NEWSrelease

News from the National Captioning Institute, Inc.

Date: June 28, 2002

Contact: Ben Glenn

703-917-7600 (V/TTY)

703-917-9853 (FAX)

bglenn@ncicap.org

NCI National Help Desk Launched
to Answer Media Access Questions

Microsoft Corporation is the Presenting Corporate Sponsor

Washington, DC – The National Captioning Institute (NCI) announced today that it will launch the NCI National Help Desk, a free service available beginning July 4th by email, telephone, TTY and postal mail. The first of its kind in the United States, the NCI National Help Desk will assist individual consumers with questions and concerns about closed captioning and related media access services. The extensive captioning experience and industry knowledge of NCI's full-time professional staff will serve as a valuable resource supporting the Help Desk staff in answering public inquiries.

Presented with generous support from Microsoft Corporation, the NCI National Help Desk is designed to provide information on topics such as the availability of captioned programming, how to resolve problems with displaying captions, accessibility of closed captions with digital cable and high definition television, and the availability of closed captions in Spanish and on DVD’s and home videos. The service will also accommodate consumer questions about described video, a service that provides an audio description of the visual elements of video programming for people who are blind or have low vision.

NCI estimates that more than 100 million Americans benefit from captioned programming. These audiences include 28 million people who are deaf or hard of hearing, children and adults learning to read, and those learning English as a second language. An additional audience of more than 14 million people who are blind or have low vision benefit from described video.

“NCI’s National Help Desk is a major step forward in providing direct assistance to those who rely on captions and described video to make television and other video programming accessible,” said Dr. Gene Chao, Chairman and CEO of NCI. “We are grateful to Microsoft Corporation, whose financial support helps us to offer this important service, and salute Microsoft’s unwavering interest in helping those with disabilities.”

The NCI National Help Desk’s web site is located at www.ncihelpdesk.org, and can also be reached through NCI’s web site, www.ncicap.org. Faxed inquiries can be sent to (703) 917-9878. Telephone and TTY access is available at (703) 917-7686. Inquiries may also be mailed to NCI at 1900 Gallows Road, Suite 3000, Vienna, VA 22182.

With offices in the Washington, DC metropolitan area; Burbank, CA; New York, NY; Dallas, TX; and London, England, the nonprofit National Captioning Institute is the global captioning leader, supplying the highest quality closed-captioning and related services to the broadcast television, cable and home video industries.

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