News Releases | Broadcasting Accessibility Fund

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $398,016 in Eighth Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 3 2022 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $398,016 to three new projects approved by the Board of Directors, to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These three innovative projects represent the completion of the Fund’s eighth round of grants, with a total commitment of approximately $4.4M to date, to address gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“I’m very impressed with these three new initiatives,” said Board of Directors Chair Marcia Yale. “These projects fit perfectly with the Funds’ mandate and objectives; all are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”

“The Board of Directors was very pleased with the number of strong applications we received this year,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These projects are excellent examples of the innovative work we wish to see in response to future calls for Letters of Intent, some of which build upon work undertaken by previous grant recipients of the Fund.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Optimization of Closed Captioning for Children with Disabilities - CBC - $107,467. With research partner CanChild at McMaster University, this project aims to advance the current state of accessibility to content for children with disabilities across three age groups: 2-6; 6-10; and 10-13.The results will inform the CBC’s accessibility strategy and help determine what solutions and opportunities are available and create a more inclusive audience experience. All results will be shared with the CRTC and other organizations that provide content for children with disabilities, via a report of the research findings, a policy brief, and a web project page of all materials to be shared with others.
Accessible Sign Language Animation Prototype with Technical and Pedagogical Guidelines designed to Benefit Animation Companies and Broadcasters – Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf - $120,000. This initiative will research and deliver an animated sign language character prototype model and publicly available best practices Technical and Pedagogical Guide for Accessible Broadcast Sign Language Animation. Partnership with expertise from Deaf community leaders and sign language linguists, paired with technical animation experts will lead to the first best practice guide for accessible sign language animation for animation companies and broadcasters. The technical focus is to apply motion capture technology in order to explore ways to animate ASL movements. Research findings will be shared with the animation industry and would be presented at key animation creator events (e.g. the Toronto Animation Arts Festival, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Youth Media Alliance / Alliance Médias Jeunesse, SIGGRAPH and Kidscreen). The best practice guide will be made available on the CCSD website.
Measuring Caption Quality for Automatically Generated Captions: NER and CAIS Comparative Evaluation, Enhancement and Integration – PAVO Digital Inc. - $123,251. Building upon previously funded projects – specifically, the NER Evaluator Project (Keeble Media, Round 4) and Caption Quality Assessment Intelligent System or CAIS (Ryerson University, Round 6) – this project seeks to compare and integrate these two captioning assessment tools. These tools would be advanced to reflect quantitative errors in addition to subjective Deaf/Hard of Hearing viewer perspectives, particularly for auto-generated captions. This project would ensure that the Canadian NER, the CRTC-mandated method of live caption evaluation, presents accurate and fair results regardless of caption method.

“The Fund congratulates all eighth-round grant recipients and is excited to work with these groundbreaking leaders in broadcasting accessibility in the coming months,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in 2023.”

The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund is an independent and impartial funding body that supports innovative projects to increase the accessibility of broadcasting content in Canada. The fund was created as part of the tangible benefits package associated with Bell Canada’s acquisition of CTV. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved its creation together with initial funding of $5.7M.

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 915-5575 richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $371,000 in Seventh Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 3 2021 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $371,000 to four new projects approved by the Board of Directors, to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These four innovative projects represent the completion of the Fund’s seventh round of grants, with a total commitment of approximately $4M to date, to address gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“I am very excited about these four new initiatives, which include the development and utilization of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility in broadcast content.” said Board of Directors Chair Marcia Yale. “These projects are providing the important groundwork needed to further the advancement of accessibility moving forward, and are an excellent fit with the mandate of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund,” said, Ms. Yale, “as they are characterized by partnerships, transparency and a broad sharing of results.”

“The Board of Directors was very pleased with the number of strong applications we received this year,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These projects are excellent examples of the work we wish to see in response to future calls for Letters of Intent, with many building upon previous work undertaken through previous grants from the Fund.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Advancing the current state of accessibility to broadcasting content in Canada by increasing the volume and breadth of content offered with American Sign Language – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - $83,505. This project aims to advance the current state of accessibility of the CBC’s broadcasting content by increasing the volume and breadth of content offered with American Sign Language (“ASL”). Research on best practices of signed content development, via review of current approaches and regulatory requirements, initiatives undertaken by other broadcasters, and focus groups with Deaf Canadians, will inform new strategies incorporated during the 2022 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in signed recap shows. New CBC production facilities, designed especially for ASL interpretation, will be used to record sign language interpretation.
VD-Qual – English and French Described Video Writing Assistant - Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal (French-Language) - $134,405. The VD-Qual project aims to build a suite of diagnostic and correction tools for described video texts in order to improve their quality in both English and French. CRIM intends to deploy a demo version of VD-Qual on an accessible website, allowing users to submit a video description, either in plain text or in a “Timed text” format, and to view a highlighted video description and download the results for personal use.
Accessible Infrared Remote Control App – Komodo OpenLab - $37,370. This project proposes a fully-accessible mobile app that would allow users to add infrared remote control functions to a simple accessible interface that could be controlled by touch, voice or assistive technologies like switch access or screen readers. This app would work in combination with a commercially available infrared transmitter hardware and would allow users with limited mobility to control media devices (e.g., TVs, cable boxes, radios, stereo systems, etc.).
Producing Accessible Podcasts - Seneca College - $115,750. Seneca College proposes the development of an accessible podcast production micro-credential course. This online course would offer content creators the skills and resources needed to produce accessible podcasts (including topics that address a range of accessibility issues) and would offer students who are deaf and hard of hearing the tools to produce their own podcast content and would alleviate a growing gap in online content accessibility. The curriculum will be developed using Inclusive Design principles, ensuring that content is flexible and adaptable for all learners. This project will include partnership with the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.

“The Fund congratulates all seventh-round grant recipients and is excited to work with these groundbreaking leaders in broadcasting accessibility in the coming months,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2022.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 915-5575 richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $398,016 in Sixth Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 3 2020 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $398,016 to four new projects approved by the Board of Directors, to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These four innovative projects represent the completion of the Fund’s sixth round of grants, with a total commitment of approximately $3.7M to date, to address gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“I’m very impressed with these four new initiatives,” said Board of Directors Chair Marcia Yale. “These projects fit perfectly with the Funds’ mandate and objectives; all are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”

“The Board of Directors was very pleased with the number of strong applications we received this year,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These projects are excellent examples of the work we wish to see in response to future calls for Letters of Intent, with many building upon previous work undertaken through previous grants from the Fund.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

CapScribe 3.0 - Inclusive Media & Design and IDRC - $160.000. This project will build upon previous work undertaken in CapScribe 2.0 by creating a more efficient workflow, an upgraded interface design addressing a wide range of accessibility needs, and pilot integration with Learning Management Systems. Captioning and description modules will be enhanced and support for ASL/LSQ video will be provided along with new features promoting ease of use, automation and team collaboration. This project is designed as a platform-neutral solution that would support academic institutions, as well as broadcasters and other industries by providing software and training materials freely.
Improving live captioning delivery quality with Artificial Intelligence – PAVO Digital Inc. - $131,216. This project will consolidate several captioning software tools into a single deliverable product, building on two previous projects funded by BAF. The final phase would complete the AI elements needed to bring a product to market, including the role of captioners as supervisors of AI-based speech to text outputs; an interface to support the captioning supervision role; development of a real time sentence prediction engine; full integration of the software into the PAVO captioning offerings; performance benchmarking; and system evaluation.
Evaluation and testing of Langue des Signes Québéquoise content: A first step towards developing signed content at Radio-Canada - Radio-Canada (French language) - $31,800. This initiative will explore promising opportunities for signed content in Langue des Signes Québéquoise (LSQ). It involves conducting research to determine the status of LSQ users and identify: (1) their content needs, (2) initiatives that have led to signed content at the national and international levels and (3) current approaches to signing audio and video content. This research will offer a better understanding of the role that LSQ can play for consumers by researching the current level of LSQ content availability, the interests and needs of consumers and current solutions for integrating LSQ into audio and video media. These results are intended to serve as the basis for Radio-Canada’s future development of a relevant, useful and financially sustainable LSQ content strategy, and results will be openly shared with other broadcasters and organizations interested in LSQ content development.
Certificate Pilot Project (30 credits) in Inclusive Media with a focus on developing captioning and audio description skills - Université de Montréal (French-language) - $75,000. This project will see the development of the first inclusive-media certificate program in French offered by a Canadian university, to provide professionals with advanced training in closed captioning, sign language videography, audio description and scriptwriting techniques, and to support the broadcasting industry’s training needs. The certificate program would consist of 10 courses to be developed by Labo CinéMédias and offered by the University of Montreal’s Department of Art History and Film Studies for a one-year trial period. This project fills a gap in the broadcasting industry for the training and education of French-language captionists and descriptors available to the public. The University of Montreal has previously worked with Ryerson University on the latter’s inclusive media course series.

“The Fund congratulates all sixth-round grant recipients and is excited to work with these groundbreaking leaders in broadcasting accessibility in the coming months,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2021.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 915-5575 richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $744,479 in Fifth Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 3 2019 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $744,479 to six new projects approved by the Board of Directors, to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These six innovative projects represent the completion of the Fund’s fifth round of grants. Approximately $3.3M has been committed through five rounds of funding to date, to address gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“I’m very excited about these outstanding initiatives,” said Board of Directors Chair Marcia Yale. “These six projects fully meet our mandate and objectives, and continue to represent the types of projects we’ll be looking for in future calls for funding applications. All are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”

“The Fund’s Grant Committee was impressed by the number of strong applications we received this year,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These groundbreaking projects will build on the success of the Fund’s previous projects. The talent, skill and experience in broadcasting accessibility shine through in each and every one.”

“In addition,” said, Mrs. Yale, “these projects provide stepping stones for further work in key areas of broadcasting accessibility.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Understanding User Experiences of Play-by-Play Captioning in Fast-Paced Live Sports – Canadian Association of the Deaf ($191,570): Fast paced live sports (such as hockey) continues to be one of the most difficult genres of programming to accurately caption with minimal loss of information. The primary objective of the project is to better understand how the presence and nature of play-by-play captioning of fast-paced live sports programming contributes to or detracts from the user experience and satisfaction of live sports programs. This project builds upon recently completed work undertaken by the Captioning Consumers Advocacy Alliance (a project that received a grant from the Fund in 2016 during the second round of projects).
French-language Video and Video Description – CRIM ($137,894): The objective of this project is to bring a machine learning method known as Deep Learning to the automatic production of French-language Described Video. The project would compile a French-language video description dataset and compare it with the dataset already produced in English. The objective of the project is to compile a set of annotated French-language videos called VVD (video and VD). Currently, this type of machine learning for DV has only been available in English, and expanding into French language content would greatly improve accessibility for Francophone audiences and would potentially improve the quality of DV while reducing the cost for broadcasters.
Accessibility as Aesthetic in Broadcast Media: Three Disability-Led Films – Humber College ($131,481): Three fully accessible films led by filmmakers with disabilities, will inform the Canadian broadcasting industry of the importance and value of inclusive design. The project will make inclusion more appealing to broadcast media producers, in that the films will serve to advocate for people with disabilities through the stories and perspectives revealed. The project stems from the Making Accessible Media course that originally received a grant from the Fund in the second round of funding, and became a permanent part of Humber’s course offerings in the School of Media Studies and Information Technology.
NAIT Captioning and Court Reporting Diploma Online - NAIT ($100,000): The NAIT Captioning and Court Reporting Project will convert the existing diploma program to an online format, to deliver a web-based curriculum training in English-language steno captioning. Transitioning to an online format will increase the number of students able to enroll in the Captioning and Court Reporting Program, and will result in greater captioning support for the broadcasting industry.
Providing transcription for Radio-Canada audio content: a forward-looking project for Francophone Canadians living with hearing impairments – Radio Canada ($103,550): A functional prototype will be developed for generating automated transcripts for audio programming, specifically targeting content accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing audience members. A key focus will be to find solutions to the challenges of transcribing audio into French text, and integrate audio transcripts into the production flow of radio programming. The trial program for transcription will be Aujourd’hui l’histoire (Today in History), a half-hour series that runs Monday to Thursday on Radio-Canada’s main radio network ICI Première. The project would complement previous automated transcription work completed by CBC’s English-language Radio One (respectively, first and second round projects).
Development of a method of automatic closed captioning quality subjective assessment using an AI Technology – Ryerson University ($79,984): Development of an artificial intelligence system that accomplishes two tasks: to automate the process of assessing the quality of live closed captioning by consumers, and to reflect the perspectives of Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers of captioning. The project will develop a model of viewer decisions based on errors detected, across a number of genres of programming content. This system will allow broadcasters access to a cost-effective way to include the perspectives of Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences in the assessment of captioning quality, as a compliment to human assessment.

“The Fund congratulates all fifth round grant recipients and is anxious to work with these visionary leaders in broadcasting accessibility,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2020.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 729-1891, richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund – Board of Directors 2019-20

Ottawa, June 19, 2019 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) today announced its Board of Directors for 2019-20. This marks the first completely new Board since the Fund was formed in 2013. The Fund is mandated to provide financial support for initiatives that advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

At the same time as new Directors were appointed to the Board at the Fund’s recent Annual General Meeting, Accessibility Group Director (Sight) Marcia Yale was nominated and unanimously supported as the new Chair of the Board.

“I am delighted to carry on the work of my predecessor Allister Byrne, and to be supported by such a dedicated group of Directors representing accessibility groups and broadcasters from across Canada,” said Ms. Yale.

Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer added, “This new group of Directors will lead the Fund over the next several years, ensuring our mandate remains timely and relevant as new accessibility technologies rapidly emerge.”

Directors for 2019-20:

Marcia Yale – Accessibility Group Director – Sight and Chair of the Board

Charlene Caines – Independent Accessibility Director

Rajesh Malik – Independent Accessibility Director

Jerry Lucas – Accessibility Group Director - Mobility

Lisa Anderson – Accessibility Group Director – Hearing

Gordon Fletcher – Accessibility Group Director – Cognitive

Soo Kim – Director, Broadcasting Industry – Business

Chris O’Brien – Director, Broadcasting Industry – Business

David Bennett – Director, Broadcasting Industry – Distribution

The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund was established as an independent and impartial funding body supporting innovative projects to increase the accessibility of broadcasting content in Canada. The fund was created as part of the tangible benefits package associated with Bell Canada’s acquisition of CTV. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved its creation together with initial funding of $5.7M. The Fund has now provided grants to 24 projects totalling $2.5M.

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 915-5575, richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $615,330 in Fourth Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 3, 2018 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $615,330 in grants to five new, innovative projects designed to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These five new projects represent the completion of the Fund’s fourth round of grants, with a total of $2.5M over four rounds of funding committed to addressing ongoing gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“I am very excited about these five new initiatives, which include the development and utilization of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility in broadcast content.” said Board of Directors Chair Allister Byrne. “These projects are providing the important groundwork needed to further the advancement of accessibility moving forward, and are an excellent fit with the mandate of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund,” said, Mr. Byrne, “as they are characterized by partnerships, transparency and a broad sharing of results.”

“The Grant Committee was very pleased by the number of strong applications we received in response to our fourth call for proposals,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These projects are excellent examples of the work we wish to see in response to future calls for Letters of Intent, with many building upon previous work undertaken through grants from the Fund.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

NER Consumer Evaluator - Project Keeble Media Inc. - $156,000 the proposed project is designed to train and certify a number of deaf and hard of hearing consumers in the evaluation of NER – a tool for measuring captioning accuracy that is widely used internationally and is the subject of recently completed work undertaken by the Captioning Consumers Advocacy Alliance (a project that received a grant from the Fund in 2016 during the second round of projects).
Continuing Education Course Series for Inclusive Media for Broadcast Production - Ryerson University - $119,636. This project will see the development of a continuing education course series focused on inclusive design for broadcast production, with a key focus on the instruction of re-speaking techniques for live closed captioning and audio description techniques including scripting. The course will serve as a pilot for new materials being developed at Ryerson and make use of the re-speaking/voice recognition software developed by PAVO Digital that was supported by a grant from the Fund.
CapScribe 2.0 - Mohawk College and Inclusive Media & Design Inc. - $163,029. This project aims to modernize CapScribe, a 20-year old technology originally designed to enable creators and consumers to produce video captioning that includes non-speech sounds and described video. Upgrades to CapScribe will ensure its compatibility with existing operating systems and devices and provide compatibility with alternative access systems used by captioners and describers with disabilities.
Developing Artificial Intelligence Post Processing Methods for Improving Speaker-Independent Voice Recognition - PAVO Digital Inc. - $111,375. Building upon previous speech recognition systems developed using grants from the Fund, PAVO will be using Artificial Intelligence to increase the accuracy closed captioning created by speech recognition technology; this type of post-processing approach has the potential to optimize voice recognition as a captioning method by avoiding the analysis of speech patterns and focusing instead on patterns of context in a text format, ultimately enabling the development of an AI text correction system.
Web DV - CRIM - $65,290. Leveraging new digital insertion technologies that have become more widely available in recent years (i.e. using video insertion technology designed for the insertion of advertising) this project will develop two “extended Web DV production approaches” following recommendations from WC3 on standards for DV on the Web. Building from existing production technologies previously developed by CRIM, these two approaches will be compared and tested with users.

“The Fund congratulates all fourth round grant recipients and is excited to work with these groundbreaking leaders in broadcasting accessibility in the coming months,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2019.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 729-1891, richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $624,298 in Third Round Project Grants

Ottawa, December 12, 2017 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) announced today that it will award $624,298 was committed to six new projects, as approved by the Board of Directors, to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These six innovative projects represent the completion of the Fund’s third round of grants. A total of $1.9M over three rounds of funding has been committed to addressing significant gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“Today marks another important milestone in the Fund’s work,” said Board of Directors Chair Allister Byrne. “These outstanding initiatives fully meet our mandate and objectives, and continue to represent the types of projects we’ll be looking for in future calls for funding applications. All are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”

“We once again received a number of strong applications,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These groundbreaking projects will build on the foundation of success created by previous first and second round projects. The talent, skill and experience in broadcasting accessibility shine through in each and every one.”

“In addition,” said, Mr. Byrne, “these projects provide stepping stones for further work in key areas of broadcasting accessibility.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Integrated Described Video Instructional Series (Accessible Media Inc., AMI), $85,000 - Will develop, produce and distribute a series of instructional videos on Integrated Described Video or IDV, a method of producing inclusive media content for “seamless consumption” by consumers with vision disabilities. The integration of describing key visual elements into content production itself circumvents the barriers to DV accessibility so commonly experienced by consumers who are blind or who have low vision (i.e. IDV eliminates the need for a secondary SAP audio stream).
Enhanced real-time and post-production captioning for VoiceWriter captioning software (PAVO Digital Inc., formerly Mediac Systems LLC), $81,440 – PAVO’s first project for the Fund focused on updating existing software and developing new in-roads to voice recognition technologies, to improve both real time (live) and post production captioning processes. The project was successfully completed in the summer of 2017, resulting in new captioning software with advanced functionality. PAVO requested an extension and additional funding to finalize preparation of the software for the market, including de-bugging and other technical clean up together with additional functionality for consumer ease of use that is common in the software development industry. Final user testing will also be conducted.
Market Survey: Continuing Education Course Series for Inclusive Media for Broadcast Production (Ryerson University), $11,995 – Ryerson will apply to the Fund in the next round to develop a continuing education Course Series in inclusive media for broadcast production, with a focus on learning re-speaking techniques for live captioning and Audio Description (AD) delivery and scripting. For this round, Ryerson a market survey to identify interest among adult learners in the course, the curriculum for which would be software-neutral and include a full range of re-speaking technologies, DV/IDV and a component on accessibility for short-form video.
SmartTones Powered Radio App for Increased Accessibility & Enhanced Audience Engagement (Radio Ryerson Inc.), $64,655 – Will create a new model for radio app accessibility, business development and enhanced audience engagement by building new accessibility features activated by inaudible tones called SmartTones. Focusing on consumers who are blind or have vision loss, the proposed technology will enable interface with Open Broadcaster Emergency System enabling notification beyond current regulatory obligations, and will become the receiver for audible second screen interactivity that will include audible contests, special offers and promotions and other information typically inaccessible to those with vision disabilities.
Mapping Physical Access Solutions to Broadcast Television (Neil Squire Society), $169,208 – A project focusing on how people with mobility disabilities can use existing and emerging assistive technologies to access a range of set top boxes, remotes controls, infrared hubs and broadcaster smartphone applications. Four phases are proposed, including definition of the problem, design of procedures, observation, analysis/interpretation and a communications matrix.
Universal Intelligent Assistive Devices for Media Content Accessibility (Carleton University), $67,000 – Will design and develop a generic, modular class of systems called Intelligent Assistive Devices focused on improving accessibility to content for people with mobility disabilities. Technical objectives include the developing of sensing modules; a core platform interface between different input devices and media systems like Apple TV; and intelligent tuning systems to adapt to specific user needs. Designs take into account the rapid technology changes in media devices.

“The Fund congratulates all third round grant recipients and is anxious to work with these visionary leaders in broadcasting accessibility,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2018.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 729-1891, richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $667,000 in Second Round Project Grants

Ottawa, November 29, 2016 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) today announced that it will award $667,000 in grants to six new and innovative projects designed to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.

These six new projects represent the completion of the Fund’s second round of grants. A total of $1.4M over two rounds of funding has been committed to addressing significant gaps in broadcasting accessibility.

“Today marks another important milestone in the Fund’s work,” said Board of Directors Chair Allister Byrne. “These six outstanding initiatives fully meet our mandate and objectives, and continue to represent the types of projects we’ll be looking for in future calls for funding applications. All are characterized by partnerships, transparency and broad dissemination of results, which are key elements of the Fund’s grant program.”

“We once again received a number of strong applications,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “These six new projects will build on the foundation of success created by the seven first round projects. The talent, skill and experience in broadcasting accessibility shine through in each and every one.”

“In addition,” said, Mr. Byrne, “these projects provide stepping stones for further work in key areas of broadcasting accessibility. Future projects will continue to build on the 13 projects we have now funded.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Accessible Emergency Broadcasting, Canadian Hearing Society - $135,000. CHS will research and develop practical recommendations on making emergency broadcasting accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing consumers, and develop an accessible emergency broadcasting toolkit.
Accessible Design for Broadcast Media – An Open Source On-line Course, Humber College, $130,900. The course, offered to all students in the School of Media Studies and Information Technology and in an open source, free on-line version, will instruct students on incorporating accessibility features such as described image and video, alt-text and screen-readers, transcription and captions into broadcast media content.
Continuing the National Conversation – Making CBC Radio Accessible, CBC - $61,953. Building on its success in transcribing its flagship morning program The Current, CBC will use innovative speech-to-text conversion technology to post daily transcripts of As it Happens to CBC.ca, and in addition will launch a new online media player, allowing audiences to listen while they read along.
Understanding Consumer Response to Live Closed Captioning in Canada – Captioning Consumers Advocacy Alliance – $141,250. CCAA will design and undertake research measuring subjective preferences for live closed captioning among different types of users. The project includes consultations with Canadian and international accessibility experts, as well as with broadcasters and captionists.
Filmodio Access Project, CRIM - $101,442. Development of enhanced Described Video, “Filmodio” functions in a manner similar to an audio book for broadcast content, using synthesized voice to combine audiovisual content with DV, and building from existing production technologies previously developed by CRIM.
Accessible Digital Media Player, Radio-Canada - $96,200. Development and optimization of multiplatform media players that will incorporate a range of accessibility features, thereby providing audiences with an accessible environment for Radio-Canada programming content.

“The Fund congratulates all second round grant recipients and is anxious to work with these visionary leaders in broadcasting accessibility,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, in February 2016.”

Contact: Richard Cavanagh, CEO/Funding Officer, Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, (613) 729-1891, richard@baf-far.ca

Broadcasting Accessibility Fund Approves $723,500 in Project Grants

Ottawa, January 26, 2016 – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (the Fund) today announced that it will award $723,500 in grants to seven innovative projects designed to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities. The projects represent the first ever selected by the Board of Directors for grant awards.

“Today marks an important milestone in the Fund’s work,” said Board of Directors Chair Allister Byrne. “These seven outstanding initiatives fully meet our mandate, by addressing significant gaps in broadcasting accessibility. They further represent the types of projects we’ll be looking for in subsequent rounds of funding, as they are characterized by partnerships, transparency and a broad sharing of results.”

“We received a number of exceptionally strong applications,” said the Fund’s CEO/Funding Officer Richard Cavanagh. “Since the inception of the Fund, there has been a strong belief that we would tap into some of the best talent, skills and experience in the field of broadcasting accessibility. The projects approved by our Board clearly demonstrate that this is the case.”

“In addition,” said, Mr. Byrne, “these projects provide stepping stones for further work in key areas of broadcasting accessibility. Future projects will be able to build on the first seven we are helping to fund. This is just the beginning.”

The projects approved by the Board of Directors are:

Accessible Media Production Course, Mohawk College – $80,000. Student journalists will receive mandatory, intensive training in producing content that is accessible across all media platforms.
Making CBC Radio Accessible, CBC - $62,000. New speech-to-text conversion technology will be used to post daily transcripts of CBC’s award-winning radio program, The Current to CBC.ca. The Current reaches some 2.3 million Canadians each week. In addition, one American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted radio documentary will be filmed and posted to CBC.ca each month.
Tecla Remote, Komodo Open Lab - $77,500. A Tecla switch device will enable users with limited mobility to control a range of media devices using the same controls used to operate wheelchairs.
Designing Screen Reading Capabilities for the 10-foot User Interface, Rogers Communications - $140,000. Extensive research on the development of simplified and inclusive mechanisms to assist blind and low vision users to discover and consume video content.
Radio with a Voice, Vues et Voix - $116,000. Development of a fully accessible web platform for Vues et Voix radio content focusing on disability- and accessibility- related stories and issues in the French language.
Broadcasting Accessibility Education for Hard of Hearing Canadians, Canadian Hard of Hearing Association - $125,000. An extensive project to assist hard of hearing Canadians with the accessible features of media devices, designed to build a base of knowledge including the producing of a web-based guide to device accessibility.
Enhanced real-time and post-production captioning for VoiceWriter captioning software, Mediac Systems LLC - $123,000. Focused on updating existing software and developing new in-roads to voice recognition technologies, to improve both real time (live) and post production captioning processes.

“The Fund congratulates the first of its grant recipients and is anxious to work with these visionary leaders in broadcasting accessibility,” said Mr. Cavanagh. “We look forward to announcing our next Call for Letters of Intent, the first step in our application process, early in 2016.”

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