DCMP Awarded Federal Grants to Continue Making Educational Media and Television Content Accessible to Children and Adults With Disabilities

September 19, 2026

The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), a leader in developing and providing accessible media for 35 years, has been awarded two five-year federal cooperative agreements by the U.S. Department of Education. DCMP, now a stand-alone 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, will continue its mission of making educational videos accessible to children with disabilities and to viewers of broadcast television content. The cooperative agreements were awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education, and total $18 million.

A five-year media center cooperative agreement provides for educational videos to be made accessible for students with disabilities by adding audio description, captions, and American Sign Language (ASL), with distribution through DCMP’s online platforms. This funding also supports technical assistance, training activities, and the continued development of technology solutions focused on digital media accessibility.

“As the only national source of accessible educational media for over seven million children in the US,” said Jason Stark, DCMP CEO, “we’re so happy to be able to continue serving families and schools. We’ll also continue developing new technologies, like our online accessibility creation tool, and professional development opportunities for educators.”

The second award is an Accessible Video Project grant for making broadcast, digital-first, and other types of original educational content accessible. “We’re excited about continuing our relationships with wonderful content creators like Fred Rogers Productions, Paramount, and Steve Rotfeld Productions,” said Kyle Sisk, DCMP CTO. “And more E/I broadcast content will become available to kids with disabilities because a minimum of 80% of the shows made accessible through ours and two other grants will be made available through DCMP’s educational media center.””

DCMP has been a leader in the creation and distribution of accessible media for 35 years, and partners with top content creators and accessibility specialists. DCMP also develops new technologies to support media access and distribution, and provides training resources to educators.

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