Today, I was sent an e-mail from the founder of ProjectReadOn.com, Mateo Gutierrez. I was pleased to learn that a politician actually took the time to partner up with Mateo to provide closed captioning of web video for the deaf and hard of hearing internet users. Here's the press release that was issued.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007Press Release
TOMHARKIN.COM PARTNERS WITH PROJECTREADON.COM TO PROVIDE CLOSED CAPTIONING OF WEB VIDEO TO DISABLED
Harkin campaign becomes the first Senate campaign to use innovative service to provide disabled persons with access to online video.
Des Moines, IA – Senator Tom Harkin's campaign website launched a new service at www.tomharkin.com/closed-captioned-video to make the campaign's online video accessible to those with hearing disabilities through an innovative closed-captioning program provided by www.ProjectReadON.com.
A longtime champion for persons with disabilities, Senator Harkin authored the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 to protect the civil rights of more than 54 million Americans with physical and mental disabilities.
“The Internet has been instrumental in bringing our democracy closer to the people and it is our duty as Americans to ensure that that those with disabilities can have full use of the technology,” said Senator Harkin. “The recent CNN/YouTube debates illustrated the effectiveness of online video and I am proud to be partnering with Project readON to provide technology that helps to give Americans with disabilities an equal opportunity to engage in our democracy.”
Project readON is the web's leading and most innovative closed-captioning service that works toward a single goal of making online media content available to all by giving users the power to decide exactly what videos they want captioned and by giving webmasters an innovative and easy to use caption player to install on their websites.
“When Senator Harkin’s office contacted us I can honestly say that this was perhaps the highest point in our professional life of working in the closed captioning industry. To be sought out by the person that wrote the very act that spawned our industry is, to say the least, an honor. We look forward to contributing to online video captioning becoming the norm across the web, and it’s a great personal pleasure to be a part of Senator Harkin’s online video message as he takes the lead in that effort!” -- Mateo Gutierrez, co-founder of Project readON.
The campaign will continue to update and add additional closed-captioned videos to this innovative service. For more information regarding Project readON's innovative services and technology please visit, www.projectreadon.com or contact Mateo Gutierrez at mateo.gutierrez@projectreadon.com
12/11/2007 2:51 PM
I *STRONGLY* recommend all people to WATCH his "Tom Harkin - Tom on Disability Rights" video, (I think it is #3 in his video roll). He explained about ADA restoration and why he is pushing for it, and I thought it was an excellent summary of what is happening with the ADA and its impact on us.
(If you cannot find it, the direct link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFNwG1UtZVs but IT DOES NOT INCLUDE caption-closed. I cannot get the link for that specific ProjectReadon-included video.)
12/11/2007 5:09 PM
Hey there,
Here's a direct link to the video on Tom Harkin's web site:
http://www.tomharkin.com/closed-captioned-video?id=1262&lang=en
Cheers,
John Erskine
Project readOn
11/06/2008 10:02 PM
Thursday, November 06, 2008
President (elect) Obama & Vice-President (elect) Biden,
The issue of providing access to government officials and government offices for Americans who happen to be deaf, must not be allowed to fall into the category of a "special interest". This issue is NOT a special interest, it is a fundamental issue that says, as an American, who happens to be deaf, I have a right to have full access to everything that MY elected officials do and say in the execution of their duties. This means, providing TDD/TTY phone numbers for American who happen to be deaf, like your campaign and the Democratic National Committee failed to do throughout the entire election.
This means making it law that anytime an elected official appears in public, be it on television or an online video, everything he/she says MUST be captioned, without exception.
This means that every government office and every elected official, be it Federal, State or Local, must provide access to their American constituents who happen to be deaf.
This means that anytime an elected official appears in public, a Sign Language Interpreter MUST be present. If you held a rally and then someone came in and picked out some people and said, "you can't listen to this speech", you would be outraged, and rightly so -- and not providing access for Americans who happen to be deaf, is tantamount to just that.
This means that every single PUBLIC service message MUST be captioned for Americans who happen to be deaf. By way of example, there has been a huge campaign lately on behalf of the American Lung Association, to encourage people to get flu shots. The spots are never captioned. They will not answer me when I ask why. But I know why -- it is a matter of not wanting to spend the money to caption these ads. If this message is important enough to spend that kind of money to get the message out to Americans, isn't it also important enough to spend a little extra to get the message out to Americans who happen to be deaf?
Your election, to the highest office in the land, sends a new, clear message to every American child who happens to be Black, that they too can achieve anything they set their mind to. Let your election also send a new, clear message that American children, who happen to be Deaf, can also achieve anything they set their mind to.
You told Republicans last night that "you will be their President too." I need to "see you say” that you will be MY President, too.
So today I am posing a question to you: "Will you be MY President too?"
I have asked my own elected officials about this issue many times, for many years now. I have received an answer from only one of them who said, "it's not my problem". I plan to ask you this question every single day of your administration, until you tell me that you will address this issue. There are new ads out now on television, encouraging people to ask their elected officials whatever questions they might have, and DEMAND an answer. (The ads are not captioned.) This is what I plan to do -- demand an answer.
Let me reiterate by saying, this is not a special interest issue. I’m not asking you to caption my favorite movie. I am asking for total access to my government; the access we afford everyone else.
Your campaign and the DNC failed every American, who happens to be deaf, this election year by not providing even one TDD/TTY line for us to contact you. Election Protection failed us by not having even one TDD/TTY line, so Americans who happen to be deaf, could get help understanding their rights as voters.
This morning, Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee failed us again. His first message to the American people after your election, was not captioned for Americans who happen to be deaf.
You know how disheartening it can be when you are excluded. Your lovely wife mentioned in an interview, how African-Americans have heard “no” for so long, they began to just expect that the answer would always be “no.” (I’m paraphrasing) So you can you imagine how Americans, who happen to be deaf, after standing in line for hours to vote for you – Americans like me, felt this morning when they clicked on Howard Dean's message and saw only his lips moving?
“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America.”
But unfortunately, there is a “Hearing America” and a “Deaf America” Please help us end this disparity, forever, so that we too can join you in the task of moving America forward.
So I would like an answer to my question: “Will you be my President, too?”
Sincerely,
Samuel Hayes
11/07/2008 2:25 PM
Don't forget to take a gander at Al Franken's website. Al Franken is the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat in Minnesota. Every video on his website, as far as I can see, is captioned. If Al Franken can do it, why can't the DNC and every other candidate in every race for every office, do the same?