Ferries seek bids on captioning system
The Washington State Ferries have issued a request for proposals for a visual paging system that will display in captioned form the announcements made on board WSF's vessels and at its terminals.
The request -- a legally required step for a state agency to make a significant purchase -- asks potential vendors to give specifications and quote prices for what it calls a "voice-to-text visual paging system modeled after the visual paging system at San Francisco International Airport."
Deadline for vendor responses is January 7 of 2010, and WSF expects to award a contract on February 1. (Read the full document here).
Numerous announcements are currently made by public-address systems on all of WSF's vessels and at its terminals, but those announcements are difficult for hard-of-hearing people to understand, and are totally inaccessible to deaf passengers. Both state and federal law require government entities such as the state ferry system to make communications effective to people with hearing loss.
According to the bid documents, the system "must be capable of converting regular voice messages from a variety of assigned vessel crew and terminal personnel." Both routine and specialized announcements (such a information about cars with lights left on) will be displayed in text form on television-type monitors or on reader-board devices.
The purchased system will be installed first for a six-month trial run on the two large boats that service the Seattle-Bainbridge Island route, and at the Seattle and Bainbridge Island terminals. If the system proves reliable, it will then be expanded throughout the WSF system.
WSF's actions are being taken to resolve a lawsuit filed against it by the Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP), a Washington non-profit membership corporation which has the objective of making Washington's public places accessible to people with hearing loss.
WSF operates one of the world's largest ferry systems, serving more than 23 million passengers annually. With studies indicating that almost 8 percent of the adult population have a hearing loss serious enough to interfere with their ability to understand speech, this system should benefit almost two million riders a year.
