Access to Locally Televised On-Screen Information

1. Access to Locally Televised On-Screen Information Geoff Freed Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media WGBH Educational Foundation geoff_freed@wgbh.org

2. About NCAM • The Media Access Group at WGBH is a non-profit service (offices in Boston and Los Angeles) • The Caption Center (est. 1972) • the world's first captioning agency • makes audiovisual media accessible to audiences who are deaf or hard-of-hearing • Descriptive Video Service (est. 1990) • makes television, film & video accessible to audiences who are blind or visually impaired • The National Center for Accessible Media (est. 1993) • a research, development and advocacy entity • works to make existing & emerging technologies accessible to all audiences • digital television, convergent media, educational technologies, web, multimedia

3. Access to Locally Televised On-Screen Information • October 2005 – September 2008; extended until September 2009; http://ncam.wgbh.org/onscreen • Exploring solutions to enable local television stations to convey both emergency and non-emergency information in a manner that meets the communication needs of people with sensory disabilities. • Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education • Partner television station: WCVB; Hearst-Argyle

4. Project Activities • Develop prototype software to intercept data from various sources, then extract, transform and prepare it for text display or for speech output. • Create demonstration models. • Publish guidelines for local television stations which suggest implementation schemes for various equipment configurations, and provide recommendations for further study.

5. Rules regarding accessibility of on-screen information • FCC 47 C.F.R. Part 79, established in 2000: • Emergency information that is provided in the audio portion of the programming must be made accessible to persons with hearing disabilities by using a method of closed captioning or by using a method of visual presentation. • Emergency information that is provided in the video portion of a regularly scheduled newscast, or newscast that interrupts regular programming, must be made accessible to persons with visual disabilities.

6. Rules regarding accessibility of on-screen information • Emergency information that is provided in the video portion of programming that is not a regularly scheduled newscast, or a newscast that interrupts regular programming, must be accompanied with an aural tone. • Emergency information should not block any closed captioning and any closed captioning should not block any emergency information provided by means other than closed captioning.

7. Rules regarding accessibility of on-screen information • Emergency information should not block any video description and any video description provided should not block any emergency information provided by means other than video description.

8. Examples of current practice

9. Examples of current practice

10. Solutions: descriptions • Analog: One stream of additional audio inserted into the SAP channel.

11. Solutions: descriptions • Multiple streams of information

12. How it’s done: TTS

13. Solutions: captions • Relocate captions as necessary • software that monitors position of on-screen graphics so that captions may be automatically relocated when there is a conflict between the two elements

14. Solutions: relocatable captions (lower-third)

15. Solutions: relocatable captions (upper-third)

16. How it’s done: captions • Application monitors a scene open in DekoCast • Controls GPI outputs to control an EEG CB412 Caption Data Bridge • CB412 is used to relocate closed caption text away from lines where it would obscure the graphics underneath

17. How it’s done: captions

18. Guidelines • Publication of guidelines for local stations that summarize... • how software can be used to prepare data for translation to speech, and inserted into the broadcast stream; • suggestions for an array of implementation schemes for various equipment configurations; • recommendations for further study.

19. Additional work in accessible alerts • Access to Emergency Alerts, 4-year grant from U.S. Dept. of Commerce; http://ncam.wgbh.org/alerts • United industry and consumers to identify replicable approaches to accessible notification • Resources include: • Information requirements model • Consumer, emergency management & social science research reports • Recommendations to media, government, industry, emergency management and consumers

20. Excerpted recommendations to media • Produce a library of fully accessible (text, audio, video) emergency messages that can be delivered on-air, via mobile devices, the Web, shown in shelters, etc. • Instruct on-air news personnel to audibly describe what is visually presented (e.g., maps, remote broadcasts, etc.) • Provide captions & audio descriptions for video delivered on the Web • Ensure that broadcasters’ Web sites are fully accessible

21. Access to Locally TelevisedOn-Screen Information Geoff Freed geoff_freed@wgbh.org http://ncam.wgbh.org/onscreen