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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=mary_watkins@wgbh.org href="mailto:mary_watkins@wgbh.org">Mary Watkins</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=MAG_News@mail4.wgbh.org
href="mailto:MAG_News@mail4.wgbh.org">MAG_News@mail4.wgbh.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, January 16, 2009 9:51 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> 2009 Inauguration Coverage on PBS to be Described and
Captioned Live</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">January 16, 2009<BR> <BR>Press Contact:
<BR>Mary Watkins<BR>617 300-3700<BR><FONT color=#0000ff><U><A
href="mailto:mary_watkins@wgbh.org">mary_watkins@wgbh.org</A><BR></U></FONT><BR><B>Media
Access Group at WGBH To Provide Closed Captioning And Live Description for
PBS</B>'<B>s Inaugural Coverage <BR> <BR>Described version of coverage will
also stream live on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies
(JCCIC) web site, <FONT color=#0000ff><U><A
href="http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/">http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/</A><BR></U></FONT><BR>Boston,
MA</B> — The Media Access Group at WGBH, a non-profit service of the WGBH
Educational Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, will provide both closed
captioning and live description of Barack Obama's presidential inauguration for
the PBS presentation of <I>Inauguration 2009</I>, a <I>NewsHour</I> special
hosted by Jim Lehrer. The PBS coverage of the inauguration airs live on Tuesday,
January 20 from 11AM to 1:30PM EST. While live captioning is an established
feature of many television broadcasts, live description, the creation at time of
air of a narration track imparting information about visual elements that people
who are blind or visually impaired would miss, is a rare service. Dunkin' Donuts
is generously sponsoring the description service for this broadcast. In 1993,
PBS's coverage of the Clinton inauguration was the first live television program
that was made fully accessible to the nation's 36 million deaf, hard-of-hearing,
blind and visually impaired viewers. <BR> <BR>While details from the
inaugural planning committee are still forthcoming, PBS plans to include
coverage of Barack Obama's arrival at the White House, excerpts of the church
service and Barack Obama's speech to the nation from the Capitol steps.
<BR> <BR>Hosted by Jim Lehrer of <I>The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer</I>, the
PBS presentation will feature political analysts Mark Shields and David Brooks,
as well as a panel to provide historical context:<BR> <BR>• Ellen
Fitzpatrick, presidential historian and professor at the University of New
Hampshire<BR>• Peniel Joseph, professor of history and African-American studies
at Brandeis University<BR>• Richard Brookhiser, senior editor at National Review
and author of a series of biographies of America's founders, including Alexander
Hamilton and George
Washington<BR> <BR>"WGBH
is proud to take part in making this historic event fully accessible to
<U>all</U> PBS viewers once again," says Media Access Group director Larry
Goldberg. "And we're extremely grateful to PBS, the team at MacNeil/Lehrer
Productions and to corporate sponsor of the live description Dunkin' Donuts<I>
</I>for the opportunity to bring not only the audio of the inaugural coverage to
deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans, but also the visual highlights of the
occasion to those who are blind or visually impaired."<BR> <BR>Dunkin'
Donuts, for many years a corporate caption sponsor of local news broadcasts in
the Boston area, is sponsoring description for the first time. Shannon Maxwell,
field marketing manager for Dunkin' Donuts says, "Dunkin' Donuts individual
franchise owners are proud to play a part of making this major event accessible
to blind and visually impaired audiences. We are thrilled that our
contribution will make the images of the day come alive via
description."<BR> <BR>Closed captions display spoken dialogue as text on
the television screen. The live captions will be typed by specially
trained stenocaptioners — working from WGBH’s Boston-based headquarters — and
broadcast simultaneously with the live program. The descriptive narration
— provided by an expert team of describers — will be audible during pauses in
program dialogue and will identify speakers, describe settings and convey other
visual information about the event. Captions can be accessed on televisions
equipped with built-in decoders (most televisions are equipped), while viewers
can hear descriptions by switching to the Second Audio Program (SAP) channel on
their stereo TVs. The described coverage will also be streamed live on the Joint
Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) web site at <FONT
color=#0000ff><U><A
href="http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/">http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/</A><BR></U></FONT><BR>The
Media Access Group at WGBH incorporates The Caption Center, the world's first
captioning agency, founded in 1972; Descriptive Video Service® (DVS®), which has
made television, film and video more accessible to blind and visually impaired
audiences since 1990; and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for
Accessible Media (NCAM), a research and development entity that builds on the
success of WGBH's access service departments to make existing and emerging
technologies more accessible to these under-served audiences. Members of
the Media Access Group's collective staff represent the leading resources and
experts in their fields.
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