More Courts Should Provide ‘CART’ Real-Time Video Transcription Services

I was excused from jury duty today after I told the officer at the reception desk that none of their amplification schemes, even the portable listening devices they provide as an accommodation for people with hearing loss, would work for me. I told him I’d be happy to serve if they could provide CART service–communications access real-time transcription–where they wheel a TV monitor into court and provide real-time video captioning of the proceedings. But they still don’t provide that service in the Massachusetts Superior Court House where I was called to serve.

CART systems have been around for many years and have long been recognized by the federal government as a “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). So it’s disappointing and a little surprising that CART service isn’t yet a standard accommodation for hard-of-hearing people called to jury duty. Read more

Congressman Markey Demands Internet-Video Captions For Hard-Of-Hearing Web Surfers

Democratic US Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts is backing a bill that would require major producers of web videos to provide captioning, a piece of legislation that provides many other benefits for people with hearing, vision and other disabilities. Read more

More Good News From WGBH NCAM: Easy Captions For Adobe Flash Videos

While I’m going on about WGBH NCAM’s web video captioning success with its industry-wide coalition, I should also mention their recent introduction of a software utility that makes it easy to create captioned Adobe Flash videos. Read more

AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! Collaborate On Web Video Captioning

There’s some GREAT news in the captioning world this week from the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH, the public broadcasting station in Boston. AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to collaborate with NCAM to establish and manage a new International Captioning Forum to set standards for captioning on any kind of video presented on the Web. Read more

CapTel Captioned Telephone Service Finally Gets A Hearing In Massachusetts

Since I last wrote about CapTel captioned telephone service, a dozen additional states have started offering this vital lifeline for hard-of-hearing consumers. To my chagrin, my home state of Massachusetts now is one of only six states in the union that have not approved it. Read more

Let’s Boycott Super Bowl Advertisers Who Don’t Supply Captions

What do BlockBuster, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Expedia.com have in common? Their Super Bowl ads this year didn’t have captions. They must not want our business. Captionless ads have been bothering me ever since I began noticing how many advertisers don’t supply them, even after the first of the year when the FCC began requiring broadcasters to caption all their regular programming. The number of captionless ads on SuperBowl XL was especially disappointing. Read more

I’m Still Waiting For CapTel Captioned Telephone Service In Massachusetts

Last night I finally got some answers to my questions about why CapTel service still isn’t available in my home state of Massachusetts, even after 35 other states have gotten the captioned telephone service up and running. Read more

CapTel Phone Captioning Now Available In 32 States

I’m still a CapTel wannabee. With Sprint Nextel’s recent announcement of the addition of CapTel Relay Service in New Hampshire, the real-time telephone captioning service is now available in 32 states. It’s also available to current and retired federal employees including military veterans, as well as to U.S. tribal members. But it’s not available in Massachusetts, where I live. Read more