Photo by Don Davidson, Harris Corporation

Accessible radio makes waves

TU, NPR, Harris Corp. to make radio more accessible to visually and hearing impaired

By Stuart Zang

TU, National Public Radio (NPR) and Harris Corporation have launched an initiative to make radio more accessible to hundreds of millions of hearing and visually impaired people around the world.

NPR Labs in Washington, D.C., will provide software and technology research and development, and Harris Corporation will supply transmission and research support at its Cincinnati radio broadcast technology center.

Towson University will house the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology (ICART), the initiative’s primary administrative and academic research center for developing future technologies. Ellyn Sheffield, TU assistant professor of psychology and co-director of ICART, says the center hopes to use TU faculty and graduate students from disciplines such as psychology, audiology and deaf studies to help conduct research into the needs of sensory-disabled populations.

The initiative will use cutting-edge HD Radio™ technology and apply captioning to enable hearing-impaired people to “see” live radio content on digital radio displays. For the visually impaired and blind, ICART will help set standards for receiver manufacturers  to to build radios with audio feedback, accessible features,  and larger, easier-to-read text. Additionally, ICART will provide the structure for  radio reading services  that assist the visually impaired with daily readings of current books, newspapers and magazines to enter the digital age.

Sheffield says ICART’s members decided to make their initiative global because more than 650 million people around the world suffer from visual or hearing loss. 

The initiative’s founding members—TU, Harris Corporation and NPR—will jointly determine the strategic direction of the organization, with assistance from more than a dozen members that represent the deaf and blind communities, broadcasters, network content providers, infrastructure and transmission equipment companies, and receiver manufacturers.

As radio shifts from analog to digital signals, “sensory-disabled individuals will finally have access to all radio programming, as well as radio emergency alerts and vital disaster recovery information,” Sheffield says.

“There is no question this initiative will have a profound effect on the quality of life for millions of people around the world.

Visit the ICART Web site for more information on this groundbreaking initiative.

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