Public Radio Covers 95% of U.S. Population

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*Breaking The Sound BarrierRadio Captioning has launched!Latino USA commenced Captioned Radio service on 22 February 2013Higher incidence of hearing loss among Hispanic children in U.S.New service will include Emergency Alerting with bed-shaker supportEfforts 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 contextSpeaker and place name identification are critical to understanding breaking newsLocalization and customization neededRadio operating budgets are fraction of TVs Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

Captioned Radio

Captioned Radio Service With BrailleGeneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*Virtual Real Time Voice Writer & EditorCaptioned Editor Mouse Free Editing

Integrated Captioning & Transcription Service (ICATS)

Emergency Alerting Use CaseRe-creating the Radio ExperienceSans SoundInterrupt the broadcastMust be read before resuming showNew Advantages:Can be stored for later reviewBed-shaker via USB triggersCan send specialized messaging (multiple languages, including Braille, evacuation centers with sign language, accepting service animals)Can be Geo-targeted

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

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

18 Centimeter Android TabletGeneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*Business Model SustainabilityNPR Labs voicewriting system is providing 98%+ accuracy with: more consistent outputno 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 SustainabilityIn the U.S., underwriting mentions more than offset costs (Captioning brought to you by . . . .)Bundled captioning and transcription process additionally saves 40% of transcription costsAncillary revenues from academia (disability support; campus events), radio station affinity underwriting builds community connections Agnostic technology: ITU-R-BS1894; InternetGeneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

Conclusions and RecommendationsCaptioned Radio is an idea whose time is here!

Roughly 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*

In the futureAll audio must become readable audio

Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

International Center for Accessible Radio TechnologyDr. Ellyn SheffieldICART Captioning Center - CLATowson UniversityTowson, MarylandUSA 21252esheffield@towson.edu+1 (410) 704-6297Mike StarlingVP, Technology Research CenterNational Public RadioWashington, D.C.USA 20002mstarling@npr.org+1 (202) 513-2484Geneva, Switzerland, 24 October 2013*

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