Aaron Sachs, Springfield, Missouri Injury Attorney, is the Exclusive Sponsor of Closed-Captioning Services on Local Television Stations in the Springfield Missouri Area

Springfield, MO (PRWEB) May 28, 2009

In the United States, there are about 28 million individuals with hearing impairments, ranging from mild to severe deafness. Missouri is home to several world-class facilities serving this population, such as the St. Joseph Institute in University City and the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis. Our state is a destination.

What this figure means is that 1 in 12 of us has some sort of difficulty hearing or understanding speech or other sounds. This difficulty increases in many cases, where the sound is being reproduced electronically, for example when watching television.

So an activity that most of us see as a relaxing, daily pursuit can become a frustrating one for some of us. Such people have a special need that can make enjoyment of TV programming difficult, in many situations. Sounds may be difficult to discern, speech interpretation may be problematic, the blend of frequencies within the broadcast spectrum may cause differing levels of sound to be either imperceptible or difficult to decode, depending on the type and severity of the impairment. In social or domestic situations this possibly means the need to have the volume very high, or to have special hearing help, to enjoy the programming. This can also be an irritant for others in the environment.

However, since the 1980s, help has been available with most television broadcast programming, in the form of closed-captioning. It began, in that decade, as a feature available only for those in possession of a decoder. But since the early 90's, when President Bush Sr. signed legislation mandating the feature as a standard option to be incorporated in all TV sets of over 13" picture-tube size to be manufactured after 1993, the capability has been widely available as a simple push-button choice for those who need it. There is now even a bilingual capability available, within the feature.

Attorney Aaron Sachs, whose principal office is in Springfield, with local offices in Joplin and Columbia, takes pride in being the exclusive sponsor of the closed-captioning feature on three local TV stations KOLR-10, Ozarks Fox and KY3, which operate in and around the Springfield, Mo area. He previously sponsored similar services for KSN, the NBC affiliate in Joplin, Mo. On the first two stations, the captions appear in real time, making use of sophisticated voice-recognition software to transcribe the speech. However, in the case of KY3, the process goes through a human interface, in the form of a person who types the information from the sound signal, as it is broadcast during the 5 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm news. Though this process may seem more cumbersome and certainly is more expensive to operate, it is more accurate, since it avoids many problems and pitfalls inherent in the mechanical process, an example being the mistranscription of homonyms; words that sound alike, but which have different meanings. The results may otherwise be confusing.

Sachs is dedicated to community service. His law practice deals with a great many clients who have been injured or disabled in serious accidents. The human impact of a catastrophic injury can be tremendous. Sachs also has spent time reading to hearing impaired elementary-school children at the Holland School, Springfield, in conjunction with station KY3. It's Sachs' express opinion that "serving citizens with all forms of injury or disability is a real need in our community. It's important to make things a little easier for a population who, through injury, illness or genetics, wouldn't otherwise have access to the simple enjoyment of what most of us take for granted. The benefits are priceless to those people who need them. We who can use all our senses unimpaired don't necessarily comprehend just what a difference those white letters on the black background at the bottom of the screen make, in the lives of people with hearing impairments."

"Our intention and desire is to give everyone, all across the Ozarks, the opportunity and the capability to stay informed about events and news that affects them," Sachs adds. "As corporate citizens, we are committed to community service: it's a small price to pay to show our gratitude to the folks served by both our law offices and the TV stations in our area. Our firm's dedication to preventing members of our community started over a decade ago, when we began to distribute safety helmets for children in the community. And we're still at it. To date we have given away over 18,000 safety helmets."

The Aaron Sachs Associates law firm's offices are located in Springfield, Columbia and Joplin, Missouri. Their community-service outreach program is detailed on their website: http://www.autoinjury.com/areas-of-practice/springfield-office under the "community service" header.

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