FCC proposes making TV menus accessible to blind

[The Straight Story]

FCC proposes making TV menus accessible to blind


Federal regulators are unveiling draft rules to make cable and television menus accessible to the blind and visually impaired.

The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will require that users have an option have onscreen menus read out loud, helping the blind understand what's playing on different channels. Cable and satellite menus, as well as other devices, will have to comply with the new rule once it is finalized.

"It's incredibly important for our ability to access entertainment content through the home theater experience," said Eric Bridges, the director of advocacy and governmental affairs with the American Council of the Blind.

The new proposal requires that 11 "essential functions" of TV are accessible, including adjusting volume, obtaining program and channel information and various configuration settings.

http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/technology/305941-fcc-proposes-making-tv-menus-accessible-to-blind-

[liberal_at_heart]

1. That would be fantastic. My husband is legally blind. He doesn't listen to much tv though.

He does enjoy the descriptive audio at movie theatres but does not like listening to tv at home. Does anybody know if they make descriptive audio technology for home tvs? Now that would be great. Then my husband could enjoy tv at home again.

[The Straight Story]

2. Not sure, but if he likes the old time radio shows

There is a website full of them

http://www.radiolovers.com/

[liberal_at_heart]

3. He loves those. Thank you. He listens to a lot of audio books as well.

[The Straight Story]

4. Oh one more for you (not radio)

1,649,654 recordings
http://archive.org/details/audio

Free digital recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users. Many of these audios and MP3s are available for free download.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. thank you. I will pass these on to him to check out.

[suffragette]

6. This link should help you find the info for audio description on your tv

http://www.acb.org/adp/tv.html


It lists tv shows that have this available and how to enable it.

[liberal_at_heart]

7. thank you. He would love to be able to listen to tv again.

[suffragette]

8. You're welcome

Here's another great site for non-copyrighted audio books read by volunteers: http://librivox.org/

Archive.org also includes librivox results and has an audio player on the results page for librivox recordings.

[suffragette]

9. Here's another link from AFB

http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?FolderID=2&TopicID=521