It commissioned a survey to determine if visually impaired people would use such a service and to explore other uses of the SAP channel. The WGBH survey uncovered several encouraging reports. First, the Electronic Industries Association, a national organization of electronic manufacturers, distributors and retailers, noted that in , approximately 10 percent of all American households were equipped with stereo television receivers and that this number was expected to increase rapidly in the following years.
In that same year, 43 percent of all television sets that were sold were stereo. Within the next 7 to 10 years, it is expected that nearly all television sets on the market will be stereo.
Second, a study Josephson, found that blind and visually impaired people watched television with their families despite "certain frustrations. The study reported that one third of the respondents spent four to eight and a quarter spent eight or more hours a day with radio and television.
Ten percent of the sample watched television four or more hours per day and said they would prefer to watch television over other activities, such as visiting with friends, listening to the radio, and reading. The author noted that since most legally blind people do not work, they have much more leisure time than do sighted people.
He also noted that "in view of [television's] appeal at least in part to the very sense that they have lost, it is surprising how much time blind adults do spend with it" Josephson, , p. Even though the study is largely out of date, Josephson's conclusions about the role of television are probably still accurate: If TV involves certain frustrations for blind people, it has at least one major compensating feature -watching the set is a family activity for them as for most Americans, particularly during the evening hours.
In this respect, their experience with TV differs sharply from radio listening. Three quarters of our respondents said they "usually" watch TV with other members of their families; but as noted earlier, less than a third listen to the radio with others present.
In short, radio listening is a solitary activity; TV engages the family as a group -even if passively. Perhaps it is just this pattern of family viewing that gives TV its appeal for blind persons despite the visual barrier Josephson, , p. Josephson also reported that blind people, as well as people in the general population, did not use television much for news and information.
In the survey 16 years later, 60 percent of a sample of people with limitations in reading print said that television was their major source of information about the world.
In that study, most respondents watched television 2. Persons who were unable to see print watched 10 percent less television than did the average. Those who had the least difficulty seeing print watched the most television. The preliminary findings were that persons with no useful vision watch less television than do sighted persons, but that those with some or considerable useful vision the majority of legally blind people watch more television than do sighted persons.
This phase of the study was based only on television viewing as a "primary activity"; viewing as a secondary activity will be added later. Unfortunately, much of the information in the and studies is out of date, considering how much the general population's use of media in the home has changed in recent years.
For example, in , Nielsen Report on Television reported that American households have the television on an average of seven hours every day; presumably, blind and visually impaired people's viewing hours have also increased.
It should be noted that the NIDRR study was a nonrepresentative sample because all the respondents were legally blind and employed. The National Health Interview Survey "Current Estimates," reported that there are more than 11 million blind and visually impaired people in the United States.
Kirchner , noted that in , about 2 million, or 7. That visually impaired people did indeed watch television was sufficient encouragement to push development efforts forward. As WGBH learned more about the descriptive techniques at the Washington Ear, the staff met with Margaret and Cody Pfanstiehl to discuss how the theater concept could be adapted to television.
The objectives of this local test were to develop and test the transmission technology and production methodology and to gather feedback from visually impaired individuals about their interest in and the effectiveness of the descriptions. Two writers describers were hired by WGBH and trained by the Pfanstiehls in the techniques of description.
Viewers gathered each week at 9 p. Between 15 and 20 blind and low vision adults watched the broadcasts each week.
The audience at the Boston Aid site consisted primarily of people over age 65, and the other sites drew younger adults. The viewers, who critiqued the programs after watching them, were overwhelmingly positive in their reactions to this new service. They stated that they did not find the descriptions obtrusive. They expressed no preference for female or male narrators, but said the the narrator's reading should not be quite as dramatic as the narrator in the test programs.
A number of viewers remarked that the narrator should be a professional, not an amateur reader. With regard to the types of programs they would like described, the majority of viewers preferred dramatic programs, including mysteries. It also became clear that the service could be successfully transmitted over the SAP channel. The Pfanstiehls were hired to oversee the descriptive writing and narration by Washington Ear volunteers. One purpose of the national test was to validate the technology to ensure that a third audio signal could be distributed within a network master control center, uplinked via satellite to participating stations and retransmitted on the stations' individual SAP channels.
A second, and far more important, component of the national test was to expand contact with the visually impaired audience and to evaluate a more national sample of viewers' reactions. The national test consisted of an entire season, 39 episodes, of American Playhouse, with descriptions that could be accessed on the SAP channel of stereo televisions or VCRs. Everett and the Pfanstiehls made a joint presentation about description and its possible use on television.
The response at this early stage was enthusiastic. Dan Glisson, who developed the software used nationally for captioning, was hired to design the sophisticated software and work stations needed to free describers' time for the creative aspects of describing, eliminating the more tedious and logistical issues marking scenes that needed to be described or marking in and out times for pauses in program audio. What could that possible mean? Many parents may want to watch it with their younger children.
TV Parents Strongly Cautioned This program contains some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program and are cautioned against letting children under the age of 14 watch unattended. This program contains one or more of the following: intense violence V , intense sexual situations S , strong coarse language L , or intensely suggestive dialogue D.
TV-MA Mature Audience Only This program is specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under This program contains one or more of the following: graphic violence V , explicit sexual activity S , or crude indecent language L.
He wears red sneakers and blue jeans, with a yellow sweater over a white shirt. The length of descriptions and their placement by a producer into the program are largely dictated by what can fit in natural pauses in dialogue. The process is the same as selecting secondary audio for alternate language programming.
See the menu functions for the particular set-top box. However, this option is designed for Canadian cable operators only and does not support the US cable operator implementation described above. As of July there are only a few selected programmers providing this service on some limited programs.
You can use these links to check which programs will have DVS available:. Some programmers, Nickelodeon for sure, are labeling all episodes of a program that may have DVS as such.
In reality only the most recent episodes of some series programs have the DVS audio track. It may also be referred to as:. Congress specifically authorized and instructed the FCC to re-instate the requirements. Those requirements became mandatory for certain major networks and large cable systems on July 1,
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