TV Narration for the Blind
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/22blind.html

July 22, 2000


        F.C.C. Rule Requires Narration for the
        Blind on Some TV Shows

        By THE NEW YORK TIMES

              WASHINGTON, July 21 -- The
              Federal Communications
        Commission approved a plan
        today requiring broadcasters to
        adopt technology allowing blind
        people to follow the action on
        television by listening to a
        narrator describe what is
        happening.

        The rules are part of a broad plan
        to make telecommunications and
        new technology like wireless
        phones more accessible to people
        with disabilities. Of the 54 million
        people with disabilities in the
        United States, 8 million to 12
        million have severely impaired
        vision.

        "This is important to allow
        everyone to participate in the
        television experience," said William
        E. Kennard, the F.C.C. chairman.
        "Television is the modern
        equivalent of the public square."

        The technology allows the user to turn on a secondary
        audio programming channel, where a narrator describes
        the action of a scene during pauses in the dialogue.
        Audiences can hear that an actor sadly buries his face
        in his hands, for example.

        The commission will model its video description rules on
        guidelines governing closed-captioning technology for
        the hearing impaired.

        The rules, which were adopted by a 3-to-2 vote, will
        require that network-affiliated broadcasters in the top
        25 television markets use the secondary channel for
        roughly four hours per week, either as prime-time or
        children's programming, beginning in the spring of 2002.

        Cable systems and satellite operators with 50,000 or
        more subscribers will have to provide the service for their
        most popular networks.

        The dissenting commissioners questioned whether the
        agency had the statutory authority to impose the rules
        on the broadcast industry.

        Live news shows, sporting events -- which often include
        play-by-play descriptions -- and talk shows would be
        exempt from the rules, because the action is generally
        covered in natural dialogue.

        But the rules will cover local emergency information that
        is part of a newscast, or that interrupts regularly
        scheduled programming.

        And when emergency information scrolls across the
        screen, an aural tone will be required to alert people
        that important information has been provided. The
        emergency policy will take effect in a few months.

        The video descriptions delivered over the secondary
        audio programming channel would be heard only when
        that channel is activated. All televisions made in the
        United States since the early 1990's have the channel.

        In some markets, however, the secondary channel is
        used for Spanish and other foreign language audio, a
        potential conflict. The cost of providing video
        descriptions is another concern among broadcasters.

        The plan is limited to analog broadcasters, but could be
        applied to emerging digital broadcasters later. The
        commission intends to gather information and
        experience with this technology, officials said, to help
        evaluate the possibility of expanding and improving the
        program.

        Telephone calls to the National Association of
        Broadcasters were not returned today. A spokesman for
        the National Cable Television Association said that the
        group looked forward to reading the F.C.C. order, but
        that the industry should be able to create its own
        standards.

        Public television has been active in the video description
        effort for more than a decade. WGBH in Boston, for
        example, began to narrate the popular programs
        "Masterpiece Theater" and "Nature" in the 1980's.

        Margaret Pfanstiehl, the chairwoman of the National
        Television Video Access Coalition, called the proposal "a
        huge step forward."

--
Kathleen Anderson
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL OSC: http://www.osc.state.ct.us/
URL ACCESS: http://www.cmac.state.ct.us/access/


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