Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Edison. George Washington Carver. Samuel Morse. America is a nation of inventors, and invention has spurred American growth since its inception, to the benefit of all Americans.

That same spirit of invention continues today, and this Administration has worked tirelessly over the past seven years to promote pro-innovation policies to help the U.S. prosper and grow. One area the President has focused on has been spectrum —the airwaves over which our wireless communications travel. By focusing both on making more spectrum available for mobile broadband and supporting research and innovation into better spectrum usage, the President has helped satisfy ever-increasing demand for fast, high-capacity telecommunications that are critical to our economic future.

Today, the Administration continues to build on this history of innovation by announcing new wireless research efforts that will improve testing and research of advanced wireless technologies. This effort will help spur innovation in many ways, from pushing the frontiers of tele-medicine through robot-assisted remote surgeries, to testing of autonomous vehicles that talk to each other to keep us safe, to the roll-out of smart manufacturing equipment in factories, to providing more connectivity for more people. Each one of these innovations has the potential to support increased productivity growth that can put more money in the pocket of American families.

And it comes on the heels of seven remarkable years on broadband growth in the United States, where the average American has seen the speed of wireless broadband multiply up to tenfold, and the tripling of even higher-bandwidth home broadband. This effort began in the first days of this Administration when the President signed the Recovery Act, which funded almost $7 billion in broadband investments, resulting in the deployment of more than 115,000 miles of new or improved broadband infrastructure.

The President also launched initiatives like ConnectED which is on track to connect 99% of students to fast broadband and wireless in their classrooms and libraries by 2018, and ConnectALL, his initiative to get 20 million more Americans to adopt broadband by 2020.

The President’s efforts on wireless kicked into high gear in 2010, when he issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Commerce through the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) to collaborate with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make available 500 MHz of spectrum for commercial broadband use by 2020. We are halfway to this goal, thanks to hard work from nearly two dozen Federal agencies to free up spectrum for auction and innovative new plans to share the airwaves.

The FCC’s 2015 spectrum auction was its most successful ever, raising more than $40 billion in revenue for the Federal government while spurring the deployment of faster wireless broadband. And this year, the FCC launched an innovative “incentive” auction that will make available substantial additional spectrum in a win-win-win fashion: broadcast stations can voluntarily sell their spectrum if that makes them better off, wireless providers can voluntarily purchase the spectrum if that will support their consumers, all while raising revenue for the Treasury.

Thanks in large part to these forward-thinking spectrum policy initiatives, the United States has become a world leader in wireless, achieving the goal the President set in the 2011 State of the Union that more than 98 percent of Americans should have access to fast 4G/LTE mobile broadband, which operates at speeds up to ten times faster than eight years ago. These policies also help to ensure that the United States is ahead of the curve in working to avoid a spectrum crunch, where the fixed amount of spectrum available would limit new development.

Why has this Administration worked so hard to free up spectrum, to get people connected, and to create wireless laboratories for businesses, entrepreneurs and local governments to experiment with new wireless applications?

The answer is simple: to grow the economy. Innovation is a key driver of productivity growth, and productivity growth will help to raise living standards and wages. These policies are designed to enable Americans of all backgrounds to participate—and innovate—in our increasingly digital economy, both driving productivity growth and sharing in its benefits. A recent CEA report describes the many benefits to connectivity.

But we have more work ahead of us to ensure that the benefits of these innovations—higher standards of living, real wages, etc.—are accessible to all Americans. That is why, in addition to traditional pro-growth policies, this Administration has also pursued initiatives that help everyone get connected, and maximize the impacts when people do get online, so that all Americans can take part in the new economic opportunities that come as a result of new innovations.

Today, for example, marks the one-year anniversary of ConnectHome, an initiative led by HUD to extend affordable broadband access to families living in HUD-assisted housing in 28 pilot communities, increase digital literacy, and provide access to low-cost devices. With new commitment from internet service provider partners like Comcast and Cox, both of whom are extending their low-cost offers to HUD-assisted households within their footprint, ConnectHome will now reach over 2 million Americans. That can be a game-changer for Americans like Stacie B., a single mother in Little Rock, Arkansas, who through this program received digital literacy training, a tablet, and low-cost Internet—all of which helped her gain new job skills, and her daughter apply for college and financial aid.

That sort of change at the community level will go even further when the Federal Reserve Bank releases new guidance next week on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) funding. “Closing the Digital Divide: A Framework for Meeting CRA Obligations,” will outline how banks can apply more of the $100 billion in CRA funding nationwide to support broadband in underserved communities.

Whether they’re helping Americans get online at home or on the go, where they learn or where they work, these efforts are making a difference for our economy—allowing American families, businesses, and entrepreneurs to innovate and benefit from innovations, and helping continue to drive America’s productivity growth in the same way that our great inventors have done for years.

In today’s digital age, connectivity is opportunity. Those on the wrong side of the digital divide have a tougher time getting the skills they require for higher-paying jobs, applying to job openings once they have those skills, helping their kids with homework, or even just getting better prices on life’s necessities — even though they’re among those who need it most.That’s why today’s move by the FCC is so important.

There’s more work to do. Today, families that earn less than $25,000 a year are half as likely to have Internet at home than those who are well-off. So earlier this month the President announced ConnectALL: to help mobilize a national effort by the government, private sector, and non-profits to give more Americans access to the affordable broadband, digital literacy tools, and devices they need to open up a world of online opportunity. In just one month, we’ve made real progress. 

Connecting 20 million more Americans by 2020 is an ambitious goal, but today, the FCC put it well within reach.

About ConnectALL

ConnectALL is the Administration’s effort to help Americans from across the country, at every income level, get online and have the tools to take full advantage of the internet. ConnectALL, establishes an ambitious goal to connect 20 million more Americans to broadband by 2020 by working together with governments, the private sector and philanthropy, to deliver low-cost broadband service, digital literacy training and affordable devices for low-income Americans.

What if we could ensure that every student, no matter where they live or the income of their parents, could get access to a great book?  What if they had access to not just one book, but a library of thousands of titles – and could read them from anywhere?

We’ve taken a big step toward that vision thanks to Open eBooks, a stakeholder-driven project that the President highlighted last April, and that after months of hard work by a team of libraries, publishers, and non-profits, is launching nationwide today. For millions of America’s kids, Open eBooks can be a passport to a world of learning and opportunity – delivering over $250 million of reading material to students who need it most, and introducing them to a love of reading.

Why is this so important?  Ask Colin Rogister, who helps lead the Administration’s ConnectED initiative. Colin began his career as a 2nd grade teacher at a low-income elementary school in California, where he taught Marlene, a DREAMer whose parents emigrated from Mexico to find a better life. An advanced reader, it only took Marlene a few months to finish every chapter-book in Colin’s classroom. If she had been able to access a resource like Open eBooks, she would have had thousands of popular and award-winning books at her fingertips. Stories like Marlene’s help inspire efforts like Open eBooks.

The President said it best:

“No matter who you are, where you live, or how much money you’ve got, you should be able to access the world’s knowledge and information just like anyone else.”

President Obama, Anacostia Library, April 30, 2015

Open eBooks helps advance ConnectED’s vision of seizing every opportunity technology affords to ensure students, inside and outside the classroom, have access to the best teaching and learning. Thanks to President Obama’s leadership, we've already cut the connectivity divide in half in schools. Meanwhile, more students than ever – at all income levels – have access at school or home to a digital device, whether a tablet, laptop, or mobile phone. According to a national survey, 85 percent of families with young children (6-13 years old) living below the poverty line have access to mobile devices. That translates into a unique opportunity to deliver more and better content to students with a hunger to learn.

Open eBooks is not a federal program; it was created by a breakthrough coalition of literacy, library, publishing, and technology organizations who worked together over the past year to make the initiative possible. This team – Digital Public Library of America, First Book, and The New York Public Library with content support from digital books distributor Baker & Taylor – created the app, curated the eBook collection, and developed a system for distribution and use. They received support for development of technology critical to the app from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and content contributions from ten major publishers — including today’s big announcement that National Geographic will include all its age-appropriate content in the app.

But they can’t do this alone. To make sure students can take advantage, they need the help of a responsible adult — those who work with children in need through libraries, schools, shelters and clinics, out-of-school programs, and early childhood programs; and those who work primarily with students in military families. This includes teachers, librarians, after-school counselors, and others primarily serving students in need. Students with codes can then download the free Open eBooks app to mobile devices from their mobile app store and enter their access code to start enjoying Open eBooks.

For more information on how to sign up and to connect young people with the eBooks they need, visit www.OpeneBooks.net.
 

For those with hearing or speech impairments, digital video and other tools have helped these communities stay connected and working, rather than isolated. So, as the White House celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we’re announcing some new steps to help the government stay accessible to all Americans using the latest technology. 

We are pleased to announce that two agencies that routinely interface with the disabilities community — the U.S. Census Bureau and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) — will soon be taking up direct video calling technology to allow Deaf citizens to communicate directly with American Sign Language (ASL)-fluent call operators there. This work responds to the President’s 2011 executive order calling upon agencies to use technology to improve customer service, and is another step in the right direction.

Why? In general, citizens who are deaf reach federal agencies via third-party interpreters who facilitate their conversations by interpreting to those on the other end of the line. But broadband and faster connections have made direct video calling not just possible, but commonplace. With this technology, the result can be a call that is direct, clear, and can allow Americans who are deaf to communicate in American Sign Language. 

And that’s why the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led the charge last year, as the first federal agency to accept direct video calls from the Deaf, so that ASL-speaking Americans could connect with customer service representatives fluent in ASL and communicate with them directly rather than via an interpreter. In June, the Small Business Administration responded to the FCC’s initiative by starting their own direct video communication pilot, which will allow entrepreneurs who are deaf to better access the Small Business Administration’s services. And today, two more agencies have joined this growing effort.

But the federal government shouldn’t be the only place that people who are deaf can benefit from these new tools. To push this technology even further, the FCC is also funding the development of a free open-source software platform to be released in May 2016 — the Video Access Platform (VAP) application — which would be HIPAA compliant and allow citizens with hearing and speech impairments to communicate via video and text simultaneously using any computer or smartphone. This new software will be designed to easily layer on top of direct video calling technology adopted by agencies today, and will also be available to companies, state and local governments, and non-profit organizations to help them improve their customer service as well. 

Once complete, this tool will help speed adoption of direct video calling, both by federal agencies and by the private sector, because every American deserves to have their voice heard.

One afternoon in late 2012 the tech and education teams had a few minutes to compare notes. And that day, we realized the same problem had been bugging us all: Internet access in schools was incredibly slow. So slow, in fact, that the average American school had the same connectivity as the average American home -- but served hundreds of times as many people.

We all know slow Internet is the worst -- and it’s doubly frustrating when it’s a matter of kids learning, and not just a given evening’s entertainment.

Slow Internet in our schools meant teachers in separate classrooms couldn’t do something as basic as stream a couple of videos at the same time. It meant that interactive maps or online biology lessons simply wouldn’t load.

So even if a school wanted to invest in a tablet for every child, in our Wi-Fi world, it couldn’t be much more than a backlit textbook. If we didn’t do anything about it, school would become the only place in kids’ lives not being transformed by technology.

For those of us on the economics team, it meant that some of the best innovators didn’t want to turn their talents to education, because it required designing yesterday’s technology. And that meant if we did nothing, the United States -- the country that invented the Internet and is home to the digital revolution -- wouldn’t be able to lead in this global market. That would be a loss for our workforce and our economic future.

Two years ago, the President challenged us to choose another path.

He gave the dream of revolutionizing K-12 education a voce when he announced ConnectED—a challenge to the government, private sector, and educators to make sure that students reap the benefits of the digital world in every classroom. And he made a commitment that high-quality digital learning tools would need to extend far beyond the nation’s wealthiest schools. As the President said, “[i]n a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, we should definitely demand it in our schools.” He started by setting some goals. First, he committed to connect 99 percent of students to high-speed broadband and wireless in the classroom within five years. Meanwhile, he said: Let’s cut the price of a tablet or laptop to compete with a textbook and commit to transforming schools to take part in this digital revolution. And finally, he asked companies and philanthropies to dig deep to make sure every student has these opportunities – not just a privileged few.

For two years, the White House team, with the Department of Education, and a coalition of visionary civil society and private sector leaders have helped deliver on President Obama’s dream. We’ve been joined by non-profit leaders who were already gathering data and sounding the alarm bells and many more who have joined. And we’ve come a long way. The numbers tell part of the story:

To make it happen, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led with way with $8 billion in new funding by modernizing its “E-Rate” program -- and that’s put us on track to connect the schools and upgrade their Internet speeds. The President also announced that another $2 billion will be coming from the private sector in commitments of free technology and training to make use of that new, quality connectivity.

And most important are the superintendents, principals, teachers, and parents who are committed to making it happen — over 14 million of them, in 1,900 districts in all 50 states, and counting.

Where exactly are we seeing that impact? Take a look.

Here’s where, just in the last two months, dedicated funding has gone to upgrade school connectivity.

Here’s how many communities have schools benefitting from that free technology.

And here’s where districts have joined the Future Ready Network to make ConnectED a reality in their schools.

We’re all used to seeing maps dispersing any number of datasets, but think about this one for a second.

Every dot on that map represents another community that can benefit from personalized learning, and more students who can learn at their own pace, get instantaneous feedback, and struggle and succeed, all without fear of embarrassment.

Every dot on that map represents another parent who can be confident that their kids are learning how to use the same software and devices they’ll need to land a high-paying job.

Every dot on that map is another school district that is joining this national movement.

And that matters — for kids today, and for our nation’s future. In just two years, ConnectED has helped accelerate a tipping point in transforming American education. It’s going to take more than wires and wireless to make this vision a reality, but none of it can happen without the infrastructure, resources, and community that ConnectED is helping to build.

So I hope you’ll join us in helping communities around the country upgrade teaching and learning for the 21st century.

R. David Edelman is Special Assistant to the President for Economic & Technology Policy.

Want to dig deeper?

• You can learn about all things ConnectED here.
• If you're a teacher, student, or parent, you can find out how you can take advantage of the ConnectED private-sector commitments here.
• Learn more about the national movement committed to transforming schools at the grassroots level.

“I intend to protect a free and open internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks, so that the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs have the platform to keep reshaping our world.”

– President Obama, State of the Union, January 20, 2015

In addition to reaffirming his commitment to strong net neutrality, the President had a lot to say last week about the need for broadband that works, and how it can help drive our economy and deliver high-paying jobs. It was a renewal of his commitment earlier this month in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to use every tool the federal government has to support communities trying to deliver high-speed broadband — which, in his words, “is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.” 

From municipal groups like the National League of Cities, to industry associations like CompTel, to leaders in Congress and public interest groups, the response was overwhelmingly positive. And as we look to what’s next, we are pleased to see Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) joining the President’s call to level the playing field for new competitors.

What does this mean for you?

If your region has a great community broadband offering, encourage leaders involved with the project to participate in the White House Community Broadband Summit, or one of the regional workshops slated for this year, to share the experience. If your area is considering new broadband solutions — including community broadband — your state and local leaders will find a wealth of new resources from the Department of Commerce. And if you’re just not satisfied with the quality of Internet available where you live, get involved! Check out some of the regions around the country in our new report on community broadband to see what happens when a few involved citizens, in partnership with local leaders and the private sector, make bold commitments to bringing more competition and faster, better broadband into their area.

So what’s next?

First, just days after the President’s State of the Union, we are seeing leaders in Congress and around the country take action — and have been particularly encouraged to see Sens. Booker, Markey, and McCaskill lend their voices to the need to restore a level playing field for communities seeking to deliver broadband that works.

Next month, we will hold the first meeting of the Broadband Opportunity Council, bringing together over a dozen agencies in the federal government with a single purpose: to slash unnecessary barriers that could keep companies from investing, entering new markets, or building fast broadband infrastructure.

And the Administration as a whole is taking action. For example, the Department of Agriculture has officially opened its Community Connect program for the next round of loans, and eligible providers can begin applying today.

The Department of Commerce has launched its new BroadbandUSA initiative, and has put the final touches on its primer to help communities encourage Internet adoption and explore options to bring faster, better broadband to more places. To learn more about the support that BroadbandUSA can provide your community, Commerce will host a free webinar on January 28 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern — you can RSVP here.

BroadbandUSA will also be holding a Regional Workshop on February 4 in Jackson, Mississippi, and in the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing plans for more regional events around the nation, as well as the Community Broadband Summit slated for this summer here at the White House. 

So get involved, in your community and online, and watch this space for more news on how the nation is coming together in support of faster, better broadband.

You should also see:

• 5 Things You Need to Know About President Obama's Broadband Announcement

Earlier today, President Obama traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa to share how this small city has done some big things to deliver lightning-fast Internet to the entire metro area. This afternoon, he toured the Cedar Falls Utilities headquarters to see how technicians connect homes and businesses to the area's fiber optic network, and called for more communities to deliver this vital resource to their economy.

So here are five things you need to know about today’s announcement.

1. Fiber optic Internet is really, really fast.

The average American broadband customer has around 10 Mbps, which means downloading an HD movie would take around 22 minutes. Once reserved for research universities and major telecommunications carriers, fiber optic Internet is now available direct to homes and businesses. And along with it comes blazing speeds of around 1 gigabyte -- or 1,000 megabytes -- per second. That's around 100 times faster than the average American Internet connection, and brings down the time to download that same HD movie to around eight seconds. That’s right: eight seconds.

2. Cedar Falls, Iowa has really, really fast fiber optic Internet. For everyone in town.

If you live, or have a business in Cedar Falls, you can get a "gig," and you can get it for less than many Americans pay for premium cable. Now not everyone needs access to all that speed, and not every town will find fiber optic Internet to be the answer for them -- but communities deserve to decide for themselves, and to experience the benefits that come with it. 

3. Fast, affordable Internet is about a lot more than watching movies or online gaming.

Fast broadband can be a magnetic force for a local economy -- it keeps existing businesses in town and thriving, and attracts new ones, creating jobs. In his speech, the President outlined just how broadband is helping spur economic revitalization in towns across the country, including here in Cedar Falls. And fast Internet isn't just about helping technology companies, either. It can help small businesses stay competitive, giving them access to the full range of cloud services and online tools to streamline everything from payroll to collaborating with others. And, yes, it's great for streaming movies and MMORPGs, too.

4. But it’s not available all across the country.

There’s been some impressive investment across the country, and for some, speeds have continued to rise -- in fact between 2009 and 2012, annual investment in U.S. wireless networks grew more than 40%, from $21 billion to $30 billion. Yet around half the country's rural population cannot even get access at a quarter of the speed of Cedar Falls -- and when they do, they rarely have more than one provider to choose from. We can’t afford to leave so many parts of the country without a vibrant, competitive broadband marketplace.

5. President Obama’s announcements today will help bring faster, cheaper Internet for more Americans.

In the 1920s, some argued that reliable electricity was a luxury, too expensive to offer to the entire country, and its uses too uncertain for rural communities to take full advantage. From supporting community efforts to bringing faster and better broadband to citizens to removing regulatory barriers to build-out and investment, the President's announcements today are all aimed at helping more communities in America get access to this transformative -- and essential -- technology. 

 

But times have changed, and some of the best ladders to well-paying, middle-class jobs are in IT fields across our economy. That’s because the average salary in a job that requires IT skills -- whether in manufacturing, advertising, hospitality, or banking -- is more than one and a half times higher than the average private-sector American job.

This week, the President and Vice President are announcing important reforms in the way Federal programs train and retrain workers. To meet the demand for IT and cybersecurity skills, we will also be kicking off a significant new effort focused on bridging the gap between workers, technology skills, and employers.

IT and cybersecurity jobs are not just for PhDs. In fact, hundreds of thousands of these jobs require skills that can be learned not only in universities, but also in community colleges, in industry certified training programs, in “coding boot camps” or in high-quality online courses. And they’re not just in Silicon Valley, or in the high tech industry. A recent Corporate Executive Board (CEB) analysis showed that Philadelphia had 31,000 open IT jobs in 2013 -- more than three unfilled jobs for every 10 current IT workers. Some of those in-demand IT jobs were in software companies, but many more were in other industries we don’t think of as part of the technology sector -- in health care, retail, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, or in local government.

Our goal is to create more stories like Daniel DuBravec’s. Daniel is from Virginia, and after being laid off at age 51, he enrolled in a six-month program to build on his skills and get a credential in the in-demand field of healthcare IT. He gained the skills he needed to compete in the new economy and earn a better life -- without going back to a four-year college, or taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in new debt. As Daniel told the President last month, that program gave him a “fair shake and the ability to show that hard work and determination can still make a difference in this great country of ours."

This is a real opportunity, and to seize it, our mission is clear: Get more Americans like Daniel on the path to fill one of the hundreds of thousands of vacancies companies have right now in IT by providing every possible opportunity for them to gain the skills to be competitive doing so. When companies can’t fill these jobs, it costs them, and it makes it harder to keep jobs on our shores and to encourage businesses to bring new operations to the United States. That’s something we need to change.

There are a number of ways to get there. Some programs have pioneered ways to give learners professional skills, and even certifications, in a fraction of the time. Others, such as the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) led by the federal government, have helped fill critical gaps in our workforce to protect networks and critical infrastructure, in part by providing educational institutions with the tools and recognition to attract and train workers in this vital field. These are the kinds of programs we want to amplify, and strategically scale up to serve the economy more broadly.

Success will require bringing together industry and employers with universities, community colleges, and short-term training providers, professional associations, tech innovators, community-based nonprofits, local workforce and economic development agencies, and more. We’ll be united around a common purpose: to develop innovative partnerships and programs to better train those entering the workforce with the skills employers are saying they need, and provide flexible and affordable options for those already in the workforce looking to move into or up into these in-demand jobs. The White House will work to bring these stakeholders together, and will work with local and state leaders to do the same in their communities.

In the coming months, building upon the opportunities and recommendations identified in the Vice President’s report on Job-Driven Training, we’ll be announcing a number of new steps to expand the opportunities across the country for hard-working Americans who want to train for IT jobs with burgeoning demand like cybersecurity.

Because, in a country that leads the world in technological innovation, training or retraining for an IT job is an opportunity to which every American deserves access. Does your company, academic institution, or non-profit want to get involved? Email us to let us know.

Byron Auguste is Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. R. David Edelman is Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation, and Privacy.

It's common sense, good for competition and innovation, and essential to consumers.  That's why the Administration declared last March that "It's time to legalize cell phone unlocking," and today the President commended Congress for doing just that:

I applaud Members of Congress for passing the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. Last year, in response to a "We the People" petition from consumers across our country, my Administration called for allowing Americans to use their phones or mobile devices on any network they choose. We laid out steps the FCC, industry, and Congress should take to ensure copyright law does not undermine wireless competition, and worked with wireless carriers to reach a voluntary agreement that helps restore this basic consumer freedom. The bill Congress passed today is another step toward giving ordinary Americans more flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cell phone carrier that meets their needs and their budget. I commend Chairmen Leahy and Goodlatte, and Ranking Members Grassley and Conyers for their leadership on this important consumer issue and look forward to signing this bill into law.

Everyone has done their part to get here -- from the FCC convening carriers, to the industry agreeing to voluntary steps to make their unlocking process transparent and reliable.  And as he said today, the President looks forward to signing this bill into law. It's just one more way he is taking the lead in making life a little easier for the middle class, and ensuring our technology remains the envy of the world.

You called, the President answered, and together we made cell phone unlocking happen.

In April, 2012, President Obama expressed the United States’ commitment to a treaty that “ensures that copyright is not a barrier to equal access to information, culture, and education for visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities.” This week in Morocco, we made good on that commitment, joining with over 150 states in approving a landmark treaty that holds the potential to open up a world of knowledge to a population that is too often shut off from it.

According to the World Blind Union, of the million or so books published in the world each year, less than 5 percent are made available in formats accessible to the visually-impaired. We call this “book famine.” No one has said it better than Stevie Wonder, the world-famous singer-songwriter and prominent advocate for the treaty: we must “end the information deprivation that continues to keep the visually impaired in the dark” — and today, we are proud to mark a major achievement in that effort.

The treaty adopted today can help do just that by facilitating the development and distribution of accessible-format print works within the framework of the international copyright system. That is why organizations as diverse as the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Federation of the Blind have already come together in praise of this achievement. In adopting this Treaty, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Members, including the United States, demonstrated the continued contributions a modern and dynamic copyright system plays in promoting creativity and enabling access to knowledge worldwide.

In Stevie’s words, this treaty can “open the doors to the world’s written treasures, moving toward a future where there are no barriers to the expansion of knowledge and the enjoyment of culture — even for the visually impaired.” The approval of its text is the first step towards formally approving it at home and bringing it into force worldwide. We are proud to have played a leading role in its negotiation, and thank our experts throughout the Administration, and advocates from across the United States, whose tireless efforts helped us reach this milestone.

You can read more of our government’s statements about the treaty here: from PTO, State, and IMLS.

Several White House officials were on hand for the Conference’s opening days, where the hosts in the United Arab Emirates welcomed delegates and took some positive steps to address concerns the Conference be accessible to those outside its halls. As a crossroads in the interconnected global economy, Dubai is a natural venue to bring together the diversity of voices and views at the WCIT.

From the start, the U.S. position has been clear: the WCIT should be about updating a public telecommunications treaty to reflect today’s market-based realities — not a new venue to create regulations on the Internet, private networks, or the data flowing across them.