DCMP Launches New Video Training Tool

This month’s featured content details the release of DCMP’s Equal Access in the Classroom, a 12-minute production that introduces captions and description, and provides insight into why they are important tools for students.

Caption It Yourself

DCMP has launched a handy guide for busy teachers, parents, and others who shoot their own video. If you upload video to the Web, and that video includes sound, you should always include a text alternative, such as captions. How can one person accomplish all this? The DCMP has a cost-effective and fun suggestion for you: CIY (Caption It Yourself).

Our CIY page can help by identifying the types of audio information that you should caption, providing a set of concise and easy-to-follow CIY guidelines, and overviews several of the free tools to utilize in your CIY effort. Visit www.dcmp.org/ciy for more information.

Children’s Classics Available From the DCMP with Captions and Description

The DCMP is proud to present three classic children’s tales (Peter McCarty’s Hondo and Fabian and T is for Terrible and James Marshall’s adaptation of Hansel and Gretel) captioned and described for the first time.

Check out this month’s flyer [PDF] for links to these beloved children’s titles.

DCMP’s mission has always been to provide equal access to students through our free-loan accessible media service, as well as to raise awareness of the benefits of accessible educational media. Now, we’re pleased to announce the release of Equal Access in the Classroom (EAIC), an introduction to accessible educational media especially for teachers, families, educational media producers, and others. Produced in conjunction with the DCMP by Jacksonville State University (JSU) Television Services, EAIC is a handy tool that:

• Defines and provides examples of description and captioning;
• Provides teacher testimonies of the need for these accessibility options in educational media;
• Overviews services of the DCMP, including a free-loan library of educational media.

The hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind deserve equal access to the vast array of educational media used in the modern classroom. Watch the one-of-a-kind EAIC training tool to learn about description and captioning, and to become an advocate for accessibility!

EAIC is freely available from the What is With the “C” and the “D” page on DCMP.org. Watch EAIC instantly, or download an MP4 to share with friends, colleagues, family members...anyone who is willing to advocate for accessibility in educational media.

Registered DCMP members will soon be able to borrow EAIC on DVD. DVDs may also be purchased at cost from JSU. (We encourage sharing of the production in its original, unmodified form. Please feel free to copy the DVD, post the MP4 on your Web site, link to EAIC on DCMP.org, and, most importantly, tell as many people as possible about the need for accessible media in the classroom!)

For more general information about EAIC, or to request a copy of the DVD at-cost, please e-mail us!

Quick Hits for May

Better Hearing and Speech Month is an annual event that provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. Though the official Better Hearing and Speech Month is observed in May, awareness efforts continue year-round.

Erma Belz’s Muffled Journey

The DCMP offers many great resources to provide information and support to families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and the professionals who work with them. Erma Belz, the assistant manager of our Fairbanks, AK Accessible Learning Center, recently wrote a personal account and touching testimonial of the benefits of early childhood hearing screening. In her article, entitled Muffled Journey [PDF], Ms. Belz walks readers though her life’s journey from a mild hearing impairment to profound deafness.

Also, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) offers information pertaining to nationwide hearing screening for infants and some ideas for how members of the deaf and hard of hearing community can support and mentor deaf and hard of hearing children.

VITAC has launched CaptionsON, a campaign to raise public awareness about the benefits of quality captioning. Visit www.captionson.com to watch a short video about the many “faces” of captioning and learn more about how to become an advocate for quality captioning.

Don’t forget that DCMP also has its own year-long celebration of the many benefits of captions: Read Captions Across America™!