For me and so many deaf Americans, key to achieving these ideals is the ability to effectively communicate. That’s why, on the 25th anniversary of the ADA in 2015, I wrote about the importance of ensuring that the federally regulated Video Relay Service (VRS), which many of us rely on to do so, be properly supported in order to keep pace with advances in telecommunications for all Americans.
Unfortunately, six years on, the gap in equity — or “functional equivalence” in the legal parlance of the ADA — has only widened.