Media Access - Spring 1993 The Media Access Research and Development Office is dedicated to improving access to media for disabled persons, non-English speakers and other under-served audiences. Media Access is a publication of the Media Access Research and Development Office at the WGBH Educational Foundation. Brainstorm-y Weather When the "blizzard of 1992" paid a visit to the East Coast, key representatives in the fields of disability, minority language, technology, media, and education were caught in the middle of two storms: the blizzard that was tearing through the eastern seaboard and a brainstorm at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Washington, D.C., headquarters. On December 11, 1992, WGBH's Media Access Research and Development Office (MARDO) convened a panel of talented individuals for a day-long Strategic Planning Session. The purpose of the session was to assess the needs of MARDO's target populations and generate ideas for future media access projects. MARDO's mission is to research the needs of people that are denied access to media and to develop appropriate technologies that could eliminate barriers. In order to fulfill this mission, we have been identifying what those needs are. Although we have gained extensive experience in our first 18 months, we will continue to take our cues from our constituents. These include disabled persons, non-English speakers, people with low literacy skills, rural populations, and those whose access to media is limited by financial constraints. Support From CPB The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided MARDO with start-up funds in September 1991 and has been an enthusiastic supporter ever since. Several CPB staff attended the session including new president Richard Carlson, who welcomed the participants and reaffirmed CPB's commitment to making media accessible. Mr. Carlson declared, "The goal is inclusion; the goal is not exclusion. We want more voices; we do not want fewer voices. That's why the Corporation has funded MARDO and that's why you have come here today." Following Mr. Carlson's address, MARDO director Larry Goldberg took the podium to clarify the day's objectives. He presented demonstrations on existing access technologies (captioning, descriptive video, and Spanish translations) and invited the group to think about their "blue sky" ideas for the future: "It's the holiday season. What's on your wish list?" The participants were assigned to small groups to examine the needs of particular populations. Each group generated a list of five major problems or suggestions for MARDO to address. After an informal lunch, the participants presented their ideas to the larger group and had the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other in a plenary discussion. Among the suggestions were captioning and description of movies and live entertainment, accessible alternatives to printed daily news, and personalized media and technologies. A high level of excitement and interest was maintained throughout the day. Engrossed in their task, the participants remained oblivious to the stormy weather outside. As the session came to a close, news began to spread of airport closures and train cancellations. Although the storm outside caused no small inconvenience to many of the participants, it was apparently no match for the "storm" inside. The participants were unanimous in their praise of the session and their desire to be included in MARDO's future activities. MARDO will shape future projects based on their suggestions and will rely on these and other supporters to further the goals of accessible media. DVS Depends on Consumer Feedback Descriptive Video Service(R) (DVS(R)) was launched on PBS in 1990 to make televisprograms accessible to blind and visually impaired people. In 1992, DVS also began describing popular Hollywood movies on home video. Developed by the WGBH Educational Foundation, DVS inserts narrated descriptions of the key visual elements of a program or movie during natural pauses in the dialogue-without interfering with the program audio. These descriptions-of actions, settings, facial expressions, and graphics-can be heard on broadcast television programs simply by selecting the Separate Audio Program (SAP) channel on a stereo TV or VCR. To hear the descriptions on a DVS home video, only a standard VCR and television are needed. Collaborating for Quality Control Since Descriptive Video Service began, DVS writers (describers) have sought and received feedback on description issues from blind and visually impaired people nationwide. As a result, DVS has developed standards for effective descriptive writing. Input from local and national DVS Consumer Advisory Councils, along with feedback from DVS consumers across the country, continues to shape and refine DVS description, providing essential quality control for DVS writing. The DVS Consumer Advisory Councils consist of blind and visually impaired people representing a cross section of age, sex, ethnicity, occupation, and degree of visual impairment. The members monitor DVS programs and movies at home and call or write DVS with their critiques and comments. They also meet regularly with the describers, in person or by telephone conference call, to discuss a wide range of description issues. From Feedback to Results The results of this feedback are many and varied. One general rule DVS has developed is to add description only during pauses, to avoid "stepping on" the dialogue or important sound effects. Another standard is to let sound effects speak for themselves-without description-whenever possible. The closing of a door or the sipping of a drink, for instance, may be easy to identify by sound and context, while a sizzling wok that opens a scene may need description. Descriptions are specific and detailed whenever possible. Proper names are used for animals, furniture, cars, and architecture and are usually supported with simpler, descriptive terminology, for example "The scene changes to a golden eagle soaring..." Describers make an effort not to be judgmental in their descriptions. Rather than saying a character is angry, describers might write, "She purses her lips and narrows her eyes," letting the viewer decide that she is angry. Finally, it is DVS policy to tailor the writing to the style and diction of the program itself. When describing Sherlock Holmes on a Mystery! program, "meticulous" would be used rather than "careful." For the teenage-oriented program Degrassi High, an appropriate description might read "They bonk heads as they bend to open their lockers." A New Challenge Recently, DVS has begun conducting focus groups of visually impaired children, their parents and teachers, to determine how to make description most enjoyable and effective for youngsters. Children's programs, including animation, present an entirely new set of challenges. To describe these shows well and to meet the needs of new audiences, Descriptive Video Service will continue to rely on feedback from focus groups of blind and visually impaired people. Project Update -- The Adapted Interactive Media (AIM) Project is investigating how to make interactive media accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The project's advisory panel met for the final time in early January to assess the success of an adapted videodisc that was prepared as part of this project. Adaptations included sign language, information organizers, and supplementary print materials. Project staff are finalizing a set of guidelines* that will be disseminated to producers of multimedia products. -- CC School is the name of a captioning workstation and a research project that is investigating how personal captioning can improve the writing skills of deaf students. Project staff at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf are analyzing data obtained from field-testing the workstation with students at the TRIPOD School in Burbank, California. MARDO will demonstrate the workstation and present project results at the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 27. In response to demands from educators, we have created a public version of the CC School software. QuickCaption School* is a stand-alone child-friendly text editor with built-in captioning capability. As part of our efforts to extend the application of CC School, we have designed research projects that will investigate potential benefits for learning- disabled students and for non-native English speakers. We are also working on creating a Macintosh version of the CC School workstation. -- The Motion Picture Access Project is investigating access to motion pictures for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. MARDO staff have been working with several manufacturers to develop prototype devices that can provide discreet caption display. A Task Force meeting will be held in May. *Ordering information appears later in this newsletter. Call us at 617 492-9258 for more detailed information! Practice Makes Perfect Last fall, MARDO became involved in an exciting new project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. WGBH and the Education Development Center-- a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and equity of education-- joined forces to create the National Center to Improve Practice (NCIP). The center is charged with promoting change in special education and providing up-to-date information about the most effective instructional practices that integrate the use of technology, media, and materials. Technology, media, and materials (TMM) can help students with disabilities increase their ability to communicate, exert independent control over their lives, contribute as productive workers and informed citizens, and experience fundamental human satisfaction. While increasingly more disabled students are integrated in regular education settings, special education is not an integral part of the national agenda on school reform or the discussion of national education goals. NCIP will gather information about state-of-the-art educational practices that integrate TMM; synthesize that information into a knowledge base; translate the knowledge base into tangible products that can be used to promote change (such as videotapes, monographs, and multimedia); and identify appropriate channels of distribution. EDC and WGBH will provide NCIP's vision, develop and modify its strategic plan, and facilitate its activities. MARDO will play a special role in contributing expertise about the needs of people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing. Literacy Is First Priority At a planning meeting earlier this year, the project staff selected literacy as the first priority area to address. "NCIP employs a broad definition of literacy that encompasses a variety of communication skills," says principal investigator Judith Zorfass. "Communication is the key to education and is, therefore, a logical starting place for us." NCIP has recruited leading practitioners, researchers, policymakers, advocates, and consumers to become members of the Literacy Priority Group. This group will convene for a three-day summit at WGBH in May and continue to work together via an electronic network. The knowledge generated by the group will provide the substantive content for the family of products to be developed and published by NCIP. "It is important to note that NCIP is not only about products," asserts Barry Cronin, co-principal investigator. "It is about developing an effective implementation plan that ensures that NCIP's work will continue beyond its five years of funding." For more information about NCIP, contact Judith Zorfass at EDC at 617 969- 7100, ext. 426 or Barry Cronin at WGBH at 617 492-2777, ext 2455. TTY callers should call 617 492-9258. Captioning: The Next Generation A milestone in media access is upon us. As of July 1, all TV receivers 13 inches and larger manufactured or imported for sale in the U.S. will be equipped with caption-decoder circuitry. This is the climax of a fast-moving sequence of events set in motion by the Television Decoder Circuitry Act. President Bush signed the Act in October of 1990, whereupon the FCC, with the assistance of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA), embarked on a six-month process to develop a comprehensive specification for the new built-in decoders. That done, the EIA drafted more than a hundred pages of recommended practices to help manufacturers and service providers implement the new FCC rules in a consistent way. The EIA document (known as EIA-608, available in draft form from MARDO) also paves the way for innovative new uses of decoder circuitry known as Extended Data Services (EDS). Very soon the FCC is expected to approve the use of more of the video signal for captioning and EDS. At present, only one of the two fields of line 21 (part of the vertical blanking interval above the top of the active TV picture) has been available for captioning. The FCC ruling will set aside both fields, effectively doubling the amount of information which broadcasters can pack into the signal. Besides more captioning (such as an additional language or reading level), the added bandwidth will accommodate such EDS features as the name of the program, its length, and how much of it has already gone by-all available at the touch of a button. TV receivers able to decode captions on both fields as well as EDS may be available before the end of the year. Because of a historical coincidence, the FCC is now in the throes of choosing an Advanced TV system with bigger, sharper pictures and many channels of audio. Thanks to the decoder law, the new ATV system must include a greatly improved captioning system. MARDO is chairing the EIA working group charged with developing 21st-century captioning for this system, which will include features like user-controlled type size. Closed captioning, once an obscure part of broadcasting, is now coming into its own. Lo Nuevo... en Espanol Last year MARDO conducted the Spanish Language Project, an investigation into the needs of Spanish-speaking television audiences and the production and delivery (via the SAP channel) of Spanish translations of PBS programs. The research revealed an overwhelming demand for access to educational programming. This demand has prompted MARDO to create a strategic plan examining the technical, promotional, and financial resources needed to launch a user-oriented translation service. At the same time, MARDO is working with Radio Bilinguee to investigate whether public radio's highly acclaimed news programs can be translated or adapted for Spansh-speaking listeners. Radio Bilinguee is a Latino-controlled organization that operates a public radio network in California. For the project, MARDO produced a sample reel illustrating a variety of techniques for adapting English-language newscastsfor Spanish-language broadcast. The reel will be field-tested with listeners and evaluated by key public radio professionals. MARDO also recently lent its translation expertise to a non-broadcast project known as Interactive NOVA. Interactive NOVA is a series of multimedia educational packages based on the popular public television science program. MARDO produced the Spanish-language soundtracks for two videodiscs, Race to Save the Planet and Animal Pathfinders. The project was commissioned by the Interactive unit of WGBH and Scholastic. "Access to information is necessary to succeed in our society," says Roberto Rodriguez, manager of the Spanish Language Project. "Saber es poder." (Knowledge is power.) Available From MARDO: -- Accessibility Guidelines for Producers of Interactive Media -- Closed Captioning Brochure -- Information Series for Caption Watchers -- EIA Closed-Captioning Test Tape ($) -- EIA-608: Recommended Practices for Closed Captioning Technologies -- Descriptive Video Service(R) Brochure* -- DVS Guide(R) (newsletter and program guide)* -- DVS Home VideoSM Catalogue** -- The Print Access Project Summary -- The Spanish Language Project Summary -- QuickCaption and QuickCaption School Captioning Software ($) * avale in audio cassette, braille, and large print ** large print on braille ($) call for price information Help Us to Help You! -- For more information on any of our projects and activities, or to order the materials listed above, please call 617 492-9258 (voice/TTY) or write to us at MARDO, WGBH Educational Foundation, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134. Fax us at 617 562-0590 or reach us through Internet e-mail: Judith_Navoy@WGBH.org -- If you have information on products or services related to media access, or if you are involved in related research or have ideas for projects, we want to hear from you! Please contact us at the above number or address and add us to your mailing list. -- Media Access is available in the following alternative formats: audio cassette, braille, and printed Spanish. -- Please make copies of this newsletter and distribute it freely! Media Access is made possible by funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.