Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3200
MAY 7 1992
Sincerely,
John R. Dunne
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
Enclosures (2)
Sincerely,
Enclosure
Filed under authority of the order of the Senate of August 2 (legislative day,
January 3), 1989
REPORT
together with
ADDITIONAL VIEWS
[To accompany S. 933]
CONTENTS
Page
I. Introduction................................................ 1
II. Summary of the legislation.................................. 2
III. Hearings.................................................... 4
IV. Need for the legislation.................................... 5
V. Summary of committee action.................................21
VI. Explanation of the legislation..............................21
VII. Regulatory impact...........................................88
VIII. Cost estimate...............................................90
IX. Changes in existing law.....................................95
I. INTRODUCTION
On August 2, 1989, the Committee on Labor and Human Re-
sources, by a vote of 16-0, ordered favorably reported S. 933, the
21-174
01-00733
64
who uses a wheelchair can reach all the books. Rather, a salesper-
son can tell the blind person how much an item costs, make a spe-
cial order of brailled books, and reach the books that are out of the
reach of the person who uses a wheelchair.
The legislation specifies that auxiliary aids and services includes
qualified interpreters or other effective methods of making aurally
delivered materials available to individuals with hearing impair-
ments. Other effective methods may include: telephone handset
amplifiers, telephones compatible with hearing aids, telecommuni-
cation devices for the deaf, closed captions, and decoders.
For example, it would be appropriate for regulations issued by
the Attorney General to require hotels of a certain size to have de-
coders for closed captions available or, where televisions are cen-
trally controlled by the hotel, to have a master decoder.
It is also the Committee's expectation that regulations issued by
the Attorney General will include guidelines as to when public ac-
commodations are required to make available portable telecom-
munication devices for the deaf. In this regard, it is the Commit-
tee's intent that hotels and other similar establishments that offer
nondisabled individuals the opportunity to make outgoing calls, on
more than an incidental convenience basis, to provide a similar op-
portunity for hearing impaired customers and customers with com-
munication disorders to make such outgoing calls by making avail-
able a portable telecommunication device for the deaf.
It is not the Committee's intent that individual retail stores, doc-
tors' offices, restaurants or similar establishments must have tele-
communications devices for the deaf since people with hearing im-
pairments will be able to make inquiries, appointments, or reserva-
tions with such establishments through the relay system estab-
lished pursuant to title IV of the legislation, and the presence of a
public telephone in these types of establishments for outgoing calls
is incidental.
Open-captioning, for example, of feature films playing in movie
theaters, is not required by this legislation. Filmmakers are, how-
ever, encouraged to produce and distribute open-captioned versions
of films and theaters are encouraged to have at least some prean-
nounced screenings of a captioned version of feature films.
Places of public accommodations that provide film and slide
shows to impart information are required to make such informa-
tion accessible to people with disabilities.
The legislation also specifies that auxiliary aids and services in-
cludes qualified readers, taped texts, or other effective methods of
making visually delivered materials available to individuals with
visual impairments. Additional examples of effective methods of
making visually delivered materials available include: audio re-
cordings and the provision of brailled and large print materials.
The legislation specifies that auxiliary aids and services includes
the acquisition or modification of equipment or devices. For exam-
ple, a museum that provides audio cassettes and cassette players
for an audio-guided tour of the museum may need to add brailled
adhesive labels to the buttons on a select number of the tape-play-
ers so that they can be operated by a blind person.
The Committee wishes to make it clear that technological ad-
vances can be expected to further enhance options for making
01-00734
101ST CONGRESS REPT. 101-485
2d Session HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Part 2
REPORT
together with
MINORITY VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 2273 which on May 9, 1989, was referred jointly to the
Comm-ittee on Education and labor, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the
Com-mittee on Public Works and Transportation, and the Committee on the
Judiciary]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 2273) to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibi-
tion of discrimination on the basis of disability, having considered
the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recom-
mend that the bill as amended do pass.