Which law? Mike Yared http://www.captions.org/caplaw.cfm TV 'captioning' for blind required Network affiliates in Indianapolis must begin offering special narration of what is happening on the screen. http://www.indystar.com/article.php?blindcap01.html By Marcella Fleming April 01, 2002 Starting today, network affiliates in the country's top 25 TV markets --including Indianapolis -- face a federal requirement to provide for their blind audiences what they already do for the deaf: captions. So-called "captioning for the blind" offers, between dialogue, brief spoken descriptions of what's happening on screen. As the narrator paints a picture with words, people who can't see can still envision subtle yet crucial details: facial expressions, gestures and scenery essential to the program's plot. Not everyone will hear the narration; a television's SAP -- secondary audio programming channel -- must be set to receive it. But the service will be limited, amounting to about four hours a week. From now until June 30, each affiliate must offer 50 hours of described shows in prime time or children's programming. Compliance is measured in three-month periods. As late as Friday, the TV industry was trying to delay today's scheduled start of the service. But the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington refused, saying no compelling reason had been offered for overriding the Federal Communications Commission's deadline. (The court has yet to rule on whether the requirement itself should be overturned.) "I just knew that they would do the right thing," said Dolly Sowder, a Bedford resident with virtually no sight. Her audible e-mail was abuzz last weekend as word of the decision spread among her colleagues at the American Council of the Blind. She is president of Indiana's council. "It's easy to tell what's going on by the voices," she said. But "when it's quiet and there's nobody to describe what's going on, I either try to figure out what I've missed, or I just give up." CBS has told its stations to expect the dramas JAG and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation to be the first described broadcasts, said Rick Thedwall, director of programming and operations at WISH (Channel 8). When the broadcasts will begin isn't clear, he said. It is difficult to say how many of Indiana's estimated 216,000 blind or visually impaired residents will have access to the service. Indianapolis is the state's only top market, ranking 25th, as measured by the Nielsen Research Co. Hoosiers who get the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates in the No. 3 market, Chicago, will also have access. But neither Cincinnati nor Louisville, Ky., is large enough to qualify for the FCC's initial requirement. However, smaller affiliates that have the technology to broadcast descriptions are required to do so. But some of the roughly 51,000 blind or visually impaired residents in the nine-county Indianapolis metro area might forgo the service. "It's not popular with everyone," said Pat Price, president and founder of Vision World Wide, an Indianapolis nonprofit information clearinghouse that serves mostly professionals, including doctors, hospitals and rehabilitation clinics. Some blind consumers find the descriptive asides more annoying than missing the action, she said. Other concerns run deeper than misunderstood plot lines on dramatic or comedic TV shows. "When emergency weather information comes across the TV screen, you know it beeps -- you just don't know what it says," said Donald Koors, a program director with the state's vocational rehabilitation services, part of the Family and Social Services Administration. Koors, who is visually impaired, noted that some information, such as school closings and sports scores, are generally presented as written information on the screen. The FCC requires stations to provide emergency warnings audibly for the blind. "If they don't break in, and sometimes they don't," Koors said, "it's a lost item." _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com