Hello, my name is _____ and I am a (court reporter, captioner, legal videographer, scopist, firm owner, etc.) in your district. May I please speak to the staff person who handles _________ (relevant topic area of the prospective legislation, i.e., appropriations or educational issues) for the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator?
Reintroduce yourself to the staffer.
I am calling today to ask Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator _____ to support ________ (relevant topic area of the legislation; for instance, appropriations requests for court reporting and captioning programs nationwide to train new captioners). This funding will be used for curriculum development, distance learning opportunities, scholarships, recruitment, and job placement opportunities for graduates.
Without assistance from Congress, 37.5 million Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing will not be able to fully and actively participate in their professional, educational, and civic lives. Through captioning, captioners offer the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities the ability to receive news and other vital information from live television. Without captioning, the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities would have difficulty fully interacting and participating in civic and personal events.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandates that as of 2006 all new television programming must be captioned. With the increased captioning requirements of the Telecommunications Act and the growing demand for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), there are not enough realtime captioners to meet the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens to fulfill the mandates set out in the Telecommunications Act.
Include a personal story here.
I would appreciate it if Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator ____ would get back to me on this important issue. I can be reached on my cellphone at _____________ or can be reached by email at______________. If Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator _____ has any questions, please do not hesitate to call me.