There has been ongoing research and development for access to radio for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. This is called captioned radio. Imagine, when you are around the house, or in a car and want to access news or entertainment, you can watch it from a battery-powered, wireless device. That would be cool!

Towson University, National Public Radio (NPR), WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and the Harris Corporation have worked on such a technology for the past several years with the help of a grant from NIDRR. Some receiver manufacturers have expressed initial interest. At this time, the technology has been in the prototype stage, with all the needed functions identified and working. There have been several demonstrations to show how this works.

At the recent TDI Conference in Washington, DC, Mike Starling of NPR gave a presentation on the status of this project. Due to the recent economic downturn, this project has slowed down but they are working on moving forward when the economy gets better.

Like other deaf and hard of hearing people, I cannot wait for the day when we can enjoy radio programming!

For more information, this website has some documents and presentations: Captioned Radio Documents and Presentations