With the help of high-resolution video and fast broadband connections, advances in telemedicine are coming rapidly. The use of broadband technology in health care is becoming more widespread everyday.

We at the AAPD are glad to partner with Speed Matters to raise awareness about how broadband can improve the lives of disabled persons. The Speed Matters Benefits section enumerates the many ways in which broadband enables people with disabilities and can provide opportunities for independence. Currently, studies show that disabled people use the Internet only half as much as those without disabilities. In partnering with Speed Matters, we seek to ensure that broadband service is not only affordable, but also accessible and usable for all Americans - including those with disabilities.

We have discussed the impact that broadband access can have on healthcare for some time. With the help of our friends at App-rising.com, we are taking a deeper look into the specific ways expanded and improved broadband access can improve healthcare. App-rising lists ten applications that can improve the quality, speed, and communication of various medical procedures. Speed Matters highlights three of those ten applications.

In comments submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Communications Workers of America (CWA) commended the FCC for moving forward promptly to develop a national broadband plan. CWA recommends that the Commission hold a series of public hearings to solicit guidance for the plan, set specific benchmarks to increase broadband speeds to the home, establish tax incentives to encourage broadband build out and upgrades, and safeguard consumers and create quality jobs.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the first quarterly report on the progress of the national broadband plan stipulated in the economic stimulus package. The report highlights the timetable for the grant application process and the beginning of a 7.2 billion-dollar federal investment in improving America's nationwide broadband services.

At Tuesday's hearing on Why Broadband Matters before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, one theme that arose again and again was the power of high speed Internet to help less-advantaged people across the U.S. Of course, the problem is that people who could benefit the most from this technology -- such as low-income, rural, and elderly Americans -- are also the least likely to have access.

Elderly and chronically ill patients are turning to telehealth home-monitoring services to reduce office and hospital visits, curb costs and possibly lead to better patient outcomes.

The Alliance for Public Technology has just released a new report, Broadband Initiatives: Enhancing Lives and Transforming Communities, which documents examples of how high speed networks have changed the lives, and saved the lives, of individuals and communities in ways that many of us could not have even imagined 5 years ago. In a short video, Dr. Curtis Lowery, of the ANGELS program in Arkansas, explains how rural women who never would have had access to pre-natal care now can access it locally.

This summer The Children's Partnership, national nonprofit child advocacy organization, published a report about high speed internet access and children with disabilities. The report concludes that while high speed connections are important for all American families, those with children who have physical and learning disabilities can benefit even more.

High speed internet holds a lot of promise for improving the lives of the deaf and hard of hearing. Videophone service allows them to converse without relying on traditional methods like teletypewriters and texting services that are slow and awkward.