Caroline Tucker
WMAL.com
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — (WMAL) The University of Maryland is making more changes to the way deaf fans experience games.
UMD will spend at least $185,000 to install extra “ribbon boards” and provide closed captioning on the school’s athletics website. Changes have been underway since 2013 when some hearing-impaired fans sued the school.
“Both sides has the same goal which is to make this an experience the best it can be for all fans. And so this agreement helps us get there,” said Crystal Brown, a University of Maryland spokesperson.
The lawsuit claimed deaf and hearing-impaired fans did not get the full experience at games because there was no closed-captioning on scoreboards.
In 2014, the school installed ribbon boards to display games at the Xfinity Center and Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium.
This latest changes will mean an extra display board at the school’s stadium for the 2018 football season.
Also, starting with the 2016-2017 athletic season, the university will provide closed captioning for new videos posted online and archived videos that are longer than 10 minutes. The online changes will cost about $35,000 annually to hire a caption writer.
“Those funds are coming from our athletics department,” said Brown.
The National Association of the Deaf released a statement on its website:
“The National Association of the Deaf appreciates the actions of the University of Maryland to ensure their sporting events are accessible to deaf and hard of hearing fans through providing line-of-sight captioning at their facilities and captioning of all videos on their website,” said Howard A. Rosenblum, Esq., CEO of the NAD.
Brown says the changes will only improve the fan experience.
“So this settlement allows us to accommodate everyone so I think there is a lot of support on campus here for it,” she said.
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