Karen Peltz Strauss is a national disability advocate who dedicates her time to expanding federal policies that ensure access by people with disabilities to our nation’s digital communication networks. Strauss previously served two tours of duty as Deputy Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, where she led the FCC’s efforts to improve telecommunications access for people with disabilities. Prior to this, Strauss worked with Gallaudet University’s National Center for Law and Deafness, the National Association of the Deaf and other advocacy organizations to author several landmark disability laws, including laws requiring telecommunications relay services, closed captioning and audio description, and accessible phones, tablets, and other devices used for digital communications. Strauss is now working with advocates on the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act (CVTA), a bill that would update these earlier laws. Strauss frequently has testified before Congress and presented on these issues at conferences – nationally and globally. In 2006, Strauss published her book – A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans – to chronicle this multi-decades quest for telecommunications access. Strauss holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an L.L.M from the Georgetown University Law Center and an honorary doctorate degree from Gallaudet University, the latter for her work on expanding communications accessibility.
