Sunday, June 10, 2012

The LDS Church Reaching Out To People Who Have A Hearing Loss

The LDS Church is being aggressive in spreading the gospel online by creating a lot of new websites. The LDS Church is also being very proactive to meeting the needs of those who have some kind of hearing loss and would like to view Church videos online. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has announced that all videos posted online will be closed captioned
In the past, closed captioning has been offered for the live broadcast on television and satellite, but not on the Church’s website. Archived general conference content on LDS.org has included conference videos in American Sign Language (available by selecting ASL from the language drop-down menu), but not everyone who is Deaf or hard of hearing knows or uses ASL, said Christopher Phillips, manager of Disabilities Services for the Church.
Closed captioning, on the other hand, is more widely accessible and can be helpful to those without hearing disabilities as well. Captions also can help make video content more searchable online.
“This improvement will be a benefit to many who struggle with hearing loss, including those who might have lost their hearing later in life and haven’t had the opportunity to learn sign language,” said Karen Staley, a member of the Church who lives in Maryland and is Deaf. “The captioned videos will help make the gospel more accessible to a large group of people.”
The LDS Church has also posted the entire ASL translation of the Book of Mormon is now online for viewing by LDS members who communicate in American Sign Language. It also realize that this also great for Deaf members that belong to any Restorationist branch that would like to have access to the Book of Mormon in their language online. 
To go behind the scenes on what it took to create the ASL translation of the Book of Mormon, I highly recommend watching this interview between Richard Sutton and Minnie-Mae Wilding Diaz: 

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