NAD Celebrates Nationwide Read Captions Across America,
Partners with NEA Read Across America

Silver Spring, MD — The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is launching its eighth annual nationwide Read Captions Across America campaign, set to be observed on Monday, March 3, 2014. This is being carried out as part of Read Across America, a larger national reading celebration undertaken by the National Education Association (NEA). The NAD provides a Read Captions Across America website (www.readcaptionsacrossamerica.org) to provide information and ideas to potential event organizers and participants.

Read Captions Across America puts emphasis on the importance of captioned media (television, DVD, Internet streaming, and other forms of multimedia) as a reading tool for deaf and hearing children alike. The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), administered by the NAD and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is organizing and promoting Read Captions Across America and loaning captioned media for the event as well. “We are pleased to be joining the NEA in celebrating the joy of reading,” says Howard A. Rosenblum, NAD Chief Executive Officer. “Teachers and parents of young children are fast discovering the benefits of captioned media in fostering literacy development.”

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel commended the Read Captions Across America partnership with NAD. “Just as the text jumps off the page in a good book for conventional readers, captioned reading makes words come to life on the screen,” said Van Roekel. “We all need something to spark our interest in books, and captioned reading is an excellent tool to help young readers.”

DCMP Project Director Jason Stark adds, “One of the most exciting potential applications of captioning is its use as an educational tool. Viewers can see words on the screen, hear them spoken, and see them put into a visual context.”

Captions are text forms of the spoken word and often convey sound effects. Captions and subtitles can be carried on DVD, videotape, broadcast TV, and cable TV. Also, a small but increasing amount of video content on the Internet is available with captions. While captions were originally developed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, they are increasingly used by others, some putting them to use to develop or improve reading skills.

Read Captions Across America will be celebrated nationwide in schools, libraries, and homes this year. While most of the scheduled events will occur around March 1, both Read Across America and Read Captions Across America are intended to be yearlong celebrations.

Photographs available from the DCMP include photographs from past Read Across America events, children reading books and watching captioned media, and Read Captions Across America graphics.

About the NAD—The National Association of the Deaf was established in 1880 by deaf leaders who recognized the right of the American deaf community to use sign language, to congregate on issues important to them, and to have its interests represented at the national level. These beliefs remain true to this day, with American Sign Language as a core value. As a nonprofit federation, the mission of the NAD is to preserve, protect, and promote the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering the breadth of a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership and more. More information is available online at www.nad.org.

About the DCMP—The Described and Captioned Media Program provides the nation’s largest free-loan educational described and captioned media library. DCMP, which is a Read Across America partner, acts as an accessible media information center, maintaining a database for use by those who are searching for accessible media, captioning, and description agencies or wanting to learn to caption themselves. DCMP, administered by the National Association of the Deaf, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. More information is available online at www.dcmp.org.

About the NEA—The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers. More information is available online at www.nea.org.