OTTAWA – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund will award $667,000 in grants to six new projects designed to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.
The six projects represent the completion of the Fund’s second round of grants. A total of $1.4M over two rounds of funding has been committed to addressing gaps in broadcasting accessibility.
The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:
– Accessible Emergency Broadcasting, Canadian Hearing Society – $135,000. CHS will research and develop practical recommendations on making emergency broadcasting accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing consumers, and develop an accessible emergency broadcasting toolkit.
– Accessible Design for Broadcast Media – An Open Source On-line Course, Humber College, $130,900. The course, offered to all students in the School of Media Studies and Information Technology and in an open source, free on-line version, will instruct students on incorporating accessibility features such as described image and video, alt-text and screen-readers, transcription and captions into broadcast media content.
– Continuing the National Conversation – Making CBC Radio Accessible, CBC – $61,953. Building on its success in transcribing its flagship morning program The Current, CBC will use innovative speech-to-text conversion technology to post daily transcripts of As it Happens to CBC.ca, and in addition will launch a new online media player for consumers to read along with both programs.
– Understanding Consumer Response to Live Closed Captioning in Canada – Captioning Consumers Advocacy Alliance – $141,250. CCAA will design and undertake research measuring subjective preferences for live closed captioning among different types of users. The project includes consultations with Canadian and international accessibility experts, as well as with broadcasters and captionists.
– Filmodio Access Project, CRIM – $101,442. Development of enhanced Described Video (DV), Filmodio functions in a manner similar to an audio book for broadcast content, using synthesized voice to combine audiovisual content with DV, and building from existing production technologies previously developed by CRIM.
– Accessible Digital Media Player, Radio-Canada – $96,200. Development and optimization of multiplatform media players that will incorporate a range of accessibility features, thereby providing audiences with an accessible environment for Radio-Canada programming content.
“These six outstanding initiatives fully meet our mandate and objectives, and continue to represent the types of projects we’ll be looking for in future calls for funding applications”, said Board of Directors chair Allister Byrne, in the news release. “All are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”
Created as part of the tangible benefits package associated with Bell Canada’s acquisition of CTV, the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund is an independent and impartial funding body supporting innovative projects to increase the accessibility of broadcasting content in Canada.
