What happened? Between roughly 10:30 and 11:35 on the hearing video (Download or Stream), Boucher talks about
the steps that industry is already taking to make services and devices accessible to the hearing and vision impaired. As an example, he cites Disney and CBS as already captioning online. But, one problem with that! CBS does not seem to be captioning online at all!The text, as seen on the video captions:
We will learn this morning about the steps that industry is already taking to make services and devices accessible by the vision or hearing impaired. For example, my iphone can be made accessible to the visually impaired straight out of the box with the touch of an existing button. With the rapid growth of smart phones, increasing number of Americans can download inexpensive third-party applications that perform functions like text to speech and speech to text. In the video programming arena, an increasing amount of video content is now available on the Internet in a closed captioned format, including the video programming of Disney, CBS, noncommercial station WGBH and videos on YouTube. CBS offers video description of its television programming notwithstanding the absence of any legal requirement that it do so.Caption Action 2 contacted Boucher's office to make them aware that CBS is not captioning online. Boucher' s office wrote back to say that they would look into it. At the same time, Caption Action 2 double-checked by going to CBS.com and
tried to find a captioned video - nothing!! We tried two different browsers, thinking that maybe the captioning button would not display in Firefox but might display in Internet Explorer. Nothing.If Boucher's office does investigate, and finds that there is indeed no captioning on CBS online, we will have proven a point about the need for HR 3101! Again, we wish to emphasize that Rick Boucher is not to blame for this misinformation; politicians do not write their own speeches. Someone else who did not do their homework properly, wrote that speech for Boucher.
Update: Boucher's office wrote back when questioned about CBS. He was supposed to have said NBC.com.
Join Caption Action 2!
Help ensure that the new Facebook Twilight Series has captions, and help get Starz to caption its YouTube channel! Join Caption Action 2 on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/groups/captionaction2!
Of course Boucher is to blame. He is the one who is ultimately responsible for what comes out of his mouth, not his scriptwriters.
ReplyDeletePLEASE STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR POLS AND AUDISTS! THOSE PEOPLE OUGHT TO DO THEIR HOMEWORKS BY REVIEWING PREPARED SPEECHES AND OTHER SPEECH MATERIALS. POLS AND AUDISTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN CONTROL OF THEIR OWN DESTINY FROM DELIVERING SPEECHES TO OTHER THINGS!
ReplyDeleteLET BOUCHER STUMBLE ON THIS ONE AND MAKE A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW IGNORANT HEARING PEOPLE COULD BE ABOUT DEAF PEOPLE!
RLM
At the moment, we're wondering if Boucher actually had a chance to read through it before actually reading aloud from it. Even if he did have a chance to read it beforehand, did he know that there were no captions on CBS online?
ReplyDeleteRLM, please lay off the audism thing.
Mr. Boucher certainly needs to do his own homework, rather than depending on someone to do it for him. :p
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to get this information to the bill's sponsors so that they can offer up a rebuttal of some sort?
ReplyDeleteJJ, don't know what you mean by "rebuttal," but once it has been said publicly in a hearing, it is too late to change things.
ReplyDeleteFrequently politicians put their foot in their mouth when they depend on scriptwriters that get their facts wrong. That doesn't excuse their responsibility, though, any more than signing a contract without reading it excuses their responsibility.
ReplyDeleteBoucher is still on a mission: to protect constituents who contributed funds to his re-election campaign. These are industries who would be affected by being forced to provide captions and other deaf-friendly information on their public services.
The only time I have EVER seen captions from CBS is when Luke Adams was on the Amazing Race, they had episodes that were captioned separate from the non-captioned videos, and even that was a few years back, so it has been removed.
ReplyDeleteRep. Boucher gets his campaign money from the Consumer Electronics Association Political Action Cmte (CEAPAC) and a satellite TV company (Dishnet). Also other sources but these two seem important. Nothing illegal about getting this money BUT one does wonder if it affects one's thinking especially with a tight election race coming up in November for Mr. Boucher... Does who you get the money from influence what you think about something or who you listen to?
ReplyDelete