Multimedia presentations through videos, DVDs, the Internet, and other media are becoming increasingly important in not only supporting educational curriculum but also providing it. Yet students who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, visually impaired, or blind are denied access to much educational and informational media because it is not captioned or described.
The NAD, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, administers the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP).
The DCMP promotes and provides equal access to communication and learning through described and captioned educational media. The DCMP provides services designed to support and improve the academic achievement of students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. The DCMP has a library of over 4,000 titles of described and captioned educational media available for loan to teachers, parents, and students who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing, visually impaired, or deaf-blind. The DCMP offers a clearinghouse of information related to education, accessibility, deafness, blindness, and other related topics. Topics include captioning, description, laws pertaining to accessibility, assistive technology, and other subjects.
In addition, the DCMP acts as a center for the training and evaluation of any captioning service provider desiring to appear on the U.S. Department of Education’s “Approved Captioning Service Vendors” list. Agencies desiring to be added to this list are required to pass a DCMP evaluation. DCMP is a resource for these agencies to answer questions about captioning or provide other assistance. The “Approved Captioning Service Vendors” list is available through the DCMP website.
The DCMP, through its “Keys to Access” program, provides guidelines for captioning and description. These guidelines are based on the input and guidance of experts in the field of accessible media, master teachers, and consumer leaders.