1. 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)
Breaking the Sound Barrier Breakthroughs in Captioning
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
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

2. Public Radio Covers 95% of U.S. Population

3. 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)
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

4. 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 2013

5. Captioned Radio

6. Captioned Radio Service With Braille
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

7. Virtual Real Time Voice Writer & Editor
Captioned Editor – Mouse Free Editing
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

8. Interrupt the broadcast Must be read before resuming show
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 2013

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

10. 18 Centimeter Android Tablet
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

11. 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)
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

12. 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 2013

13. 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 2013

14. All audio must become readable audio
In the future
All audio must become readable audio
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013

15. International Center for Accessible Radio Technology
Dr. Ellyn Sheffield
ICART Captioning Center - CLA
Towson University
Towson, Maryland
USA 21252
+1 (410)
Mike Starling
VP, Technology Research Center
National Public Radio
Washington, D.C.
USA 20002
+1 (202)
Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013