Saturday, June 28, 2008

Community Radio for the Deaf

Yes, those who are deaf or hard of hearing can't really use community radio. However, I was curious to know if any of the community radios actually have a transcripts for those who needs them. I came across this great site: http://www.ohsoez.com/deafnews.htm which holds all articles or news happening in the world that involves deaf community. I came across this article:
WAMU 88.5’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show to feature new Gallaudet University president
Real-time captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing available during broadcast
which I thought was pretty cool but I didn't like the fact it was one time only for real time captioning. So I went to WAMU site to see if they have transcript and I have to say, I was incredibly impressed by how they are dedicated to their listeners and to the community as well. So, I found a section where they do transcripts and I find out they do transcript for 9 programs but it comes with a fee.
The site quoted: "Providing text transcripts is an important public service and is a way to extend the value of the programming we produce. Because turning our audio programs into text transcripts is a very labor-intensive process, we use a professional transcription service and incur significant expense to do so. To cover the cost of having our shows transcribed - and to enable us to continue to provide transcripts of NPR programs and stories -- we must charge a fee. All of the fees collected go toward covering the cost of transcription."

However, it offer free transcripts to hearing impaired individuals.
If you are hearing impaired and would like to request a transcript of an NPR story or program, please contact NPR Services at 202-513-3232 through a relay operator. NPR will send you the requested transcript via e-mail. You will need the following information:
The subject of the program segment you are looking for
The name of the program during which the segment aired
The date of the program during which the segment aired
Your first and last name
Your phone number
Your e-mail address


Wow, I was blown away by that and I would love to see other community radio stations copying those ideas to do so for those who wishes to have a transcript. I am aware it is VERY expensive to have transcripts but if the stations ask for funds and for subscriptions, I am sure many would be happy to fund, especially if it will reach more people than ever. (Estimates from the Survey of Income and Program Participation indicate that fewer than 1 in 20 Americans are currently deaf or hard of hearing. In round numbers, nearly 10,000,000 persons are hard of hearing and close to 1,000,000 are functionally deaf.) With those transcripts available, it has the ability to reach to 11 millions more people.

1 Comments:

At June 28, 2008 at 8:58 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

You bring up a great issue here Monique!
Sirius satellite radios have big screens that allow for scrolling text. It displays the number for call-in shows, or the website/phone number for each commercial. I wonder if radios with built in screens that allowed for closed captioning would be a feasible option in the future.

 

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