[Athen] audio description equipment

[Robert Beach]

Hello everybody,

I have an instructor who is working on a grant for a new Smart Room.  Bless his heart, he is putting accessibility high on his list.  He wants to know if there is technology we can add to the Smart Room setup that will make videos accessible for the visually impaired and hearing impaired.  He says he really isn't too concerned about something like rear window captioning for the captions because he simply turns them on for everybody to see.  He has not had anybody complain about the captions being at the bottom of the screen so that's fine.

However, he has been reading about audio descriptions for movies that assist the visually impaired.  He can see where this might be distracting to sighted people and wants to know if there is a way to utilize this technology without everybody having to listen to the descriptions.  I know this is done in movie theaters, but is there a way to setup a similar system for a class room type of system?  Any thoughts?

Thanks.



Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist
Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Avenue
Kansas City, KS  66112
Phone:  (913) 288-7671
Fax: (913) 288-7678
E-mail:  rbeach at kckcc.edu