[Missouri-l] FW: [leadership] FCC Announces Technical Working Group to Handle Captioning and Description Issues

[Peter Altschul]

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Bridges [mailto:ebridges at acb.org] 
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 12:42 PM
To: leadership at acb.org
Subject: [leadership] FCC Announces Technical Working Group to Handle
Captioning and Description Issues 

This technical working group has been in the making for well over a year. I
am pleased to report that ACB will be represented as part of  this working
group. The notice of the formation of this group is below. 

 

Eric 

 

PUBLIC NOTICE

Federal Communications Commission

445 12th St., S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20554

News Media Information 202 / 418-0500

Internet: http://www.fcc.gov

TTY: 1-888-835-5322

 

DA 09-995

Released: May 1, 2009

FCC ANNOUNCES ESTABLISHMENT OF TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP TO STUDY 

DIGITAL CLOSED CAPTIONING AND VIDEO DESCRIPTION ISSUES, APPOINTMENT OF 

MEMBERS, AGENDA FOR FIRST MEETING

Working Group to be Focused on Matters Pertaining to Accessibility of
Television Programming for 

Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, or are Blind or Have a Vision
Disability

The Federal Communications Commission ("Commission") announces the
establishment of a 

working group to be focused on matters pertaining to accessibility of
television programming for 

individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, or are blind or have a vision
disability.  The Commission also 

identifies the individuals and organizations that will serve on the working
group.  Lastly, the Commission 

announces that the first meeting of the working group will be May 18, 2009,
at 9:00 a.m. at the 

Commission's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the working group will be to conduct an assessment of closed
captioning and 

video description technical issues associated with the switch to digital
television (DTV transition), and to 

recommend to the Commission's Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC)1 solutions
to any technical 

problems arising with these services in conjunction with the DTV transition.
The CAC first 

recommended the establishment of a technical working group on digital closed
captioning and video 

description in comments submitted in MB Docket No. 07-148 (the FCC's DTV
Consumer Education 

Initiative), on October 1, 2007, and again at subsequent CAC meetings in
June 2008 and January 2009.  

Establishment of the working group is also consistent with Acting Chairman
Copps' statement before the 

CAC at the January 30, 2009 meeting, during which he emphasized the need for
the Commission to take a 

leadership role in addressing these matters.  The working group will be
supported by staff from the 

Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB), jointly with staff from the
Office of Engineering and 

Technology (OET), who will provide technical support and guidance on the DTV
transition and the 

provision of digital closed captioning and video description services.
Staff will also provide 

interpretations of the Commission's closed captioning rules, but will not
serve as voting members of the 

working group.  

  

1 The Commission established the CAC as a federal advisory committee in
November 2000 for the purpose of 

making recommendations regarding consumer issues within the jurisdiction of
the Commission and to facilitate the 

participation of consumers (including people with disabilities and
underserved populations, such as American 

Indians and persons living in rural areas) in proceedings before the
Commission.  See FCC Requests Nominations 

for Membership on the Consumer/Disability Telecommunications Advisory
Committee, Public Notice, 15 FCC Rcd 

23798 (CIB 2000).   The Committee was renewed for a fifth two-year term on
November 17, 2008.

2

Specifically, the working group has been charged with meeting the following
three goals:

. Identify current and anticipated problems with the transmission and
display of digital closed 

captions and video description;

. Evaluate the closed captioning and video description capabilities of
digital equipment; and 

. Develop solutions to ensure that closed captions and video description are
passed through intact 

to consumers.

MEMBERSHIP

The working group will be a subcommittee under the CAC.   The members of the
working group 

have been appointed by, and serve at the discretion of, the Chairman of the
Commission, and have been 

approved by the FCC's Office of General Counsel Ethics group.  Although the
working group may meet 

informally and without public attendance, given that the working group is a
subcommittee of the CAC, 

the full membership of the CAC must discuss and vote on any recommendations
or conclusions of the 

working group prior to their adoption and presentation to the Commission.
Members of the working 

group will not have voting authority on any of the CAC's recommendations to
the Commission (unless 

they also are members of the CAC).  

The attached list of working group members includes representatives from the
broadcast, 

cable, satellite, and LEC video industries, manufacturers of consumer
electronics, manufacturers of 

equipment used in or connected with the processing and encoding of closed
captions and video 

description, consumer electronics retailers, closed captioning and video
description providers, and 

consumers of closed captions and video description.   

PROCEDURES

The first meeting of the working group will be held on May 18, 2009 in the
Commission's 

Meeting Room.  The Agenda for the meeting is attached to this Public Notice.
Initially, the working 

group will meet once or twice per month, based on the members' availability,
progress of the group's 

work, and other factors.  To the extent feasible, such meetings may be open
to the public.  In order to 

facilitate the business of the group without imposing undue travel or other
costs, however, some meetings 

of the working group may take place via teleconference.  The working group
will remain in existence for 

one year, at which time the Chairman of the Commission will determine if it
is necessary for the working 

group to continue or whether it may be disbanded and its duties subsumed
within those of the CAC.  

Given that the current term of the CAC ends on November 17, 2010, the
working group must terminate at 

that time, if not earlier.  

FUNCTIONS

It is anticipated that the working group will identify issues and problems
with respect to closed 

captioning and video description that are associated with the DTV
transition, and propose solutions to 

these problems in the form of recommendations to the full CAC.  The working
group shall submit a 

written report to the CAC on its progress in identifying and proposing
resolutions to closed captioning 

and video description issues and problems within three months after the
working group's first meeting, 

and then after another three months.  These reports also will include the
identification of any changes in 

Commission policy recommended in order to address these issues.  These
written reports, if adopted by 

3

the CAC and to the extent modified by it, should be submitted to the
Commission and made publicly 

available on the CAC's existing webpage:  http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/cac/.

As recommended by the CAC, the Commission envisions that the CAC, through
its web site, will 

act as a public clearinghouse of closed captioning- and video
description-related DTV information.  The 

Commission will also endeavor to share information learned through the CAC
with TV station engineers, 

video programming distributors (VPDs), industry associations and others
(e.g., manufacturers, retailers, 

and closed captioning and video description providers).  

As noted in the attached Agenda for the working group's first meeting, there
will be some time 

allotted for public comment geared towards identifying issues and problems
related to closed captioning 

and video description in the specific context of the DTV transition.  For
instance, the Commission 

anticipates that some of the closed captioning-related issues specifically
arising in the context of the DTV 

transition include the following:

. Lack of captions or garbled captions on HD channels

. HD set top box stripping or garbling captions on HD channels

. Concern that HDMI cables may not pass through the captions

. VPD or station equipment cannot properly deliver up-converted (analog to
digital) captions

. Captions readable by digital-to-analog converter boxes not being
transmitted

. Problems receiving captions through digital-to-analog converter boxes or
multi-channel VPD set-

top boxes

. Overlapping captions (two lines of captions displayed over each other)

. Captions flashing on and off

. Captions that inadvertently switch to text mode, causing 95% of the screen
image to be obscured.

. Highly difficult user interfaces or directions causing users to conclude
that captions are 

unavailable on their TV sets.

With regard to video description, although video description is not
presently required under the 

Commission's rules, some VPDs do provide this access feature voluntarily on
certain programs.  Many 

consumers are confronting the same types of problems that closed captioning
users are having.  For 

example, consumers are experiencing difficulty in accessing video
descriptions through the user 

interfaces associated with DTV equipment, and many technicians, programming
distributors, and retailers 

are unable to effectively address new problems with video description, often
not even knowing why a 

given problem is occurring.  

ACCESSIBILITY OF MEETING AND MATERIALS

The meeting site is fully accessible to people using wheelchairs or other
mobility aids.  Sign 

language interpreters, open captioning, and assistive listening devices will
be provided on site.  If you 

require other reasonable accommodations, please request them as early as
possible.  Include a description 

of the accommodation you will need, providing as much detail as you can.
Also include a way we can 

contact you if we need more information.  Last minute requests will be
accepted, but may be impossible 

to fulfill.  For such requests, or to request materials in accessible
formats for people with disabilities 

(Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), send an e-mail to
fcc504 at fcc.gov or call the 

Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-0530 (voice),
202-418-0432 (TTY).

For further information contact:  Michael Jacobs, Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau, 

Federal Communications Commission, Room 5-C737, 445 12th Street, SW,
Washington, DC 20554. 

Phone: 202-418-2859 (voice) or 202-418-8233 (TTY); Email:
Michael.Jacobs at fcc.gov.

 

4

-FCC-

5

MEMBERS OF WORKING GROUP

CONSUMER REPRESENTATIVES

FCC Consumer Advisory Committee, Karen Peltz Strauss

American Council of the Blind, Eric Bridges

Northern Virginia Resource Council for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Hearing
Loss 

Association of America, Cheryl Heppner

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES

National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH, Larry Goldberg

NAB, Graham Jones

NCTA, Andy Scott

Echostar, John Card

DirecTV, Robert Gabrielli

CBS, Bob Seidel

COMCAST, Charlie Kennamer 

National Captioning Institute (NCI), Marc Okrand

Motorola, Jeff Newdeck

Panasonic, Tony Jaisnowski, Panasonic

CaptionMax, Gerald Freda,

PBS, Stephen Scheel

Verizon, Jimmy Ho

Norpak, Bob Fitzgerald

VITAC, Tim Taylor

CEA, Brian Markwalter

LG, John Taylor

AT&T, Chris Boyer

Evertz Microsystems, Michael Kirouac

EEG, Phil McLaughlin

ABC, David Dreispan

FOX, Andy Setos

NBC, Greg DePriest

Speech Conversion Technologies, Gregory Schmidt 

FCC REPRESENTATIVES

CGB Chief Catherine Seidel and OET Chief Julius Knapp will serve as
Co-Chairs of the 

working group.  In addition, the following FCC staff will serve in support
roles:

Michael Jacobs (CGB Front Office)

Alan Stillwell (OET Front Office) 

Hugh Van Tuyl (OET, Technical Rules Branch)

Steve Martin (OET, Technical Research Branch/FCC Lab)

Amelia Brown (CGB, Disability Rights Office)

6

DIGITAL CLOSED CAPTIONING AND VIDEO DESCRIPTION

TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP MEETING

Federal Communications Commission

 

NEWS

Federal Communications Commission

445 12th Street, S.W.

Washington, D. C.  20554

This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the
full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.

See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).

News Media Information 202 / 418-0500

Internet: http://www.fcc.gov

TTY: 1-888-835-5322

For Immediate Release:
News Media Contact: 

May 1, 2009
Rick Chessen at (202) 418-2000

STATEMENT OF ACTING CHAIRMAN MICHAEL J. COPPS ON THE 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP ON DTV CLOSED 

CAPTIONING AND VIDEO DESCRIPTION

"I am extremely pleased that we are launching this important effort.  The
FCC's 

Consumer Advisory Committee first recommended convening this working group
in 

October 2007.  I had long supported that proposal, but did not have the
ability to act 

until I became Acting Chair.  Unfortunately, like much of the DTV
transition, we are 

playing catch-up and cannot address all of these issues before the
transition date.  But 

we can start, and we can commit ourselves to working together-government,
industry, 

and consumers - to address these problems as quickly as we can." 

-          FCC -

 


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