Microsoft accessibility expert wins award for captioning work

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Thursday, 10 April 2014 11:36am

Anne Marie Rohaly, director of accessibility policy and standards at Microsoft, has won a national broadcasting award for her work on making online video more accessible for those who are Deaf or hearing impaired by providing closed captions.

In naming Rohaly as one of two 2014 Tech Women to Watch, TVNewsCheck recognised the work she did with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to develop standards for closed captioning on the internet, and as an adviser to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on regulations governing online captioning. These regulations, which were issued by the FCC in 2012, include the mandatory provision of captions on any full-length TV programs delivered online which were previously captioned for broadcast. At Microsoft, Rohaly was instrumental in introducing closed captioning support on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

“Movies, TV, and other popular videos are an integral and defining part of our culture,” said Rohaly, “and as technology advances, we have to make sure people with disabilities have access to these programs, for educational, entertainment and public safety reasons.”

For more information, see this article on the TVNewsCheck website.

Information on online captioning:


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Tags: General, Captions, Web