'PBS NewsHour' to Make Election Coverage Accessible to Diverse Audiences

Using grant money from CPB, will use crowd-sourcing technology to enable volunteers to translate and caption election coverage in dozens of languages and for the deaf and hard of hearing

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/19/2012 11:06:56 AM

PBS NewsHour has gotten funding from CPB for an Election 2012 public media initiative to make coverage more accessible to diverse audiences.

Using $420,000 in grant money from CPB, NewsHour will use crowd-sourcing technology to enable volunteers to translate and caption election coverage in dozens of languages and for the deaf and hard of hearing. The project will launch Jan. 24 with the President's State of the Union address.

"From Chinese to Dutch, the speech translation is a true service to those for whom English is a second language and for those who are hard of hearing," said Hari Sreenivasan, director of digital partnerships for NewsHour. "This technology will make the candidates' words accessible to several billion readers."