Accessible Devices The Conversion To Digital Television And TheBlind and Hard of Hearing User

The Conversion To Digital Television And The Blind and Hard of Hearing
User
The following article is worth reading as it provides information and
resources useful in making the conversion to digital television by those
of us with disability issues. The WGBH - Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family
National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) has published a new Outreach
and Policy Paper, Digital Television and Video Description: Service
Continues, Consumer and Industry Efforts Required Most consumers are
just now becoming aware of the mandated transition from analog to
digital broadcasting scheduled for February of 2009 and how it will
affect the TV viewing that they rely on daily. Blind or deaf consumers
who purchase digital TV sets, and subscribe to cable, satellite or
fiber-optic TV services have expressed frustration with set-up,
reception and incompatibility problems regarding access services
(captioning and video description) , few of which are understood or even
documented by manufacturers and retailers. In addition, people who want
to continue receiving free over-the-air broadcasts using their analog
sets and an antenna must purchase a set-top converter box to do so - and
figure out how to make captions and descriptions work for them. NCAM
previously published an overview of problems confronting deaf or
hard-of-hearing people trying to access captions via DTV or through a
converter box. The "DTVCC" paper can be found on NCAM's Web site listed
below. This new paper focuses on challenges facing blind or low vision
viewers who rely on video description to enjoy and fully understand
television programming. Topics covered include:
- Set-top Converter Boxes
- Accessible Menus
- Tips for Finding Video Description in DTV
- Troubleshooting
- and a Technical Note about PSIP (or Program and System Information
Protocol) This paper, along with much more information about the DTV
conversion from a variety of resources, can be found at NCAM's DTV
Access site, http://dtvaccess.org or http://ncam.wgbh.org/dtv We want to
hear from you... NCAM has established a one-way e-mail address,
dtvaccess@wgbh.org , as an aggregator of complaints and problems related
to the DTV rollout. If you send a report about a DTV access problem to
this address, you will receive an automatic response that says that your
report has been received and that we are gathering information but
cannot respond to your inquiry, and that we will pass along common
issues to relevant parties. About NCAM and WGBH The WGBH - Carl and Ruth
Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media is a research,
development and advocacy entity that works to make existing and emerging
technologies accessible to all audiences. NCAM is part of the Media
Access Group at WGBH, which also includes The Caption Center (est.
1972), and Descriptive Video
Service(r) (est. 1990). For more information, visit
http://access.wgbh.org . WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public
broadcasting producer, the source of fully one-third of PBS's prime-time
lineup, along with some of public television's best-known lifestyle
shows and children's programs and many public radio favorites. For more
information, visit the WGBH Web site, http://wgbh.org . Mary Watkins
Director of Communications and Outreach Media Access Group at WGBH
mary_watkins@wgbh.org http://access.wgbh.org One Guest Street Boston, MA
02135 617 300-3700 v/fax 617 300-2489 TTY WGBH Boston informs, inspires,
and entertains