Individuals with Disabilities

On August 21, 2023, the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development released its Draft Digital Opportunity Plan for public comment. According to the plan, Minnesota's vision for digital equity is a future where digital equity connects all Minnesota residents to opportunities, options, and each other. The Office of Broadband Development created this plan following extensive stakeholder engagement and digital equity data collection.

The National Consumer Law Center and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry produced a new State Digital Justice Advocacy Toolkit that contains resources to help frontline groups that are working to provide broadband and communication assistance to incarcerated people, people with disabilities, low-income households, veterans, aging and rural populations, people facing language barriers, members of a racial or ethnic minority, and other underserved groups. The State Digi

In the third decade of the 21st century, getting online is no longer optional, and providing financial assistance to US households that can’t afford broadband should be as much a given as food stamps. More broadly, from a macro perspective, high rates of broadband use benefit society and the economy; and from a micro perspective, those least likely to be online are those who would in many ways benefit most from it. In both cases, broadband policy should prioritize connecting remaining offline households in order to achieve universal connectivity.

The Wyoming Broadband Office (WBO), part of the Wyoming Business Council, made its draft Digital Access Plan available to the public on July 18, 2023, and is allowing one month for residents to submit their feedback. The draft plan includes a vision for digital equity for the state, a set of goals to activate that vision within Wyoming’s Digital Access program, current assets and barriers, and an implementation plan to achieve the goals and address the barriers identified.

Your state is doing something it has never done before: not just making a plan to achieve digital equity, but thinking about how life in the state will be transformed by closing the digital divide.

In July 2023, the Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office released the state's draft Digital Equity Plan. The state outlines how it will work to bring broadband to its residents–and the opportunities that come with high-speed internet access.

We write to express our strong support for the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and to urge Congress to allocate additional funding to this crucial initiative. By investing in the FCC’s ACP, we can address the existing digital disparities faced by people with disabilities and promote a more inclusive and equitable society.

Digital equity—or, digital opportunity, if you prefer—is having a moment. The US is making an unprecedented investment to ensure that individuals and communities have the capacity to fully participate in our society and economy. This is a huge undertaking with momentous implications on the future of the Nation. Each state has been asked to envision how life there can be transformed by achieving digital equity.

In recognition of the 33^rd Anniversary of the American Disabilities Act (ADA), the Biden-Harris administration is taking new steps to strengthen the ADA and improve online accessibility to state and local services for the nearly 50 million people with disabilities with vision, hearing, cognitive, and manual dexterity disabilities. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is proposing a new rule that would establish accessibility standards for state and local governments’ web and mobile app-based services.

Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), author of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), and Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) reintroduced the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility (CVTA) Act.