[access-uk] Radio for the Deaf!?
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Access-Uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:33:58 -0000
Hope some will forgive the length of this post, but it is interesting.
I've not posted all of the article which is taken from the Blind
Access Journal, a link to it is given at the end.
Wonder if the new wonder DMB standard will incorporate these features
in Europe.
NPR launches effort to make radio fully accessible
Press Release
Source: Harris Corporation
NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson University Launch Global Effort To
Make
Radio Accessible to Hearing and Sight Impaired
First Over-The-Air Transmission From Special CES Station
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (LVCC S227) -- NPR, Harris
Corporation and Towson University today announced a new initiative to
make
radio more accessible to the hundreds of millions of hearing and
visually
impaired people around the world.
At a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,
the
three organizations announced the global accessible radio technology
initiative and provided the first live demonstration of the accessible
radio
technology. The group also announced a new research center for
developing
future technologies on the campus of Towson University near Baltimore,
MD. Additional plans call
for the establishment of an international consortium of equipment
manufacturers, broadcasters and other organizations to help foster
broad
adoption of the initiative.
The initiative will be spearheaded by the three founding organizations
and
will leverage cutting-edge HD Radio(TM) technology to enable
hearing-impaired people to "see" live radio content on specially
equipped
receivers by applying television closed-captioning processes to radio
broadcasts. The technology also will provide audio cues and voice
prompts,
as well as advanced radio reading services, for those visually
impaired and
blind.
"Digital radio technology makes it possible -- for the first time --
to
serve the sensory impaired," says Mike Starling, vice president and
chief
technology officer of NPR. "Beyond developing the technology, this
initiative will ensure the accessibility of these radio services at
minimal
costs."
During the press conference, the organizations showcased the first
over-the-air transmission of the accessible radio technology using a
signal
from WX3NPR, a special temporary station authorized by the FCC for the
live
broadcast.
Attendees at the press conference watched the text transcript of the
NPR
flagship morning news magazine "Morning Edition" on the HD Radio
receiver's
viewing screen, which is what a hearing-impaired listener will see
using the
technology.
Additionally, the demonstration carried a digital radio reading
service that
will assist the visually impaired with daily readings of current
books,
newspapers and magazines.
"We're working very closely with radio stations around the world to
ensure
they have the right technical infrastructure in place for this
initiative,"
said Howard Lance, chairman, president and chief executive officer of
Harris
Corporation. "The new HD Radio transmission systems we're installing
are
tailor-made for this effort, as their digital capabilities will make
it
relatively easy for stations to transmit live textual transcripts to
HD
Radio receivers."
"There is tremendous need for accessible radio for sensory-impaired
people,
including the deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, visually impaired, print
impaired, deaf/blind, and mobility impaired," said Dr. Ellyn
Sheffield,
assistant professor of psychology at Towson and co-director of ICART.
"There
is no question this initiative will have a profound impact on the
quality of
millions of people's lives. Finally, sensory-disabled individuals will
have
access to all radio programming, as well as radio emergency alerts and
vital
disaster recovery information."
HD Radio enables station operators to split their broadcasts up into
multiple channels, providing several CD-quality channels for their
audiences. Through this accessible radio initiative, a small amount of
the
total data capacity will be used to carry textual data that will be
shown
live on a screen on new versions of HD Radio receivers, essentially
providing a closed- captioning transcript of live broadcasts for the
deaf.
Initially, the closed-captioning text will be created by live,
court-reporting-type captioners at individual stations and networks.
Ultimately, the initiative is hoping to leverage advanced
speech-to-text
translation software applications that one day allow expansion of
captioning
across the radio dial. Specially equipped HD Radioreceivers are in
development with several features to provide the visually impaired
audience
with better access to broadcasts, such as audio prompts that notify
which
direction the tuner is going, what channel the radio is on, and
larger,
easier-to-read text on the radios.
More at:
http://blog.blindaccessjournal.com/
From Ray
I can be contacted off-list at:
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
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