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US Government To Issue Standards On Access to Streamed Media (December 27, 2000) Government standards are scheduled to be announced soon -- possibly this week -- that will mandate that Federal agencies make electronic technology accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities. Section 508 of the Federal Information Technology Accessibility Initiative mandates that all audio and video information posted on government Websites must be captioned for individuals with hearing impairments. This step could potentially pave the way towards a broader mandate that makes all streamed media on the Internet accessible to the hearing impaired through captioning, much as the FCC has mandated captioning for broadcast TV.

Perry Solomon, CEO of WordWave, Inc., a company specializing in captioning for broadcast and the Internet, with customers including NBC, CBS, ABC, and Paramount, is available to comment on the effect of these rulings on our government, as well as the potential impact on all Internet content providers of streamed media.



Section 508 may have broad implications for the Internet in general as we are already witnessing lawsuits against large Internet providers demanding more widespread access. As the regulatory push for accessibility evolves, the market will demand accurate, real-time Internet captioning, as well as the capability to search Web-based multimedia by any spoken word. Most current solutions fall short, because they don't deliver the accuracy and speed necessary for today's business environments. Voice recognition technologies are promising, but cannot recognize multiple speakers and must be "trained" to understand each speaker separately.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Mr. Solomon, please visit the Web site on Section 508 at section508.gov.

About WordWave
WordWave, Inc. specializes in capturing the spoken word for the Internet. WordWave is available on the Web at wordwave.com. For information call (617) 726-1100.

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