SB2517sam004 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sen. John J. Cullerton

Filed: 3/19/2004

09300SB2517sam004 LRB093 17930 JAM 48723 a

AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 2517

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 2517 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Accessible Electronic Information Act.

Section 5. Legislative findings. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Thousands of citizens in this State have disabilities (including blindness or visual impairment) that prevent them from using conventional print material.

(b) The State fulfills an important responsibility by providing books and magazines prepared in Braille, audio, and large-type formats made available to eligible blind and disabled persons.

(c) The technology, transcription methods, and means of distribution used for these materials are labor-intensive and cannot support rapid dissemination to individuals in rural and urban areas throughout the State.

(d) Lack of direct and prompt access to information included in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, schedules, announcements, and other time-sensitive materials limits educational opportunities, literacy, and full participation in society by blind and disabled persons.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Accessible electronic information service" means news and other timely information (including newspapers) provided to eligible individuals from a multi-state service center, using high-speed computers and telecommunications technology for interstate acquisition of content and rapid distribution in a form appropriate for use by such individuals.

"Blind and disabled persons" means those individuals who are eligible for library loan services through the Library of Congress and the State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped pursuant to 36 CFR 701.10(b).

"Director" means the State Librarian.

"Qualified entity" means an agency, instrumentality, or political subdivision of the State or a nonprofit organization that:

(1) provides interstate access for eligible persons to read daily newspapers by producing audio editions by computer; and

(2) provides a means of program administration and reader registration on the Internet.

Section 15. Accessible electronic information service program. The Director by rule shall develop and implement a program of grants to qualified entities for the provision of accessible electronic information service to blind and disabled persons throughout Illinois. The grants shall be funded through appropriations from the Accessible Electronic Information Service Fund established in Section 20.

Section 20. Accessible Electronic Information Service Fund.

(a) In order to support the program described in Section 15, the Illinois Commerce Commission shall enter into an agreement with the Director for the purpose of recovering the cost by using the rate recovery mechanism established by the Commission pursuant to Section 13-703(c) of the Public Utilities Act.

(b) The Illinois Commerce Commission, in consultation with the Director, shall annually determine the amount to be recovered based on the amount of funding necessary to support the program described in Section 15.

(c) The portion of the rate recovery amount collected under Section 13-703(c) of the Public Utilities Act that is attributable to the percentage determined by the Illinois Commerce Commission under subsection (b) of this Section shall promptly be remitted to the Director by the Illinois Telecommunications Access Corporation or its successor designee under Section 13-703 of the Public Utilities Act. The amounts remitted shall be deposited into the Accessible Electronic Information Service Fund, a special fund created in the State treasury that may be appropriated only for the purposes of this Act.

Section 90. The State Finance Act is amended by adding Section 5.625 as follows:

(30 ILCS 105/5.625 new)

Sec. 5.625. The Accessible Electronic Information Service Fund.

Section 95. The Public Utilities Act is amended by changing Section 13-703 and adding Section 13-703.1 as follows:

(220 ILCS 5/13-703) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 13-703)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2005)

Sec. 13-703. (a) The Commission shall design and implement a program whereby each telecommunications carrier providing local exchange service shall provide a telecommunications device capable of servicing the needs of those persons with a hearing or speech disability together with a single party line, at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate, to any subscriber who is certified as having a hearing or speech disability by a licensed physician, speech-language pathologist, audiologist or a qualified State agency and to any subscriber which is an organization serving the needs of those persons with a hearing or speech disability as determined and specified by the Commission pursuant to subsection (d).

(b) The Commission shall design and implement a program, whereby each telecommunications carrier providing local exchange service shall provide a telecommunications relay system, using third party intervention to connect those persons having a hearing or speech disability with persons of normal hearing by way of intercommunications devices and the telephone system, making available reasonable access to all phases of public telephone service to persons who have a hearing or speech disability. In order to design a telecommunications relay system which will meet the requirements of those persons with a hearing or speech disability available at a reasonable cost, the Commission shall initiate an investigation and conduct public hearings to determine the most cost-effective method of providing telecommunications relay service to those persons who have a hearing or speech disability when using telecommunications devices and therein solicit the advice, counsel, and physical assistance of Statewide nonprofit consumer organizations that serve persons with hearing or speech disabilities in such hearings and during the development and implementation of the system. The Commission shall phase in this program, on a geographical basis, as soon as is practicable, but no later than June 30, 1990.

(c) The Commission shall establish a rate recovery mechanism, authorizing charges in an amount to be determined by the Commission for each line of a subscriber to allow telecommunications carriers providing local exchange service (i) to recover costs as they are incurred under this Section and (ii) to recover the costs of the Accessible Electronic Information Act program, as represented by the percentage determined by the Illinois Commerce Commission under Section 20(b) of that Act.

(d) The Commission shall determine and specify those organizations serving the needs of those persons having a hearing or speech disability that shall receive a telecommunications device and in which offices the equipment shall be installed in the case of an organization having more than one office. For the purposes of this Section, "organizations serving the needs of those persons with hearing or speech disabilities" means centers for independent living as described in Section 12a of the Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Act and not-for-profit organizations whose primary purpose is serving the needs of those persons with hearing or speech disabilities. The Commission shall direct the telecommunications carriers subject to its jurisdiction and this Section to comply with its determinations and specifications in this regard.

(e) As used in this Section, the phrase "telecommunications carrier providing local exchange service" includes, without otherwise limiting the meaning of the term, telecommunications carriers which are purely mutual concerns, having no rates or charges for services, but paying the operating expenses by assessment upon the members of such a company and no other person.

(Source: P.A. 88-497.)

(220 ILCS 5/13-703.1 new)

Sec. 13-703.1. Distribution of accessible information; Illinois State Library.

(a) For the purposes of this Section:

"Distribution of accessible information" means rapid dissemination of digitized text content, including newspapers, prepared for reproduction in synthetic speech or braille formats provided to persons eligible for service in the State Library's Talking Book Program.

"Qualified entity" means a nonprofit organization that (i) produces digitized text editions of daily newspapers, available for interstate distribution in synthetic speech or braille format, using high-speed computer and telecommunications technology, (ii) obtains electronic news text through direct transfer arrangements made with participating news organizations and does not replicate their electronic editions that are otherwise available on the Internet, and (iii) provides a means of program administration and reader registration on the Internet.

(b) The Illinois Telecommunications Access Corporation, or any other entity designated by the Illinois Commerce Commission to implement a program under Section 13-703 of this Act for the purposes of allowing those with hearing disabilities to use effective telecommunications equipment, shall enter into an agreement with the State Library providing for an annual payment in an amount equal to the cost incurred for the distribution of accessible information. Under the agreement, the State Library shall obtain the service through a qualified entity and provide blind and other persons eligible for its talking book program with access to digitized text editions of daily newspapers and other context of timely value.

(c) The State Library shall, in consultation with the qualified entity, specify equipment that may be used by eligible persons who, due to hearing loss, are unable to use effectively standard telecommunications equipment to access the content in the synthetic speech format otherwise provided, and the Illinois Telecommunications Access Corporation or any subsequent designee of the Illinois Commerce Commission shall acquire such equipment for such individuals under terms similar to those required of individuals to whom the Illinois Telecommunications Access Corporation provides TTY equipment.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.".