October 3, 2003
Press Contact:
Patricia Favreau
617/300-5465
patricia_favreau@wgbh.org

WGBH's Media Access Group Launches Spanish Web Site for Individuals with Hearing and Visual Disabilities

Media Access Group Also Providing Spanish Captioning for 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II

WGBH's Media Access Group - a non-profit service that makes television, film, and video accessible to audiences who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and visually impaired - has launched a fully accessible mirror Web site in Spanish.

The Media Access Group's Web site, main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag, details captioning and descriptive services and resources in media accessibility for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and visually impaired. With the introduction of the newly translated site, users may move smoothly back and forth between the English and Spanish versions. Web visitors may access the site in Spanish by going directly to: main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/spanish. Funding to create this Spanish-language companion Web site was provided by the United States Department of Education.

In addition to providing Spanish language audiences with these online resources, the Media Access Group at WGBH also collaborates with CBS each week to provide both Spanish- and English-language captioning for 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II. English-language captions are available on caption channel 1 (cc1), while Spanish captions are available on caption channel 3 (cc3). Viewers can choose between these separate caption streams via their television's remote control. Closed captioning for these broadcasts is fully funded by CBS.

"It has been very gratifying to make news programming, especially a popular and
long-running series like 60 Minutes, more accessible to the Spanish-speaking population of the U.S., through our work as translators," said Bilingual Broadcast Coordinator Marta Ruiz de la Prada. "Yuya [Farias], Sonia [Torres], and I are also enjoying this wonderful opportunity to make the Media Access Group's web site equally accessible to Spanish speakers."

For more information about WGBH's access services, please call 617-300-3600
(voice and TTY) or visit www.access.wgbh.org.

About WGBH
WGBH informs, inspires, and entertains millions through WGBH 2, WGBH 44, and WGBH 89.7 in Boston; WCAI 90.1 and WNAN 91.1, serving Cape Cod and the Islands; WGBY 57 in Springfield; and wgbh.org. All rely on the generosity of public support. WGBH is the leading producer of PBS prime-time programs and online content, a major producer for public radio, and a pioneer in educational multimedia (including the Web, broadband, and interactive television) and in technologies and services that make media accessible for people with disabilities. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards...even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information visit www.wgbh.org.