"Radio for the Deaf"

[Dr Clyde Shideler]

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>JULY 22, 1998
>
>FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
>Tari Susan Hartman 310/578-5955
>
>"ON A ROLL Radio & RAPIDTEXT Launch Technology Breakthrough - 28 Million
>Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing can SEE Radio for the First Time on the Web"
>
>ON A ROLL (America's only live, weekly, nationally syndicated, commercial
>radio talk show on disability issues) joins forces with RAPIDTEXT (the
>nation's leading-edge corporation specializing in voice-to-text applications)
>to create a Broadcast milestone for America's 28 million Deaf and Hard-of-
>Hearing citizens. For the first time in history the deaf community will be
>able to "listen" to radio on the Internet. RAPIDTEXT Website,
>WWW.RAPIDTEXT.COM, will simulcast the August 2, 1998 show in its entirety via
>Realtime Captioning, to create this technology breakthrough.
>
>ON A ROLL host and creator Greg Smith and Glory Johnson, owner of RAPIDTEXT
>will unveil plans to launch this historic event during the broadcast on
>Sunday, July 26, 1998 (7 P.M. - EDT) to coincide with the 8th Anniversary of
>the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - a sweeping mandate
>to end discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public
>accommodations, transportation, telecommunications and state and local
>governments. This week's broadcast will feature an interview with Justin
>Dart, co-founder of JUSTICE FOR ALL, and a segment with Jennifer Sheehy,
>National Organization on Disability who will give an overview of the newly
>released results from a Louis Harris Survey on disability.
>
>According to Libby Pollard, newly elected President of the National
>Association of the Deaf (NAD), "The National Association of the Deaf is
>working to make all media accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people, and
>this realtime captioning on the Web is certainly a very positive step." NAD
>represents the nation's 28 million deaf and hard of hearing citizens, and has
>state chapters throughout the U.S.
>
>At the helm of ON A ROLL is Greg Smith, a 20 year broadcast veteran and
>leading disability rights advocate who knows what makes the disability
>community tick. Under his leadership, ON A ROLL was first syndicated in
>February 1997, and has emerged from a fledging local Phoenix show to a
network
>of 18 radio stations across the nation with the capacity to broadcast live on
>the Internet to computer users.
>- m o r e -
>ON A ROLL mission is to empower people with disabilities to live as
>independently as possible in mainstream community life and to promote
benefits
>of integration of people with disabilities to non-disabled talk radio
>listeners. Their web site, WWW.ONAROLLRADIO.COM, hosts hundreds of hits per
>week from the grass-roots of the disability community, to the board rooms of
>Corporate America and is linked to hundreds of other disability-related web
>sites, thus providing corporate sponsors maximum penetration into the
heart of
>this untapped consumer market.
>
>Recent ON A ROLL guests include Christopher Reeve; Senator Bob Dole,
>reflecting upon the late Paul Hearne, President of The Dole Foundation and
the
>American Association of People with Disabilities; Jim Williams, CEO of
>National Easter Seal Society; Jeff Taylor, Sr. Area Business Manager,
General
>Mills; Sandy Spoonemore, Director of Corporate Resources for the Disabled,
>NationsBank. ON A ROLL features a weekly three minute segment by Tony Coelho,
>Chair, President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities & Co-
>Chair, Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities.
>
>Rapidtext, Inc., founded in 1988, is the technology services group of US
Legal
>Support, Inc., a national legal services company. RAPIDTEXT provides high-
>tech voice-to-text services including realtime & closed captioning for
>broadcast TV & public events, legal and medical transcription, language
>translation & software development. Rapidtext is the nation's largest
>provider of classroom captioning for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people in
>educational classrooms. Rapidtext's latest technological service is RAPID
>Textcasting, the broadcast of realtime text from a radio or TV show, or
public
>event onto the Internet, with text available worldwide, meeting all
>accessibility requirements. Complete text is available to download at the
end
>of the event.
>
>ON A ROLL markets include: Atlanta; Phoenix; Sacramento; Dallas; El Paso;
>Kansas City; Birmingham; Dayton; Topeka; Hays, KS; Tallahassee; Marathon/Key
>West; Melbourne, FL; Huntsville, AL; Abbeville, SC; Hickory, NC; Jamestown,
>NY; Martinsburg, WV; Markets and stations grow every week. If it is
>happening in the disability community, you'll hear - and now see - it
first on
>ON A ROLL. The reliable source of news & information for America's 54
million
>citizens with disabilities.
>
>For information about the exciting ON A ROLL & RAPIDTEXT partnership, contact
>Tari Susan Hartman, EIN SOF Communications; 6380 Wilshire Blvd, Suite # 125;
>Los Angeles, CA 90048; 310/578-5955 (phone); fax/578-6065 or EINSOFTSH
>@aol.com