COAT Applauds LG Electronics/Zenith for Open Captioned Video on How To Install a Digital-to-Analog TV Converter Box

Washington, D.C., November 20, 2008. – The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) applauds LG Electronics/Zenith for providing open captioning on an Internet video clip about the company’s digital-to-analog television converter box. The video clip allows all viewers to see a text version of the audio, providing greater clarification of how to hook up the digital converter box to older television sets. In addition, the video demonstrates how consumers can change the size, color, and background of the closed captions.

See video clip at http://www.twice.com/flashVideo/element_id/2140296378/taxid/30414.html

“The video’s open captioning goes a long way in helping all consumers properly install their converter boxes,” said Cheryl Heppner, Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, in Fairfax, VA, a member of the 220-affiliate strong Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT).

“With most TV stations ending the old analog method of transmitting TV signals and beginning to broadcast only in digital format on February 17, 2009, there is a lot of confusion among consumers about how to keep their free, over-the-air television,” says Jenifer Simpson, Senior Director for Technology at the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a founding and steering committee member of the Coalition. “This type of consumer education video clip helps consumers keep their analog television sets and avoid unnecessary purchases.”

“This is the type of ‘best practice’ we want to see more of,” said Rosaline Crawford, Director of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Law and Advocacy Center. “We want every video clip on the Internet to have captioning so that America’s 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people have equal access to information; just like everyone else.”

“Once again, LG/Zenith has set an industry standard,” said Karen Peltz Strauss, of Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD). “They were the first to market television sets with the decoder captioning chip in the early 1990s. Then they added a closed captioning button on the remote controls for their digital converter boxes. Now they are open captioning their web-based video to help consumers through the DTV conversion. CSD greatly appreciates these initiatives!”

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, or COAT, launched in March 2007, is a coalition of over 220 organizations that advocates for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. COAT is dedicated to making sure that as the nation migrates from legacy telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with disabilities will benefit like everyone else. More information at http://www.coataccess.org or e-mail info@coataccess.org.