Descriptive Video Service

Descriptive Video Service

Braille MonitorMay-June 1986
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Descriptive Video Service
Recently WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts,
announced that it was launching a
new project which it called "Descriptive
Video Service." Some of the rhetoric in
the WGBH press release is overblown and
unfortunate, but this has nothing to do
with the basis of the idea. We herewith
reprint the WGBH press release so that Monitor readers may think about it and
decide whether this is a good or a bad
concept. Does it really make television
more enjoyable for the blind and visually
impaired, or is it simply another
phony gimmick ? Does it damage our image
and promote custodialism, or does it
help us come closer to equal access in
the area of television? If it is a good
thing, we should help promote it. If it
is a bad thing, we should not be uninformed
or silent about it. We should
jump on to it while it is young and kill
it. It is exactly the sort of thing
that will appeal to the public. It has
(or can have) far-flung implications.
Here in its entirety is the press release:
WGBH
Launches
Descriptive Video Service
February 25, 1986
Contact: Sharon Davenport
WGBH Educational Foundation
125 Western Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02134
(617) 492-2777
BOSTON, MA--The WGBH Educational Foundation
has been awarded a grant from the
Easter Seal Research Foundation to
launch an exciting new project that will
make television more complete, understandable,
and enjoyable to blind and
low-vision viewers.
An emerging new technology called
multi-channel television sound (MTS), or stereo TV, offers a potential for
providing audio descriptions to persons
with visual impairments during regular
television broadcasts. MTS provides an
additional channel, the Secondary Audio
Program, or SAP channel, which permits
transmission of program- or non-program
related audio. By simply switching to
the SAP channel of stereo TV you will be
able to hear, during the pauses in the
regular program dialogue, a specially
trained announcer describe the visual
action: the sets, the costumes, facial
and body movements, location, etc.
We've dubbed this concept Descriptive
Video Service (DVS). It was originally
conceived by Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl,
president of the Washington EAR, a radio
reading service for the blind, and herself
blind. Dr. Pfanstiehl describes
DVS as "...the art of talking pictorially.
The audio describer is a verbal
camera lens, serving as eyes for people
who can't see or can't see adequately
theater or films, television or other
events." The innovative and pioneering
work of Dr. Pfanstiehl combined with the
new MTS technology offers an exciting
opportunity to make television as accessible
to visually impaired people as closed captioning is for hearing impaired.
WGBH will begin on-air testing of the
service in the Boston area late this
spring using a WGBH produced program as
the pilot show. After a short trial
period, with volunteers from the visually
impaired community as viewers, WGBH
will evaluate plans for extending the
service on a national basis.
For more information on the DVS project,
or if you live in the Boston area
and would like to participate as a
viewer, please call Sharon Davenport,
617-492-2777, extension 3734.
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