The Future of Video Accessibility: What’s Next With the CVTA?

Session Summary

ASPIRE TRACK

The Future of Video Accessibility: What’s Next with the CVTA?

The Communications and Video Technology Accessibility Act (CVTA) is a proposed law aimed to ensure that all individuals have equal access to mainstream communication products and services.

This session will provide an overview of the proposed CVTA legislation, including its objectives and provisions. The session will also address the impact of the legislation and the role that businesses and organizations play in ensuring that the new bill can be implemented effectively.

Zainab Alkebsi
Co-Chair of the CVTA Coalition, Policy Council at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD)

Pronouns: she/her

Zainab Alkebsi is Policy Counsel at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the largest and most influential membership organization of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in the United States. As Policy Counsel, Ms. Alkebsi is responsible for providing analysis, recommendations, and advice to the NAD on policy issues affecting people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Ms. Alkebsi regularly interfaces with government agencies, Congress, coalitions, media, and businesses on all issues affecting deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Ms. Alkebsi also represents the NAD at conferences, on advisory committees and panels, and through presentations. Ms. Alkebsi also serves as the President of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and Chair of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network. Before joining the NAD, Ms. Alkebsi served as Deputy Director at the Maryland Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing coordinating the office’s legislative and policy efforts. Ms. Alkebsi has a BA in political science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Zainab Alkebsi

Blake Reid
Co-Author of the CVTA, Director of the Sumuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic at Colorado Law

Pronouns: he/him

Blake writes, teaches, and practices at the intersection of law, policy, and technology. He is a Clinical Professor (Associate Professor of Law starting Fall 2023) at Colorado Law, where he serves as the (outgoing) Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic (TLPC) and as the Faculty Director of the Telecom and Platforms Initiative at the Silicon Flatirons Center.

Before joining the faculty at Colorado Law, Blake was a staff attorney and graduate fellow in First Amendment and media law at the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law and a law clerk for Justice Nancy E. Rice on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Blake Reid

Karen Peltz Strauss
Co-Author of the CVTA, Telecommunications Expert and Consultant to Communications Services for the Deaf 

Pronouns: she/her

Karen Peltz Strauss has spent nearly four decades leading nationwide efforts to adopt federal policies designed to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to communications and video programming services and equipment. Currently consulting for consumer organizations, researchers, and service providers, Strauss previously served two tours of duty as Deputy Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, first from 1999-2001, and more recently from 2010-2018. While at the FCC, Strauss oversaw implementation of the Commission’s disability policies on telecommunications, video programming and Internet access, and spearheaded the creation of the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee.

Karen Peltz Strauss

Clark Rachfal
Co-Chair of the CVTA Coalition, Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs at the American Council of the Blind

Pronouns: she/her

Clark Rachfal is the Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs for the American Council of the Blind (ACB). In this role, he leads ACB’s legislative and regulatory agendas, as well as member-driven and individual advocacy efforts, to further the organization’s mission of security, independence, equality and opportunity for all people who are blind and experiencing vision loss.

Clark embraces the ACB core values of integrity and honesty, respect, collaboration, flexibility, and initiative in all that he does to support the necessary changes required for successful interventions of equality. He represents ACB on various corporate technology and communications accessibility boards as well as the Federal Communications Commission’s Disability Advisory Committee and Consumer Advisory Committee.

Prior to joining ACB, Clark served in public policy positions for National Industries for the Blind, and Verizon Communications, Inc. In addition to his policy background, Clark is a Paralympian and World Champion in the sport of tandem cycling. Clark holds a bachelor of science degree from Towson University in political science and economics, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, Greta, and their two dogs, Summit and Cricket.

Clark Rachfall - Light skinned man with short brown hair smiling, wearing a white button up shirt with an ACB logo.

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