Congress and federal agencies have adopted many laws and regulations that has improved the daily lives for people with hearing loss. Access to communications, transportation, healthcare, government programs and emergency services have expanded opportunities to communicate effectively.
The Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 required TC sets with screens larger than 13 inches to have closed captioning.
HLAA returned to congress and secured the second major captioning law. The 1996 amendments to the Communications Act of 1934, which established comprehensive closed captioning obligations for most TV programming.
As technology continued to grow, HLAA pushed for reform. In 2010, their efforts help establish the Century Communications and Video Act (CVAA). This requires shows with captioning be available over the internet, to devices of all sizes. In 2014 the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) adopted captioning quality standards, requiring captioning be accurate, complete and synchronized with audio.