CSD and BarZ Adventures Partner to Bring Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Friendly Tours to Venues across the Country
Location: Sioux Falls, S.D. and Austin, Texas
Release date: 6/25/2008
The agreement creates a sales and marketing partnership to take the
Ranger series of multimedia tour guide devices to venues to encourage
ADA compliance
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. and AUSTIN, TEXAS (June 25, 2008) — Following
their successful partnering to create an ASL walking tour of downtown
Austin, the first GPS tour to be made available in sign language, CSD
and BarZ Adventures Inc (BarZ) have entered into an agreement to work
together long-term. The partnership creates a dedicated sales and
marketing team to bring deaf and hard of hearing friendly GPS
Ranger™ and Zoo Ranger™ video tours to venues across the United
States.
The GPS Ranger and Zoo Ranger are patent-pending, handheld computer
devices that deliver on-site interpretation, including compelling
video, audio, animation and historical photography based on the
location of the user through the power of GPS (Global Positioning
System) technology. Utilizing the full-color video capabilities of the
systems, tours can be delivered in sign language and captioning to
meet the needs of deaf or hard of hearing visitors. BarZ provides the
hardware, software and content development skills, as needed, while
CSD uses their expertise in the sales and marketing efforts to address
the deaf market and provides interpreters for video tour production.
“When we were first approached by Bar Z Adventures to supply sign
language content for the Austin walking tour, we immediately
understood the implications and opportunities this cutting-edge device
could offer our deaf and hard of hearing consumers,” said Ben
Soukup, CSD chief executive officer (C.E.O.). “We are excited to
partner with such an innovative organization that clearly understands
the need to provide equal access for all people — regardless of
their ability to hear — and look forward to developing future sign
language tours for venues across America.”
There has been an increase in activity recently regarding
interpretation and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) of 1990. The ADA is a landmark civil rights law passed with
strong bi-partisan support that creates accessibility requirements and
standards for public and private businesses. The act prohibits
discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and
services which has come to be interpreted to include tours,
educational and interpretive content available at venues such as theme
parks, zoos, and museums.
“We are thrilled to sign an agreement with CSD, one of the oldest
and largest communication access and service providers, to bring deaf
and hard of hearing friendly tours to venues across the U.S. BarZ
strongly believes that interpretive content and access to tourist
venues and attractions, college campuses and city walking tours should
be available to all, regardless of disability. This partnership brings
us one step closer to achieving that,” stated Wm. Lee Little, BarZ
Adventures founder and C.E.O.
The Ranger series of multimedia tour guide devices allows venues to
meet ADA compliance and offer interpretive content for the deaf or
hard of hearing on-demand and as needed, as opposed to venues hiring
live sign interpreters, which may or may not be available on short
notice.
Link: http://www.c-s-d.org/default.aspx?pageid=458
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