Radio for the deaf
Mere days after I was musing about creative uses for HD Radio, the Baltimore Sun ran a piece by Chris Kaltenbach about how National Public Radio offered closed-captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing live on election night. Invited guests were able to read NPR’s broadcast, in real time, during a demonstration of the technology at Towson University and at other locations in Boston, Denver and Washington.
Ellen Sheffield, an assistant professor of psychology at Towson and co-director of the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology, is quoted in the story talking about how important this service could be to the 28 million people with diminished hearing in the US.
You can read more about the trial and plans for the future at the nascent International Center for Accessible Radio Technology website. And when you decide to buy an HD Radio set for your home, you can support the effort by buying it NPR’s online store.
