STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Video Description: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video 
Accessibility Act of 2010, MB Docket No. 11-43.
It’s a question we’re all familiar with: What to watch?  For most of us, the answer lies in a 
dizzying array of channels, an expanding number of screens, and an exploding range of on-demand 
programming.  But for the 20 million Americans with vision loss—including an increasing number of 
veterans—answering this question is much more difficult.  
Six years ago this began to change, when Congress passed the Twenty-First Century 
Communications and Video Accessibility Act.  This law pried open the doors of digital age opportunity 
and provided broader access to video programming through video description.
With video description, those with vision loss no longer miss facial expressions, visual jokes, or 
critical scene changes.  That’s because video description makes video programming accessible to 
individuals who are blind or visually impaired by inserting narrative descriptions of key visual elements 
in television programming.  Ask anyone who is wrestling with vision loss—this is a policy that makes 
more programming more accessible to more of us.
Today, the Commission takes steps to update its video description requirements.  We ask about 
increasing the number of required hours of video description programming and the number of networks 
subject to our rules.  At the same time, we consider how viewing habits are changing.  We ask how our 
policies should apply in a world where so much programming is on demand and scheduling our lives 
around an original air date is no longer necessary.  These are important questions.  I hope we can address 
them in short order.  And I hope that as we do we can also provide more answers to the timeworn 
question about what to watch—for those who are visually impaired.