A buzz was in the air in DC as representatives from organizations interested in accessibility for people with hearing loss were invited to an “announcement” by Google and YouTube in Google’s Washington, DC office November 19, 2009
Jonas Klink, Google’s Access manager opened the event by introducing Vint Cert, VP and chief Internet evangelist for Google. Vint Cerf apart from his professional interest has a great personal interest in the “announcement” as he has worn hearing aids since the age of 13. Google’s vision is Internet access for everyone and we were about to hear about a new innovation that steps in that direction.
There are 1.7 billion users on line today. They can read the Internet through Google’s translation services in 51 languages. Google has other applications to reach more users, those with and without disabilities – keyboard access for people with mobility challenges, screen readers for people with low vision, the new Android system for mobiles and their browser, Chrome, with improved security, Google Wave with instant messaging, email, blogging, Google maps – all helping people find information.
YouTube has exposed a desire for people to express themselves through video. 20 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute. It has also become a medium of political expression. Google indexes and helps people find information. Now with YouTube this can be expanded to media other than text. What a powerful, visionary team.
Eric Schmidt, a Google engineer who is deaf, presented what we had all been waiting for. Google’s new speech recognition machine generated captions on videos uploaded to YouTube. He cautioned it was an early launch – that’s how Google operates – launch early and quickly and get feedback fast and make improvements quickly. The machine generated captions are being beta tested by 13 educational partners. Users who wish to view a video with captions will be able to click on transcribe and get machine generated captions. Currently the captions are only available in English, and they don’t work so well with accents, background noise, and music. The error rate is 20%. But listening to the passion of the Google team who are working on this I am convinced they will make it better over time. Not only that but they plan to have captions in 51 languages! Universal captions up front and center on the Internet. You can’t buy that kind of exposure for accessibility. Eric showed us how to manipulate the captions – change the size, turn off the background, eventually language subtitles, search and help find video and also exact text within a video.
The other part of the equation that will greatly expand the number of videos captioned on YouTube is making it easier for video producers to caption their own videos. YouTube launched captioning capability in 2006 for video producers that have transcripts. However, time coding the script was not easy to do and few people took advantage of the option. In the past when they logged in and uploaded a video it was possible to make their own captions but not easy to do as they had to write the time codes for the captions. Now all they have to do is upload the transcript and Google will automatically set the time codes for the captions. All video producers or channel owners, as they are called, will be able to do this. It’s a huge advantage for channel owners as a way to reach more viewers. And a great way to get more captioned videos for those who like to use captioning.
I can’t help looking back to years ago when the first decoder chip was inserted into TVs. It was a laborious series of negotiations with TV manufacturers and then even more negotiations to go the next step to get FCC captioning regulations for programming. Google has just gone ahead with its vision to get everyone using the Internet – whether text or video - including people with disabilities and is making it happen.
Brenda Battat
Executive Director
Monday, November 23, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
This month in Bethesda - October 2009
* October was been an exciting but also frustrating month. The new phone system and the office renovation including a conference/meeting room, painting and carpeting throughout the office was exciting and all was going so well until the server went down and the frustration began. Toni Barrient worked with the company that services our network to set up a temporary system so we could at least be able to see and respond to emails. Meanwhile Dell built a new server to our specifications – but that took nine days and we are still working on getting back to normal. We are sorry communication was interrupted and thank you all for your patience. By the time you read this, we should be up and running.
Joe Duarte of Duartek, Inc., is volunteering to set up accessibility and audio visual for the new conference room. An audioloop has been donated by Ampetronics and already installed by Joe under the new carpeting.
Kudos to the HLAA staff for managing to keep the office running under extremely difficult conditions – the server down and renovations taking place all at the same time.
* Brenda Battat represented HLAA at the first International Audio Loop Conference in Winterthur, a 15 minute train ride from Zurich, Switzerland. Over 100 people attended from 15 countries. Audio loop technology was discussed and installations worldwide were reported. To see the conference proceedings and speakers go to www.hearingloops.org.
* A letter is being sent out to all cochlear implant centers with the November issue of Hearing Loss Magazine (HLM) to encourage the centers to become professional HLAA members. The letter is signed by Jeff Greiner, CEO of Advanced Bionics and the HLM mailing is being sponsored by Advanced Bionics.
* We attended a meeting at the Smithsonian Institution to discuss ways to make video art accessible. This genre is becoming increasingly popular and there is an issue about putting captions on the actual video as being the equivalent of defacing the artwork. Devices such as handhelds are being tested by WGBH (Public Broadcasting from Boston) – a leader in services for people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, or visually impaired - also represented at the meeting. HLAA is promoting positioning the captions below the artwork which is the equivalent of placing a sign below or at the side of a painting. Handhelds might be feasible to provide access with an audio tour.
* HLAA signed on to letters on health care reform to Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader, from three coalitions: DHHA (Deaf and Hard of Hearing Alliance), ITEM (Independence Through Enhancement of Medicare and Medicaid) and DHHCAN (Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network) urging that any “health care reform proposal finalized and put before a vote in the United States Senate includes access to hearing-related health care services for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing by specifically requiring hearing, speech and language related habilitative and rehabilitative services, as well as pediatric hearing services such as screenings, as basic benefits for coverage by group and individual health insurance plans.”
* We met with AARP’s Public Outreach and Disability liaison staff person. The purpose of the meeting was to:
- Reconnect the two organizations under the new administration of Mr. Barry Rand.
- Follow up on the letter HLAA sent to AARP Policy Council that was signed by over 1,500 HLAA members. In it we urged AARP to make hearing loss a priority for its members and support our advocacy initiatives related to health care reform and the Hearing Aid Tax Credit.
- Point out that the AARP defensive driving course is not accessible to people with hearing loss. Have follow up meeting with new director of the program to find solutions.
* Convention 2010: The Call for Papers for educational workshop proposals for the HLAA Milwaukee Convention is now open. Please encourage people to send in their proposals. We are looking for high quality state-of-the-art presentations. For information go to
http://www.hearingloss.org/convention/index.asp
There are wonderful new Convention 2010 registration offers – Please spread the word:
Early Bird Registration: Register for the full activity package by December 31st and your name will go into a drawing for 3 FREE nights at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center! (Must be used on the nights of June 17 -19, 2010; taxes are the responsibility of the winner.)
Early-bird registration is now open - it’s never too early to start planning!
One new supporter of the Washington DC Walk4Hearing was the United States Public Health Services Officers who had a team at the walk. Also the acting deputy surgeon general, Rear Admiral Robert Williams, came in his waterproof fatigues and delivered introductory remarks. It is HLAA’s goal to have hearing loss recognized as a public health priority.
Joe Duarte of Duartek, Inc., is volunteering to set up accessibility and audio visual for the new conference room. An audioloop has been donated by Ampetronics and already installed by Joe under the new carpeting.
Kudos to the HLAA staff for managing to keep the office running under extremely difficult conditions – the server down and renovations taking place all at the same time.
* Brenda Battat represented HLAA at the first International Audio Loop Conference in Winterthur, a 15 minute train ride from Zurich, Switzerland. Over 100 people attended from 15 countries. Audio loop technology was discussed and installations worldwide were reported. To see the conference proceedings and speakers go to www.hearingloops.org.
* A letter is being sent out to all cochlear implant centers with the November issue of Hearing Loss Magazine (HLM) to encourage the centers to become professional HLAA members. The letter is signed by Jeff Greiner, CEO of Advanced Bionics and the HLM mailing is being sponsored by Advanced Bionics.
* We attended a meeting at the Smithsonian Institution to discuss ways to make video art accessible. This genre is becoming increasingly popular and there is an issue about putting captions on the actual video as being the equivalent of defacing the artwork. Devices such as handhelds are being tested by WGBH (Public Broadcasting from Boston) – a leader in services for people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, or visually impaired - also represented at the meeting. HLAA is promoting positioning the captions below the artwork which is the equivalent of placing a sign below or at the side of a painting. Handhelds might be feasible to provide access with an audio tour.
* HLAA signed on to letters on health care reform to Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader, from three coalitions: DHHA (Deaf and Hard of Hearing Alliance), ITEM (Independence Through Enhancement of Medicare and Medicaid) and DHHCAN (Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network) urging that any “health care reform proposal finalized and put before a vote in the United States Senate includes access to hearing-related health care services for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing by specifically requiring hearing, speech and language related habilitative and rehabilitative services, as well as pediatric hearing services such as screenings, as basic benefits for coverage by group and individual health insurance plans.”
* We met with AARP’s Public Outreach and Disability liaison staff person. The purpose of the meeting was to:
- Reconnect the two organizations under the new administration of Mr. Barry Rand.
- Follow up on the letter HLAA sent to AARP Policy Council that was signed by over 1,500 HLAA members. In it we urged AARP to make hearing loss a priority for its members and support our advocacy initiatives related to health care reform and the Hearing Aid Tax Credit.
- Point out that the AARP defensive driving course is not accessible to people with hearing loss. Have follow up meeting with new director of the program to find solutions.
* Convention 2010: The Call for Papers for educational workshop proposals for the HLAA Milwaukee Convention is now open. Please encourage people to send in their proposals. We are looking for high quality state-of-the-art presentations. For information go to
http://www.hearingloss.org/convention/index.asp
There are wonderful new Convention 2010 registration offers – Please spread the word:
Early Bird Registration: Register for the full activity package by December 31st and your name will go into a drawing for 3 FREE nights at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center! (Must be used on the nights of June 17 -19, 2010; taxes are the responsibility of the winner.)
Early-bird registration is now open - it’s never too early to start planning!
- First-time Attendee Discount: For first-time attendees, we are offering a registration
- OIF/OEF Veterans with Hearing Loss: Complimentary Registration: Calling all vets of OIF and OEF with hearing loss. We want to show our support and gratitude for your service by offering a complimentary registration. Email convention@hearingloss.org for more details.
One new supporter of the Washington DC Walk4Hearing was the United States Public Health Services Officers who had a team at the walk. Also the acting deputy surgeon general, Rear Admiral Robert Williams, came in his waterproof fatigues and delivered introductory remarks. It is HLAA’s goal to have hearing loss recognized as a public health priority.
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