Thanks peter for the forward of this innovative proposal. I look forward
to hearing more about this. Too often we think of issues relevant to
blind people and those with disabilities as those related to
accessibility or those specific to the blind/disabled. There are several
big issues that substantively affect blind people but also have an impact
on the community as a whole. One of these includes media access at an
affordable price and free or low cost public access to media.
Kelly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Altschul" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 8:39 PM
Subject: News notes from the national office
Check out especially the third item.
Peter
NEWS NOTES FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE.
For the week ending April 26, 2002.
* Descriptive video tracking reports start rolling in.
As we approach the end of the first month of descriptive
video programming, the news is mixed on implementation. While we
are just starting to get reports requested to be addressed to
[log in to unmask] with the subject line of DVS tracking, the very
early information is showing good performance by Fox television
followed by CBS with less stellar results from ABC and concerning
reports about NBC. It appears that the cable networks are coming
up to speed and in all cases with Fox already doing great and CBS
doing well, the month of May should be much better than April.
Some of the failure to see top 25 market network stations
running description has to do with late equipment orders and this
phenomena has also happened with cable systems. The satellite
providers need attention.
We encourage people to continue to keep in touch with both
local stations, cable systems and satellite providers to help
them understand that viewers are concerned to get description.
We also ask folks to send in reports on implementation in your
areas. You can do this by sending email to [log in to unmask] using
the subject line of DVS tracking. We will develop a profile to
share with the FCC once we feel a pattern can be demonstrated
both in the positive and negative columns. Folks may also wish
to view our fact sheet on video description at our web site.
* ACB and partners hold face to face meeting with Adobe.
ACB along with representative from the National Industries
for the Blind (NIB) and the American Foundation for the Blind
(AFB,) met on Friday with 4 representatives of Adobe Systems; the
makers of the Acrobat reader for PDF files. The discussions
ranged across technical, policy, and logistics issues on what
could be done to improve the accessibility of PDF files to blind
end users and what other alternatives should be considered and
implemented to insure access to the contents of these files.
While no concrete solutions were developed at the meeting,
the issues were raised, clarified and agreement was reached on
each side providing suggested action items for consideration
within the next ten days. Stay tuned.
* Digital Opportunities Investment Trust? Huh?
Have you ever considered what is going to happen to all
those radio and television frequencies when the communications
world goes digital? It's only a few years away.
What if the government took all that open space and kept
it
in the public interest while selling off hunks for a high price?
Now imagine what could happen if all that money would go for
public purposes within the realm of communications?
A new proposal modeled after the above idea has been
launched with legislation to be introduced shortly. Imagine the
technologies that could result and the opportunities to enhance
educational and cultural life long learning for all of our
citizens?
ACB has participated in meetings on this subject and is
considering how best to insure that the interests of blind
persons in particular as well as disabled folks in general can be
addressed. We will circulate more material on this subject as
developments occur.
* Thunder, lightening and tornados stop news notes?
Yup, we have tornado watches up and the thunder is getting
closer. So guess we will leave it at that for now!
***
News notes are a compilation of the highlights of the events
of the preceding week and are not intended to provide a
comprehensive listing of all activities, or treatment of the
topics mentioned. For information and more detailed treatment of
especially legislative concerns, call the Washington Connection
at 800-424-8666 nights and weekends eastern time. Be sure to
read the Braille Forum each month and check in with the ACB web
site and radio at WWW.ACB.ORG and WWW.ACBRADIO.ORG respectively.
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
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