Dear Accessibility Advocates:

A separate point: The "captioning" referred to below is called:  Audio Description.

A great website about the beautiful art of Audio Description:

http://www.audiodescribe.com/  (Joel Snyder's Audio Description Associates)

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Ellen Perlow
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> 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."


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