NAD Announces First-Ever Internet Streaming Video of Captioned Educational Videos

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced on December 9, 2002 that it would begin the first-ever Internet video streaming of open-captioned educational videos. No other streamed material of this kind is captioned. Therefore, 28,000,000 Americans with a hearing loss are the potential beneficiaries of this historic media event.

"Millions of Americans have been excluded from the Internets offerings of information, entertainment, and cultural content" said NAD's Bill Stark. Stark, Director of the Captioned Media Program (CMP), stated that: "As a U.S. Department of Education-funded program, the CMP has provided free-loan captioned media to deaf and hard of hearing persons, their families, and others who work with deaf and hard of hearing people for over four decades. This through-the-mail service will now be supplemented by the latest in digital technology."

Consumers will need to have RealPlayer installed on their computers in order to view the streamed CMP videos. RealPlayer enables a computer to receive audio and video files. A link to download a free version of RealPlayer can be found on the CMP Web site. All videos streamed by the CMP will have open (visible) captions, with no special software needed for viewing.

Approximately 450 titles will be streamed by the CMP, including productions such as "Blood, Heart, and Circulation", "Giant Sea Turtles", "Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad", and "Lassies Great Adventure". There is no registration fee, and registered users may also borrow from the CMP collection of over 4,000 open-captioned videos.

About the NAD

Established in 1880, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is the nation's oldest and largest nonprofit organization safeguarding the accessibility and civil rights of 28 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans across a broad range of areas including education, employment, health care, and telecommunications. The NAD is a dynamic federation of 51 state association affiliates including the District of Columbia, organizational affiliates, and national members. Primary areas of focus include grassroots advocacy and empowerment, policy development and research, legal assistance, captioned media, information and publications, and youth leadership. Go to the NAD homepage at www.nad.org [2].

About the CMP

The Captioned Media Program (CMP) provides all persons who are deaf or hard of hearing awareness of and equal access to communication and learning through the use of captioned educational media and supportive collateral materials. The Captioned Media Program (CMP) provides free-loan educational and general interest open-captioned videos to deaf and hard of hearing individuals as well as teachers, parents, and others who work with individuals who have a hearing loss. Funding for the Captioned Media Program is provided by the US Department of Education. More information about the CMP is available at www.cfv.org [3].

For more information: Contact Bill Stark at (800) 237-6213 (W), (864) 585-1905 (H), or bstark@cfv.org [4]. For an example of a captioned streamed video, visit the CMP website at www.cfv.org [3], choose the Media Room section and view a captioned TV-PSA segment.