[Blindtlk] Some Questions About Watching/Accessing Television

[Kerri Kosten]

Hi Everyone:

Thanks for all the messages.
I have to agree with Gary. I believe television has changed a lot
since even I was younger and I'm not that old.
How can I keep up with the latest on the accessibility options and
such from Comcast? I would love to have an accessible set-top box.
I do believe I have an older TV. Should I just have someone look and
see if there is a second audio play option? Is that what the
descriptive would be under?
If I were to go with a service such as Hulu or Netflix, is there any
way to have description with that?
The reason I am asking so much about description is this.
I believe the shows on channels such as MTV are pretty
self-descriptive because they are reality shows, but it seems like
newer shows are about teams trying to investigate cases (Castle, the
Following, Scandal, Criminal Minds, CSI, and Grays Anademy) or they
are about vampires/zombies/action (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead,
Vampire Diaries, Being Human) and so really need description to follow
so I would love to figure out this description thing if I could.
The problem I have with Blind Mice Mart is for TV shows by the time
they get the show on their site the season is over. For example, I
just saw they just now got seasons 1 and 2 of Scandal so I might
download it and watch it with description but if I am watching season
3 on TV I won't have that description and who knows when Blind Mice
will get it. Blind Mice is wonderful for movies, but I notice with
television shows they get the shows late.
If there is description for some popular shows such as Scandal, CSI,
Criminal Minds, or maybe Game of Thrones, I really want to be able to
access it.
Again, thanks so much for all the responses!
Kerri

On 4/13/14, Gary Wunder <gwunder at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I like all of the Internet services that provide television, but I also
> hope
> that we get some access to the mainstream television services.  I have
> purchased a fantastic package from Charter cable, but many of the services
> are difficult if not impossible to use.  I have this fantastic set top box
> that will let me start recording a show, go off and have supper, rewind the
> show to where I left off, let me watch it, and keep on recording it.  I
> think it will even let me record on one channel and watch on another.  All
> of that is great, but it requires being able to deal with the on-screen
> menus in order to press the right buttons.  Of course we have promises that
> charter cable will soon have its materials in braille and will have a set
> top box the talks, but it is hard to know when that will happen.
>
> I agree with the comments about wanting an easier way to get to the
> descriptive video that is available.  Television has changed a lot since I
> was a child.  The Westerns my father used to love watching had a lot of
> dialogue in them.  The gunfights sometimes provided a minute or two of
> suspense, but mostly you didn't need descriptive video to tell you who
> lived
> and who died.  The guys who died never seemed to draw the speaking parts
> after that.
>
> There are television shows I can't follow without some visual description
> and movies in which not one word is spoken until about 10 minutes have gone
> by.  Scenes seem to change more quickly, and current movies seem to focus
> much more on dramatic visualizations than they do a great dialogue.  I'm
> really excited about the software being developed that will let us take the
> audio from a television show, send it through our smart phones, and have
> them search for corresponding audio descriptions to go along with the video
> being shown.
>
> When it comes to accessibility, there's a great deal we are lacking and
> have
> to fight for, but we have lots of things now that we only dreamed of having
> when I was a child and some things we never would've conceived of.  A
> telephone that plays games, radio stations, and lets me listen to albums
> before I purchase them: who would've thought it could happen, but it has.
> My iPhone may not be the easiest telephone I've ever used, but it is
> certainly the best radio a hundred and nine dollars a month can buy.
>
>
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