Live Classroom Captioning: Ending Disability for Deaf Kids Tony Abrahams & Leonie Jackson 6th National Deafness Sector Summit: April 2010 Ai-Live™ | Ai-Stream™ | Ai-Skills™
The End of Disability Impair- ment ACCESSInclusion Impair- ment NO ACCESS Disability © Access Innovation Media 2010
The costs of not having access
Deafness costs Australia $12 billion every year One in six people have hearing loss rising to one in four by ,000 people out of work because of deafness 10,000 Aussie kids with hearing loss 2,500 kids with severe deafness 85% of deaf kids in mainstream classes Poor educational outcomes More mental health issues 2.4 times less likely to complete high school SOURCE: Access Economics 2006, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Better Hearing Australia 2008 Live captioning delivers inclusion © Access Innovation Media 2010
After 3 years of R&D Ai-Live™ is now ready to roll out © Access Innovation Media 2010 Scoping Digby I Ai-Live™|Ai-Stream™|Ai-Skills™ Developed Digby II Ai-Media & NSW DET begin discussions on design & implementation of live remote captioning solution Digby I pilot for 3 deaf students at Blackwattle Bay. Students loved and used the solution when reliable Ai-Media develop a fast, low-bandwidth solution and training, accreditation & QA program for re-speakers Ai-Live™v 1.0 Digby II trials begin at RTHS Ai-Live™v 3.0 released Successful pilot complete at RTHS (3 students, 4 subjects) Dec 2006Oct 2007Aug 2009Mar 2010 Dec 2007 Ai-Live™ v2.0 released 15 Nov 2006: THGS Successful proof of concept of remote stenocaptioning Student: Shirley Yr 9 Teacher: Jenny Higgins 23 Apr 2010: Launch beta version of Ai-Live™ and expressions of interest from students and schools
How Ai-Live™ works Text appears on student laptop < 7 secs later 3 Teacher wears lapel microphone 1 Audio received by remote captioner who ‘re-speaks’ content 2 Classroom Re-speaker Audio Text © Access Innovation Media 2010
Feedback © Access Innovation Media 2010 “Captioning enables me to access all the information on everything.” - Student “Captioning makes me a more independent person at school. I would like captioning to be a part of my future. It will be helpful when I am at University as well as at school.” - Student “I have never seen Lisa so engaged. She laughs at class jokes and relates to me on a personal level now” – Teacher “Captioned students for the first time have laughed at humorous comments made by staff and class mates.” - Principal “Rather than address the student through an interpreter, teachers addressed the captioned students directly and, with only a minor delay, a response was forthcoming from the captioned students.” - Principal
A solution that builds inclusion Innovative Scalable Tested Australian World Leaders WHOLE-OF- LIFE NBN EDUCATION REVOLUTION LITERACY CHOICECOMMUNITIESREAL JOBS © Access Innovation Media 2010
Get involved Daisy, Age 8, Vet Register at ai-live.com to participate in pilot Schools Students Captioners New solutions require new funding mechanisms (National Disability Insurance Scheme - NDIS) Productivity Commission Inquiry National Disability Strategy (Skills & Learning) Write to your local member © Access Innovation Media 2010
Bridges are worth the effort