The Department of Education's National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation and Research has awarded a grant to NPR and WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) to develop accessible radio technology for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired.
The Accessible Digital Radio Broadcast Services grant - in the amount of $150,000 for the first year - will help fund an anticipated three-year research and development project to prototype, field test and assess the cutting-edge radio technologies to serve the needs of people with sensory disabilities. "As radio moves into the digital transmission arena, public radio is committed to providing people with sensory disabilities equal access to news, entertainment and emergency services," said Mike Starling, CTO and Executive Director of NPR Labs. "Thanks to the Department of Education's support through this grant, NPR and our WGBH partner will leverage our shared abilities to deliver on this promise." NPR and the NPR Member stations have a long history of pioneering inclusive access for people with sensory disabilities. More than 100 radio reading services for the blind operating in the United States are offered by NPR stations, providing the reading of text from daily news, books and magazines. For more information, please see http://www.npr.org/about/press/061011.deaf.html
