From the MINUTES of the Longs Peak Chapter/Colorado Association of the Deaf (LPC/CAD) meeting, 18 January 1997 (received 15 February 1997): "Melissa Spell shared her e-mail regarding Walt Disney World (WDW)'s new accommodations for Deaf customers. In the California and Florida parks, WDW will add sign language terps, innovative captioning systems, and audio-visual aids for over 100 rides, parades and performances. WDW also agreed to train their staff in helping Deaf customers.
"In WDW theaters, they will install what they call 'rear window captioning' -- invented by CPB [Center for Public Broadcasting] / WGBH National Center for Accessible Media and Rufus Butler Seder, both of Boston, Massachusetts."
This system allows people to see captions without the captions being displayed to the entire audience [by] projecting captions on a screen behind the theater in mirror image; a small [portable, adjustable] plexiglass panel sits in front of the Deaf person and reproduces the text in reverse, making it readable....
CAPTIONING LONG DISTANCE
"The 1996 National Association of the Deaf (NAD) convention may have been in Oregon, but the captions for the meeting were provided by people on the opposite coast. Back in Virginia, people listened to convention interpreters over the telephone. Then, using stenographic machines and computers, they created captions and sent them back to Oregon via satellite. This marked the first time in convention history that captioning was provided from a remote site." -- Source: A T & T RELAY REVIEW, Winter 1997.
"INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS AROUND THE WORLD"
In a READER'S DIGEST blurb, mid-February 1997: "From canoeing through the Malaysian jungle to riding a yak in the land of Shangri-La, from cruising down the Nile on a felucca to dogsledding in Alaska ... come explore places that few people see, through the eyes of those who know them best -- and do it in ways that few people would dare". Whee-ow! Thus we're invited to "a new video experience" (which includes an exploration of the Anasazi cliff dwellings of Colorado) "from Reader's Digest".
Incredibly, in these days of ADA and political correctness and disability sensitivity, says DA, this 3-video set, "available only from Reader's Digest", is NOT closed-captioned.
"IN THE NEXT 60 SECONDS..."
The mind boggled, the eyes went goo-goo-googly -- fi-i-inally, the Colorado Lottery closed-captioned the lotto drawing on Saturday, 1 March 1997.
"... YOU could become Colorado's newest millionaire!"
No, sad to say, we didn't have the right numbers, but closed-captioning is the right idea. Kudos, at long last, to Channel 4 and the Colorado Lottery!