Powers’ Principal Leela Baggett and Counsel Michael Barnett led a coordinated, strategic engagement with Congress to reintroduce the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act of 2025 (“CVTA”)—S.4322 and H.R. 8327—on behalf of Perkins School for the Blind and the Coalition for Organizations of Accessible Technologies (“COAT”). This bill signals a meaningful step forward in ensuring that technology is accessible to all.
Digital technologies assume ever-greater economic, educational, and social importance. Yet despite this central role, many innovative digital technologies have created barriers for people with disabilities. The reintroduction of the CVTA provides the long-overdue modernization needed to bring federal law in line with today’s technologies.
On April 16, 2026, the CVTA was introduced in the Senate by Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and in the House by Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01). The CVTA would allow federal accessibility safeguards to keep pace with the rapidly evolving communication and video programming technologies of our time. Key provisions of the legislation include:
- Requiring video conferencing services to provide specified accessibility features
- Requiring closed captioning for new online streaming programming
- Requiring audio description—which narrates key visual elements of programming for persons who are blind and low vision—for all television programming and new online streaming programming
- Ensuring direct, equitable 911 access for people with disabilities, including American Sign Language users
- Authorizing the FCC to ensure that future accessibility requirements address innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual and mixed reality
Through a combination of legal insight and strategic engagement, Leela Baggett and Michael Barnett supported a legislative initiative that would advance accessibility and align federal policy with today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.
To read the full bill language, click here. To read the Sen. Markey’s press release, click here.
For more information, please contact Leela Baggett at Leela.Baggett@PowersLaw.com and Michael Barnett at Michael.Barnett@PowersLaw.com.
About Powers Law
Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville (“Powers”) is a Washington, DC-based law firm with national practices in healthcare, education, government relations, Indian tribal governments, and nonprofit law. Powers attorneys and professionals are nationally known for their extensive expertise in their practice areas and their commitment to client service. For more information, visit www.PowersLaw.com.