>Mostly for deaf, but some mention of blind...
Dave
>Press Release
>
>Source: Harris Corporation
>
>NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson University Launch Global Effort To
>Make
>Radio Accessible to Hearing and Sight Impaired
>
>Tuesday January 8, 12:00 pm ET
>
>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.
>Following the demonstration, the participating organizations unveiled
>details for the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology
>(ICART), which
>will be headquartered at Towson University in Towson, MD. Towson will
>house
>the primary administrative and academic research office for the
>initiative,
>with NPR Labs in Washington, DC, providing technology R&D and software
>development, and Harris Corporation supplying transmission and research
>support
>at its radio broadcast technology center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
>Members of the global initiative went on to detail plans to further
>study
>and understand the challenges faced by the sensory-impaired population
>in
>accessing
>radio broadcasts, and develop methodologies to address those issues
>through
>cutting-edge technologies. To ensure that the effort represents the
>widest
>range of participants and fosters the broadest possible adoption,
>organizers
>said they will work to bring together policymakers, broadcasters,
>transmission
>equipment companies and receiver manufacturers from around the world.
>Presently, the initiative has more than a dozen members, representing
>virtually every
>aspect of the "microphone to loudspeaker" chain: broadcasters, network
>content providers, infrastructure and transmission equipment companies,
>and
>receiver
>manufacturers. In addition to founding members NPR, Harris and Towson
>University, supporting organizations include iBiquity Digital
>Corporation,
>
>elphi,
>NDS, Radiosophy, Helen Keller Institute, Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family
>National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH(NCAM), Northern Virginia
>Resource Center
>for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, and the G3ict, an Advocacy
>Initiative
>of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.
>NPR, Harris and Towson will jointly determine strategic direction of the
>organization, with assistance from the initiative's full membership. NPR
>will provide
>much of the content, Harris will provide much of the transmission-
>related
>technologies, and Towson will provide research into the needs of the
>sensory-disabled
>population and will house the primary ICART facility on its campus.
>"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
>Radio
>receivers
>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 than 1,500 radio stations are currently broadcasting in HD Radio in
>the
>United States. Over half of the CPB-qualified stations have been awarded
>HD
>Radio conversion grants by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
>According to current estimates, by 2010, all 825 public radio stations
>should be broadcasting
>digitally.
>More information on the initiative can be found at
>www.i-cart.net.
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