Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013 Breaking the Sound Barrier Breakthroughs in Captioning ITU Workshop on “Making Media Accessible to All: The Options and the Economics” (Geneva, Switzerland, 24 (p.m.) – 25 October 2013) Mike Starling, Esq. VP, Technology Research Center & NPR Labs National Public Radio Washington, D.C. Dr. Ellyn Sheffield Managing Director International Center for Accessible Radio Technology Towson University

Public Radio Covers 95% of U.S. Population

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October Breaking The Sound Barrier Radio Captioning has launched! Latino USA commenced Captioned Radio service on 22 February 2013 Higher incidence of hearing loss among Hispanic children in U.S. New service will include Emergency Alerting with bed-shaker support Efforts supported by U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Support (Project H133G090139)

Special Problems Captioning Radio Journalism Radio requires more accurate, cost effective captioning process than TV No visual cues for information context Speaker and place name identification are critical to understanding breaking news Localization and customization needed Radio operating budgets are fraction of TV’s Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

Captioned Radio

Captioned Radio Service With Braille Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

7 Virtual Real Time Voice Writer & Editor Captioned Editor – Mouse Free Editing

Integrated Captioning & Transcription Service (ICATS)

Emergency Alerting Use Case Re-creating the Radio Experience Sans Sound Interrupt the broadcast Must be read before resuming show New Advantages: Can be stored for later review Bed-shaker via USB triggers Can send specialized messaging (multiple languages, including Braille, evacuation centers with sign language, accepting service animals) Can be Geo-targeted Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

Reach individuals living in the US Gulf Coast who are deaf or hard of hearing.

18 Centimeter Android Tablet Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October Business Model Sustainability NPR Labs voicewriting system is providing 98%+ accuracy with: more consistent output no dependence on “expert” captioners for major events Only 2 months of training time using ten screening assessments (vs. three years and tens of thousands in curriculum training costs) Result is highly efficient process that bundles Captions with Transcripts (Synchronized TTML & library archive formats)

Business Model Sustainability In the U.S., underwriting mentions more than offset costs (“Captioning brought to you by....”) Bundled captioning and transcription process additionally saves 40% of transcription costs Ancillary revenues from academia (disability support; campus events), radio station affinity underwriting builds community connections Agnostic technology: ITU-R-BS1894; Internet Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

Conclusions and Recommendations Captioned Radio is an idea whose time is here! Roughly ½ of the hearing loss population is excluded from Radio Globally, radio is robust, mature and widespread – part of community life Resilient during emergencies when power grid is down Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

In the future All audio must become readable audio Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October

International Center for Accessible Radio Technology Dr. Ellyn Sheffield ICART Captioning Center - CLA Towson University Towson, Maryland USA (410) Mike Starling VP, Technology Research Center National Public Radio Washington, D.C. USA (202) Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October