Disability Magazine | PosAbility Magazine» channel 4

Born To Be Different

posabilitymagazine — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:59:58 +0000

Channel 4 as ever, are doing a fantastic job of providing a frank and uncomprimising look at disabled life in Britain today. Currently being broadcast on Channel 4 is Born To Be Different, a candid and unsentimental documentary filmed over nearly 10 years that chronicles the pressures and joys of family life for parents bringing up a disabled child.

You can catch up with the series via 4OD by clicking this link.

Channel 4 reaffirms commitment to disability programming

posabilitymagazine — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:54:42 +0000

Channel 4‘s chief creative officer Jay Hunt said its commitment to disability programming was not “tokenism’” as she announced the return of The Undateables, I’m Spazticus and Adam Hills’ acclaimed The Last Leg.

The Undateables has emerged as one of the broadcaster’s biggest returnable hits while The Last Leg has grown out of Channel 4′s widely praised coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Hunt also unveiled a new show starring Paralympics presenter Arthur Williams.

Williams, a plane enthusiast, will present The Wooden Wonder, a documentary about the unsung hero of the Second World War, the Mosquito. He will also get to fly the last operational Mosquito in existence.

Another Paralympics presenter Ade Adepitan was confirmed as a new presenter on Channel 4′s Unreported World strand at a Channel 4 launch on Tuesday night.

Channel 4 has picked up the UK TV rights to the Rio Paralympic games in 2016.

There will also be a second series of prank show I’m Spazticus.

“It isn’t tokenism – it is about great presenters telling amazing stories,” said Hunt. “It just so happens those presenters are disabled”.

BPA welcomes decision on host broadcasting rights

posabilitymagazine — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:26:00 +0000

The British Paralympic Association congratulates Channel 4 on their appointment as UK host broadcaster for the 2014 and 2016 Paralympic Games.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of the British Paralympic Association said: “Whilst this is clearly huge news for the Paralympic movement internationally, as it shows other broadcasters around the world that there is a real market for Paralympic sport, for us in the UK it demonstrates that 2012 really was a ground breaking year. The Paralympic movement in our country has never been stronger and we’ve always said we wanted 2012 to be a launch pad to developing it further. So to have our broadcaster in place so far ahead of the next two Paralympic Games and with a commitment to cover events in the build up to them is a fantastic place to be.

“Our thanks go to the IPC for working hard on securing this and our congratulations to Channel 4 for winning the rights against stiff competition. Their dedication and passion for the Paralympics is clear for all to see and we look forward to working with them over the next four years to carry on the job that we have started so successfully in London 2012.”

The deal with Channel 4 includes multi-platform broadcast rights within the UK.

Channel 4 has committed to screening over 45 hours of coverage from the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, the most ever by a British broadcaster. For Rio 2016 Channel 4 is planning to screen a minimum of 200 broadcast hours across Channel 4’s portfolio, including live coverage, highlights and shows such as The Last Leg.

Amongst Channel 4’s commitments announced are:

-   Coverage of major international disability sport events
-   The creation a major theatrical documentary, supported by Film 4 Production
-   Continuation of its award winning marketing campaigns over the next four years
-   Continuation of its work on developed disabled presenting talent
-   The employment an International Ambassador for Paralympic Media, who can offer a free consultancy service to broadcasters of Paralympic Sport in developing and emergent countries.

www.paralympics.org.uk

BPA welcomes decision on host broadcasting rights

posabilitymagazine — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:42:52 +0000

The British Paralympic Association congratulates Channel 4 on their appointment as UK host broadcaster for the 2014 and 2016 Paralympic Games.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of the British Paralympic Association said:

“Whilst this is clearly huge news for the Paralympic movement internationally, as it shows other broadcasters around the world that there is a real market for Paralympic sport, for us in the UK it demonstrates that 2012 really was a ground breaking year. The Paralympic movement in our country has never been stronger and we’ve always said we wanted 2012 to be a launch pad to developing it further. So to have our broadcaster in place so far ahead of the next two Paralympic Games and with a commitment to cover events in the build up to them is a fantastic place to be.

The deal with Channel 4 includes multi-platform broadcast rights within the UK.

Amongst Channel 4’s commitments announced are:
-   Coverage of major international disability sport events
-   The creation a major theatrical documentary, supported by Film 4 Production
-   Continuation of its award winning marketing campaigns over the next four years
-   Continuation of its work on developed disabled presenting talent
-   The employment an International Ambassador for Paralympic Media, who can offer a free consultancy service to broadcasters of Paralympic Sport in developing and emergent countries.

The IPC announced their decision on broadcast rights earlier today.

Channel 4 given Paralympics TV rights

posabilitymagazine — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:35:19 +0000

Channel 4 has been granted the UK television rights to the next two Paralympic games in Sochi, Russia in 2014 and Rio De Janeiro in 2016. International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven said he was “delighted” about extending the partnership with the channel.

The network’s coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics was given high praise.

At its peak, 4.2m tuned in for Oscar Pistorius’ gold medal in the T44 400m, with a audiences regularly reaching 2m.

Channel 4 has committed to more than 45 hours of coverage from the Winter Paralympics in Sochi and 500 hours from Rio in Brazil.

Sir Philip added: “With London 2012, Channel 4 created a blueprint for how a commercial broadcaster can raise the profile of Paralympic sport and its athletes to new levels.

“They reached record audiences, in particular young people, identified and developed some fantastic new presenting talent and played a significant role in delivering seismic shifts in attitudes and perceptions towards people with an impairment in the UK.”

Popular comedy show The Last Leg, which took a sideways look at the games, will also return for Sochi and Rio.

The broadcaster will also cover the IPC World Athletics Championships in Lyon and the World Swimming Championships in Montreal in the run-up to the games.

Channel 4 boss David Abraham said: “The London 2012 Paralympic Games was a landmark moment in the history of broadcasting Paralympic sport.

“Not only did Channel 4′s coverage reach record audiences but, more importantly, it had a meaningful and positive impact on UK attitudes to disability and disability sport in general.”

He added: “I am delighted that we have the opportunity to build on this achievement over the next four years.”

BBC

How people with disabilities inspire cutting edge technology

posabilitymagazine — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:19:17 +0000

Some gadgets we depend on were developed for people with disabilities, Channel 4 News looks at inventions from the past and products intended for the disabled that could appeal to a mass market.

Typewriter

We have blind people to thank for inspiring the creation of the computer keyboard, or rather its forerunner the typewriter. These include a blind Italian aristocrat from the 19th century.

The Italian countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzon was something of a muse for Pellegrino Turri, who invented an early version of the typewriter in 1808. She was blind and not able to write legible letters to her sighted friends. The prototype for the typewriter was designed by Turri to solve this problem for her.

A later version, one of several developed by Charles Thurber, was also intended as an aid to the blind.

Teletext

In a pre-internet era, teletext offered an on-demand service that TV or radio did not provide at the time. It allowed the public a way of accessing the latest news, as journalists would publish it as soon as they received it.

Launched in 1974, the world’s first TV-based teletext system Ceefax was developed by BBC engineers exploring ways to provide subtitles for deaf television viewers. While doing so, they found it was possible to transmit full pages of text information in the “spare lines” transmitted on the analogue TV signal.

Within a few years other teletext services were launched in the UK and overseas, including ITV and Channel 4′s ORACLE. Ceefax was finally cancelled in 2012 when the analogue signal was turned off.

Eye tracking

Tracking eyeball movements is not a new science, but it has the potential to help people with severe disabilities gain more independence. Paraplegics and quadriplegics are already operating computers and wheelchairs using eye trackers.

Now, the technology is being used more widely, for example alerting drowsy drivers, diagnosing brain trauma and in marketing, where it can help companies analyse how consumers react to their products and advertising.

Pricesare falling so quickly that mainstream consumer use of this technology may not be far off. A Chinese maker of household appliances has recently unveiled a prototype TV controlled by a viewer’s gaze.

Chatty web

People whose sight is not strong enough to read internet pages currently rely on electronic reading equipment called screen readers. But while a sighted person can quickly scan a page to pick out key bits of information, a screen reader normally has to read out the page in its entirety.

IBM-developed software with a working title of Chattyweb was designed to allow blind people to scan web pages easily. It was developed by a partnership between the technology giant and the Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB). It is designed to help users interrogate a page by asking questions to quickly identify only the most useful information.

Julian Dailly, director of RLSB, said: “The idea was that if the technology understood more about the page, it would not have to read out everything. If we are on a page and there is a call for action, the software can recognise that.”

Mr Dailly hopes that Chattyweb, will eventually be adopted, not just by people with visual impairments but by people whose hands are busy.

Dale Lane, a software developer at IBM said the project came about after he attended an event at RSLB. “This project is of general interest to IBM,” he explained. “It’s taking what we are doing in other fields and applying it to another problem.”

Mind reading headset

Mind reading used to be a thing of science fiction, but another project by IBM looks set to harness Electroencephalography (EEG) — a technology currently used mainly in medicine – for the benefit of people with disabilities. And soon it may be benefitting us all.

A simple headset, designed for gamers can pick up patterns from the signals in the brain and perform an action based on what it reads. The software is being developed to send emails, but developers hope it could be enhanced to control a network of household appliances, offering people with conditions like locked-in syndrome more independence.

Kevin Brown, a senior inventor in IBM’s emerging technology section, said the project team worked with a man who had lost all movement following a stroke and trained him to move a cube around a screen using his mind alone.

But Mr Brown said there were still hurdles to overcome with the email programme and the Emotiv headset. “It’s quite a slow process – I was exhausted at the end of 20 minutes of sending emails.”

He said that the headsets would need to be scaled down for the mass market and embedded in clothing and mobile devices.

He predicted that if people start sharing their thoughts and emotions on social media, this technology could be used to map patterns of excitement. This could prove useful for businesses and members of the public interested in discovering where there is a buzz, he added.

“If people are showing their locality, you can build up a picture of where the crowds are and show whether they are excited.”

By Rosie Niven at Channel 4

Another Chance to See us on TV

posabilitymagazine — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:05:44 +0000

You might remember we were featured in More 4′s “Teenage Superhumans” earlier this month? This weekend you have another chance to catch it as it will be repeated on Saturday at 6.55pm on More 4. Make sure you’re tuned in and look out for PosAbility Magazine being featured!