- Target:
- University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
- Region:
- United States of America
Since January 2009, Oregon Communication Access Project (OR-CAP) and HLA-Lane County, Oregon, have advocated for open captioning on a display board in the line of sight (“banner captioning”) at Matthew Knight Arena (Matt Court), the new basketball arena at the University of Oregon.
Matt Court is just one of the University of Oregon venues where we hope to get full accessibility for people who are Hard of Hearing or Deaf. Not until recently, though, did the University Athletic Department show any indication of movement in that direction even though when we started this effort before ground-breaking had occurred.
On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 members of OR-CAP, HLA-Lane County, OR-CAP’s counsel John Waldo and other interested people who hear normally or are Deaf and Hard of Hearing met with the U of O Athletic Department to discuss the situation and make clear the conditions of Title II of the ADA that apply to the University as a public institution. As a result, the Athletic Department agreed to work with OR-CAP to determine the methods captions will be provided most effectively the various kinds of events held in Matt Court.
The University has not resisted providing accommodations for Hard of Hearing and Deaf but has ignored our requests to provide captions in the manner Hard of Hearing and Deaf consumers prefer. To date captions have been delivered, when they have been provided, using handheld captioning receivers in spite of the fact that OR-CAP and HLA-Lane County members tested the handheld caption receivers and found them ineffective. For that reason, we are asking people to support our effort to obtain banner captions where appropriate by signing our online petition as we continue to resist the University’s preference for handheld caption receivers.
Please note that we are not just interested in getting captions, and captions as preferred by Hard of Hearing and Deaf consumers, at Matt Court. We expect that our work with the University on Matt Court will be continued at other University of Oregon venues.
If you have any questions or concerns, or want to get more background information please let me know at or.cap.comm@gmail.com. If you know others who you think would like to consider signing this petition, please feel free to forward this email to them.
Thanks for your support!
Clark Anderson
I support the Oregon Communication Access Project’s (OR-CAP) goal of obtaining open captioning in the line of sight and, where needed, other assistive devices at the University of Oregon’s various athletic, performance, and presentation venues.
Captioning is a necessity for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and in some cases the general public to understand announcements, speeches and dialog at athletic events, performances, ceremonies, lectures and concerts held in these settings. Open captioning in the line of sight ("banner captioning") is the clear, and the clearly- and repeatedly-stated, preference of people who have a hearing loss and who were asked by the University for their preference.
Because banner captioning is the stated preference, and because the hand-held devices the University has preferred and demonstrated to date have been judged by hearing-impaired testers to be ineffective, the University should conform to the preference of those with a hearing deficit and provide banner captioning at these settings.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Captions At University of Oregon Venues petition to University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon was written by Clark Anderson and is in the category Arts & Entertainment at GoPetition.