EFHOH NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2003

President's letter

Dear all,
In the end of 2003 we can say that 2003 was a important and crucial year for EFHOH.

SUBTITLING:
First of all it was for EFHOH the year of Subtitling on Television, I' am very happy and proud that EUD, FEPEDA, RNID and EFHOH have made a very beautiful leaflet about Subtitling and Sign language. This is a good example of the good co-operation between EUD, FEPEDA, RNID and EFHOH.

On 4 of September the European Parliament adopted their Resolution on the Television without Frontiers Directive which reports on the implementation process of this Directive. One of the most significant points made is in para.34 calling for an annual benchmarking process on progress made by Member States in relation to access to TV broadcasting for disabled people. The idea would be to clearly identify which EU member states and candidate states and performing well and which are not. This proposal is inserted as a result of lobbying work undertaken by EBU, EUD, RNID, FEPEDA, EDF and EFHOH. It was discussed extensively at a Disability Inter group meeting earlier this year at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In October I was for EFHOH in Barcelona for the presentation of the final draft of the CENELEC report about TV for ALL. In June 2002 CEN, CENELEC and ETSI organised a successful conference in Seville "TV Broadcasting for All". It was decided to take many of the ideas forward by means of a "Virtual Group" on the internet. The group is seeking to identify the users requirement in the fields of TV broadcasting in relation to the need of people with disabilities; to identify the standardisation requirements regarding accessibility in view of establishing "Digital TV and interactive services for All", and to draw up a report including the standardisation requirements regarding accessibility based on the identified users requirements and taking into account all relevant views. The final report should be available at the end of 2003.

24 and 25 of November EFHOH vice-president Siegfried Karg was present on the conference in Italy about Accessibility by Voice, Voice recognition supporting people with hearing or other disabilities. The conference aimed at spreading information on the potentialities of voice recognition and voice synthesis techniques and in encouraging an awareness raising process on the ways of helping people with disabilities. It presented the result achieved by the Voice project and the development and harmonisation of subtitling in European Television Broadcasting Project and discussed new challenges. The speakers demonstrated the use of voice recognition for generating subtitles of conferences and television broadcasts for people with hearing impairment, as well as the navigation on the internet assisted by voice recognition for people with motor impairment and by voice synthesis for people with visual impairment. The conference represented also the European Commission Joint Research Centre contribution to the closing events of the European Year of People with Disabilities 2003. For more information you can have a look on web site --> http://voice.jrc.it

European Commission Joint Research Centre
Closing Event for the European Year of People with Disabilities 2003
Conference eAccessibility by Voice:
VOICE Recognition supporting people with hearing or other disabilities
Conference Centre Casa Don Guanella, Barza/Ispra
24 and 25 November 2003

Final Document of Conference and Press Release:
European Conference calls for more communication support for Disabled People

Marcel Bobeldijk
President of EFHOH