All: Here are some answers to your questions.
* I will, in future, keep this list apprised of
developments. I've been keeping other groups in the loop,
but because this is a computer users list, I thought it off
topic.
* HD Radio has not been mandated as yet. However, a
majority of stations in the major markets are now
broadcasting in HD. They aren't at full power yet though as
there are technical problems to work out which can interfere
with the analog signals. I believe the industry would like
to go full digital at some point, but it won't be anytime
soon. The FCC has not mandated a switch over date as it did
with television. For a long time to come, both analog and
HD radio will co-exist.
* HD radios to date have been inaccessible, just as
satellite radios are, and for the same reasons. Most
everything is either menu driven, or tuned using a infinite
tuning knob. This is because the number of channels is
variable. A particularHD station may have only one program
feed, or it may have several. When using an HD radio, you
first tune to the base frequency, let's say 93.9, and the
radio determines if there is more than one additional
channel at that location. If there is, it indicates HD, and
you can then turn the knob a notch to the right and get the
second channel, or two notches and get the third channel.
* To my knowledge, there is no move currently by XM /
Serius to market an accessible radio. IAAIS and others will
certainly make sure they are aware of the new standards
though. If they are made to recognize the potential sales
access will generate, they may follow the HD radio
manufacturers who are showing quite a bit of interest in
this.
* Screen captioning on Television is an entirely different
subject. I know there are moves, and I believe pending
legislation, to deal with this problem, but I am not fully
up to date on this. However, Dave Andrews, who is also a
member of this list, is probably more up to date. Dave?
* I understand the skepticism of the person who wrote me to
say he'd believe it when he actually touched it. I feel the
same way, so you can imagine my excitement when I did in
fact have the chance to have the Dice radio in my home for a
week to fool with. It was really cool. Every blind person
who has handled it that I know of has found it a real trip.
In my opinion, the only thing which may delay Dice, Best
Buy, Delphi, Radiosophy and others who have all been on
board for access standards, is the awful economy. That
creates a variable we weren't expecting. I do fully believe
though that these radios will be on the market in the near
future. If all of us who can, help promote them, and buy
them, it will lend credence to our claim that there is a
major market here. We believe that not only blind and low
vision people will benefit from these, but also older
people, and drivers who will not have to look at the radio
to operate it while driving.
* A couple of radio reading services are already
broadcasting in HD Sun Sounds started broadcasting in HD
about two weeks ago. It sounds wonderful. Gone is all the
static and poor sound radio reading services traditionally
suffer from. It sounds as good as any FM radio station. In
our case, we aren't even encrypting the signal. WE are in
the clear, and anyone with a HD radio can now listen to our
service, though, of course, it is still primarily directed
to and produced for people with vision impairments.
Happy New Year!
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Terri
Hedgpeth
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 10:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson
University Launch Global Effort To Make Radio Accessible to
Hearing and Sight Impaired
Bill, please do keep us up to date on these matters. Have
you heard anything on an accessible satellite radio?
Terri Hedgpeth Ed.D.
Director, Disability Resource Center
PO Box 873202
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-3202
Assistant: (480) 965-3366
Direct: (480) 727-8133
Fax: (480) 965-0441
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sun Sounds
of Arizona
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 8:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson
University Launch Global Effort To Make Radio Accessible to
Hearing and Sight Impaired
This initiative was actually launched a year ago. I'm
surprised that this release is still circulating. Actually,
a lot more has happened since this release. These events
include:
* The International Association of Audio Information
Services (IAAIS) is also a member of this group, a fact
which was accidentally left out of the release. I know
because I happened to attend the press conference and
demonstration and CES last January as the IAAIS
Representative.
* Radio Closed Captioning has now been demonstrated twice.
First in a controlled demo at the CES last year. Second on
Election Night this last November, closed captioning radio
was broadcast by NPR in many parts of the country for those
who have capable receivers.
* In May, Sun Sounds of Arizona, a radio reading service,
was asked to review a Dice radio to determine what it would
take to make the radio fully accessible to blind users. HD
radios are generally not now accessible or friendly to blind
users.
* In September, Dice Radio, produced the first demo
production HD radio which was fully accessible for blind and
low vision users. It announces all functions including
station, mode, clock, alarm, etc. It also has a dedicated
button that will automatically lock on to a local radio
reading service if one is available. The radio is a
production model, meaning, it is the same radio that a
sighted person would purchase. It will cost roughly $100
and will be on the market soon.
* In October, IAAIS published the first ever radio access
standards for blind and low vision users. These standards
are being considered by the UN as a possible base to create
international standards. The full document is available
from http://www.iaais.org.
* Best Buy has already climbed on board with the new
standards and will produce another HD accessible radio for
sale to the general public by summer.
Stay tuned, I'll be happy to keep this list informed on
these events if the members wish. I am deeply involved with
these projects.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter
Altschul
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 10:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] NPR, Harris Corporation and Towson
University Launch Global Effort To Make Radio Accessible to
Hearing and Sight Impaired
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, Delphi, 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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