias" as CD-ROM Today editor, Chris Lombardi pointed out to me. It's people not thinking before they act that cuts out millions of Americans each year. People do not think, and this is poor marketing on their part. My complaint is with manufactures of CD-ROMs (Compact Disk - Read Only Memory). CDs make loading and playing of large programs much easier. But the trend is to have speech and/or sound required and ignore displaying text to explain the sound so that the hearing impaired may use the CD. Programs like Sierra On-line's King's Quest VII: The Princess Bride or the company's upcoming Phantasmagoria and Virgin Electronics' The 7th Guest, 11th Hour, and Kyrondia, are all found on CD-ROMs but they have no text for the hearing impaired to play. I find it particularly unfortunate that Sierra On-Line dropped the text options from their games - (an explanation of the option follows later on in my letter). Virgin never had the option. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) changed much of what is perceived today as being "politically correct" but people such as myself are still working on improving what people perceive. I feel comfortable speaking from a deaf man's prospective. My hearing loss is profound; 100%. I've had some amusing experiences where in my hearing-ear dog has been presumed to be a seeing-eye dog, but the problem I wish to address in this letter is that makers of CD-ROMs don't seem to understand there's more to the enjoyment of their product than seeing pretty pictures and hearing music and talk. In my case and that of many potential users, we also need to read what's going on. 01-04106 On the verge of the 21st Century I notice something which, if not addressed soon, will leave millions of hearing impaired children behind their peers because they don't have equal access to a new form of informational media. Allow me to explain my reasoning. It is a fact that trends begin in the computer gaming industry. Sound cards were originally meant to enhance the enjoyment of games. Today it is difficult to buy a computer without a sound card, or find a commercial program that doesn't use one. Today, Microsoft Office and 20th Century Video Almanac not to mention numerous encyclopedias, (Compton's New World, Microsoft Encarta, Groiler's etc.) and "edutainment" programs (Mathblaster, Reading Rabbit, etc.) use sound extensively. Extensive use of sound is now linked with the enhanced graphics found in more and more software. And what about text on CD-ROM's? Most people have seen it. In the infancy of CD- ROM programs, companies used "balloons" to show what was being said, like what we see in the comics. Later Sierra On-Line developed this as an option: that text may be turned on or, if preferred, off and sound only may be enjoyed by the user. Naturally, though the hearing impaired user will keep the text on for full enjoyment. So, when you think about it, text begins to "sound" more important than previously thought. There are rumors circulating that Microsoft Word will include, in its next version for CD-ROM users, the capability to have "help" speak out loud. Will this program retain the option of Cue Cards popping up to provide the text of the advice for the hearing impaired? How about future editions of encyclopedias? Will Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech only be read to them and not written out? If so, a significant number of hearing impaired children will have to go to an antiquated paper book for information. There are children today who use CD-ROM-based products to practice their spelling, language- learning skills, math and other subjects. But deaf children cannot participate due to the lack of text. In the future, will text be added? Perhaps the manufacturers of educational and entertainment oriented CD-ROMs don't realize that text for an entire program will take up less space than the music in the closing credits. The scripts for these programs were written down at one point. It would be a simple matter to merge the two programs. I've discovered through personal experience that many CD-ROM programs are useless to the hearing impaired because important audible parts of them are not also available in text. I've spent over $600 and have had trouble returning the programs when I realized that they lacked text. I've had to stop buying such programs unless I am 100% certain that text is available on them, and unfortunately this is something that usually isn't clearly indicated. Computers are priceless to anyone who wishes to enter the society of the future. Our schools, hospitals, banks, industry and others are using them to increase productivity and encourage creativity. The hearing impaired want to be part of that revolution. The ADA mandates that the concerns of the hearing impaired be taken into account in every-day services. It seems to me that manufacturers of CD-ROMs don't realize how 01-04107 important their products are becoming. I would like to help them understand this, but I'm not sure how to go about this. All I ask is that your organization talk to these companies. I would like to resolve this as quickly as possible and avoid bad publicity for these companies. Unfortunately, they have not replied to my comments and I suspect though that if they "hear" from you, they will be inclined to take the concerns of the hearing impaired more seriously. After all, it's a matter of dollars and good sense. Sincerely, XX 01-04108