CHICAGO - Award-winning broadcast veteran Bill Jurek, who manages CRIS (Chicagoland Radio Information Service) Radio at The Chicago Lighthouse and hosts “The Beacon” each week on WCPT-AM, has a new honor under his belt.

Jurek has recently been appointed to a two-year term on an FCC (Federal Communications Commission) committee that deals with video programming and emergency access. 

The Video Programming and Emergency Access Advisory Committee (VPEAAC) is an advisory committee to the FCC that is required by the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.

“I am absolutely thrilled and honored by this appointment,” Jurek beamed.  “It is so important for people who are blind or visually impaired to have a seat at the table on issues impacting their access to video programming and communications.”

VPEEAC is being established to address matters concerning the accessibility of video devices, as well as access by people with disabilities to video programming through closed captioning, video description and emergency information. 

“We have divided this committee into four working groups, each of which will be assigned specific tasks related to the Committee’s purposes,” said FCC Chair Julius Genachowski who announced Jurek’s appointment.

He added that within six months of its first meeting this month, the VPEAAC is to submit to the Commission various recommendations concerning the provision and display of closed captions. 

“By April of 2012, the VPEAAC must submit recommendations on matters concerning video description, accessible emergency information, and the accessibility of user interfaces, apparatus functions, on-screen text menus, and video programming guides and menus on video devices,” Genachowski said.

Founded in 1906, The Chicago Lighthouse is one of the nation’s most comprehensive social service agencies.  It houses a state-of-the-art retail store especially designed for blind or visually impaired shoppers with several top of the line electronic reading devices; the nation’s oldest and most prominent low vision care and rehabilitation program; one of the few remaining clock manufacturing facilities in the U.S.; a nationally acclaimed school for children who are blind with multi-disabilities; a world renowned employment services department; and a VA program serving veterans in all 50 states.

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