NPR & WGBH Collaborate on Accessible Radio Technology
From: NPR Media Relations - 10/11/2006

NPR Receives Department of Education Grant to Develop Accessible Radio
Technology for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind and Visually Impaired Communities 

The Department of Education's National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation
and Research has awarded a grant to NPR and WGBH's National Center for
Accessible Media (NCAM) to develop accessible radio technology for people who
are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired. The Accessible Digital
Radio Broadcast Services grant - in the amount of $150,000 for the first year
- will help fund an anticipated three-year research and development project
to prototype, field test and assess the cutting-edge radio technologies to
serve the needs of people with sensory disabilities. NPR and NCAM are
internationally recognized experts in digital radio technologies and
accessible media service models. 

"As radio moves into the digital transmission arena, public radio is
committed to providing people with sensory disabilities equal access to news,
entertainment and emergency services," said Mike Starling, CTO and Executive
Director of NPR Labs. "Thanks to the Department of Education's support
through this grant, NPR and our WGBH partner will leverage our shared
abilities to deliver on this promise."  

"The time to address the needs of people with sensory disabilities is now,"
said Larry Goldberg, WGBH's Director of Media Access. "Considering those who
are deaf or blind at birth, through trauma or illness, or baby boomers
reaching retirement age over the next few years, the numbers of Americans
with hearing or visual loss are expected to climb. It is crucial for us to
address the unique needs of this growing population as we further develop HD
radio services."  

In creating radio technologies specifically geared to people with sensory
disabilities, NPR and NCAM will bring together experts from broadcasting,
academia and non-profit service organizations to best serve the needs of
people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired. The
overall goal is to guide the design of prototype digital radios for
evaluation by consumers with special needs. At the conclusion of the study
period, the design criteria - to be developed with collective input from a
representative cross section of disabled consumers - will be turned over to
receiver manufacturers as best operating practice. NPR has teamed with Dr.
Ellyn Sheffield of Salisbury University, a widely recognized researcher of
consumer adaptation to digital radio services, to help design and test the
technology in development.  

The project's total budget for the first year is $227,810. The Department of
Education grant will cover 65 percent of the project costs for the first
year, while NPR will fund the remaining 35 percent. Additional federal
funding after the first year is dependent on congressional appropriations. 

NPR and the NPR Member stations have a long history of pioneering inclusive
access for people with sensory disabilities. More than 100 radio reading
services for the blind operating in the United States are offered by NPR
stations, providing the reading of text from daily news, books and magazines. 

In another effort to make radio programming accessible to the deaf and
hearing-impaired community, NPR has in recent years tested Web-based
real-time captioning of radio programs through http://www.npr.org. For a
two-hour special on deaf culture and education airing Thursday October 12,
NPR's Talk of the Nation has collaborated with WGBH's Media Access Group, the
pioneer of captioning for television, to provide live captioning of the
program. The October 12 broadcast will feature an interview with Dr. I. King
Jordan, retiring president of Gallaudet University, the world's only
university dedicated to deaf and hard of hearing students and a look at the
shifting debate over the cochlear implant. Details can be found at
http://www.npr.org/deafculture.  

NPR Media Relations:
Emily Lenzner
202/513-2754
elenzner@npr.org

Media Access Group at WGBH:
Mary Watkins
617/300-3700
617/300-2489 TTY
mary_watkins@wgbh.org

Links:
National Center for Accessible Media
http://ncam.wgbh.org/

Mike Starling
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101487

Larry Goldberg
http://www.knowbility.org/air-boston/?content=lgoldberg

Media Access Group at WGBH
http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/access/access.html

Ellyn Sheffield
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~egsheffield/research.html

I. King Jordan
http://president.gallaudet.edu/x227.xml

Gallaudet University
http://www.gallaudet.edu/