Spring is here!

You've already sprung your clocks ahead, but it's not too late to celebrate this season of renewal and new birth with accessible media from the DCMP. Read this month's newsletter for more…

The Africans Now Available With Description and Captions

The Africans: A Triple Legacy, a series detailing the rich culture and history of the African people, is now available from the DCMP. Begin your journey by visiting the first of nine titles in the series, The Nature of a Continent.

Guidelines for the Description of Educational Media: Field Trials Underway

As part of our partnership with AFB, we're looking for students who are blind or visually impaired and their teachers to participate in a short research activity that will help us to improve our description guidelines in advance of their September 2008 release. Visit the Description Guidelines page on AFB's Web site to learn how you can play a key role in the development of the guidelines.

Click the picture of the flyer to download a printable version.

Newness is the theme this month, as folks all across the country are stepping outside to green grass and the sun's warm rays.

Here at DCMP, we have several new projects underway, which will mean more great titles coming your way later this spring. These new titles will feature subjects such as ocean communities and the universe, and will include several beloved children's stories, captioned and described for the first time ever! Be sure to stay up to date by visiting the DCMP Web site regularly.

In the meantime, why not check out our new spring-themed flyer [PDF] for some titles that feature themes of renewal and new life.

Focus On: COAT

DCMP was pleased to have Rosaline Crawford, a representative from the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), speak at our annual Advisory Board meeting on April 11, 2008. According to COAT's Web site, COAT is:

…a new coalition of over 175 national, regional, state, and community-based disability organizations. We advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.

Visit www.coataccess.org to learn more about COAT's many accessibility-related initiatives, including the landmark 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

Read Captions Across America™ a Success in Idaho!

Dorothy Ogden (left) and Cora Caldwell (right) in their Dr. Seuss garb.

From DCMP ALC Manger Dorothy Ogden, Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind

To celebrate Read Captions Across America™, ISDB held an all-day event in one of the school's gymnasiums and also our multi-purpose room. With help from volunteers and our part-time Librarian, Cora Caldwell, 160 students were able to participate in RCAA-themed activities.

Oh, the Thinks You Can Think skit, complete with slide-show.

In the multi-purpose room, several captioned Dr. Seuss titles were played continuously. Students had a ball, relaxing on mats and enjoying popcorn. In the afternoon, our elementary-age deaf education class presented the skit Oh the Thinks You Can Think. This very cute skit included a slide-show with the story's text and we encouraged the students to practice their ASL, signing along.

In the gymnasium, we held several carnival-like Seuss-themed activities, including a Fox in Socks word-order game, an I Can Read with my Eyes Shut pin-the-bowtie-on-the-cat game, a Green Eggs and Ham phrase matching game, and a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish game in which students guessed the number of Goldfish crackers in a fishbowl. Other events included a Happy Birthday to You activity in which students made balloon hats and a Cat in the Hat activity in which students made a huge candy stove-pipe hat, just like the one the Cat wore!

ISDB students enjoying the RCAA festivities.

Prizes were awarded for each contest such as Seuss bookmarks, Seuss pencils, Goldfish crackers, and green foil-covered chocolates. Of course, many students also took home the balloon hats. The candy stove-pipe hat was made from mints, cinnamon disks, and vanilla wafers, all held together with frosting (it was very cute).

We were very happy to host some guests at our RCAA event this year. Since our school is currently housing a hundred kindergarten children from a local public school, we invited them to attend. They had a wonderful time, as did our own students!

Even the older students got involved! Several of the booths were manned by students from a local high school who participate in the library’s Reading Club. They also had great fun, as all were dressed as popular Seuss characters such as the Things, Yertel, and the Cat. Tables were decorated with bright colored table cloths, Seuss characters, and balloons. A display board was set up in the corridor with information about DCMP and Read Captions Across America.

RCAA display board #1 at ISDB.

RCAA display board #2 at ISDB.