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DCMP Mobile-Friendly Newsletter

DCMP logo with the words Described and captioned media program news, and photo of a small dog running along a sidewalk, carrying a bookstrap in its mouth with books trailing behind.

September 2012

Flipping Out With New DCMP Videos for 2012-2013

Silhouette of a man doing a flip with one hand on the ground.A growing number of educators are working to turn learning on its head by replacing traditional classroom lectures with video tutorials, an approach popularly called the "flipped classroom." The movement as described in Education Week was inspired partly by the creation of a library of free online tutoring videos, and the term "flipping" comes from the idea of swapping homework for class work. Students typically are assigned video-watching for homework, freeing up class time that used to be spent listening to lectures for hands-on activities and application of knowledge, which used to serve as homework.

However, as most educators who have begun to use the technique are quick to say, there are a multitude of ways to "flip" a classroom. Some teachers assign a video for homework, while others allow students to watch those videos in class. Still others make videos for the lesson, but do not require students to watch them, giving students a variety of resources and allowing them to choose what they utilize in order to learn the required information.

Tips for flipping are provided by Education Week, and one of these dictates that teachers do not get hung up on creating their own videos, but harness the educational content that is already available. The DCMP is such a resource to teachers who have students who are deaf, blind, or deaf-blind. And our media is accessible—both described and captioned! You will flip as you see the links to the 59 recently added DCMP accessible videos. Our library of a few thousand accessible videos is one of the five key reasons. Pass on the word to teachers, colleagues, parents, and others.

Related Links:

DCMP: Your Election 2012 Headquarters

Photo montage of President Obama and presidential candidate Romney, both speaking to audiences.As Election 2012 approaches, we want all children to be prepared to actively participate in society as well as in the democratic process. Full participation requires acquired knowledge, equal access to information, and equal opportunity. DCMP has many resources to offer to students, parents, and teachers to help meet these goals. We have compiled information about political parties, campaigns, elections, and voting.

It is a Presidential Election year, and DCMP wants all students to actively engage in learning about elections. We are your one-stop-shop for accessible videos, multimedia, and other curricular resources. DCMP accessible titles are key ingredients to provide avenues for making the electoral process a real-world experience for students who are deaf, blind, and deaf-blind.

Please review the captioned and described media titles we have available about democracy and the electoral process. This resource also points you to other websites, videos, and information regarding access needs of individuals with sensory loss in the polling process. Further, please utilize the original article Differentiation: Meeting the Varied Needs of Students through Accessible Media as a reference regarding the challenges and opportunities of working with classrooms of students with multiple learning styles, intelligences, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, interests, and physical needs.

After exploring all the options, we think you will find that DCMP truly is your Headquarters for an Accessible 2012 Election!

2012, The Summer of Tech

Photo montage of computer screen with binary code, and several tiny fiber optic wires.LABS:
DCMP is constantly researching ways to make its service better. This often leads to the development of internal tools, or "apps," that are written to accomplish specific tasks. Knowing that other companies and organizations might be able to use these tools (and several recently expressed interests in our development activities) resulted in the creation of DCMP Labs (labs.dcmp.org). This simple website is a place for the DCMP tech team to share tools and workflows with anyone who can use them. If you host your own video, produce video, or simply have interest in accessible media and technology, keep an eye on DCMP Labs.

PLUGIN:
In January the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) released a report containing specific captioning requirements for owners, providers, and distributors of video content delivered via Internet protocol that is either live or previously broadcast. These parties must follow the requirements therein to be compliant with the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). These regulations currently do not cover programming that originates online and is never broadcast.

Existing captioning technology is far from being ready for these requirements. Sure, captions can technically be shown on many types of devices but, for example, the requirement of "consumer's ability to control the caption display, including the ability to turn it on and off and to select font sizes, styles, and colors, and background color and opacity" requires much more work from software developers and hardware manufacturers. The de facto standard web captioning file-types (.SRT, .SBV, DFXP, and .SMI) do not support all of the key features such as placement, text color, italics, bold, text outline, text box, and this renders the file-types useless for those who require CVAA compliance.

The DCMP currently uses burned-in (open) captions, meaning that they are physically part of the video file. This allows us to stream to any device capable of playing video content without worry of losing captioning due to a player or device incompatibility. This approach has inherent flaws including the loss of search engine indexing, and the fact that the text may become less readable if a low-quality video is maximized full-screen. For our application, the good outweighs the bad.

One of the most exciting tools that DCMP developed is a captioning plugin for JW Player (an extremely popular web video player) that DCMP is calling Capstone. This plugin is, to our knowledge, the first-ever implementation within a player (for self-hosted video) which utilizes .SCC (Scenarist Closed Caption) files. This means that broadcasters and DVD producers who already have EIA-608 .SCC broadcast captioning files can repurpose them for the web without editing. It is also, to our knowledge, the first captioning plugin that meets the requirements of the CVAA in the web browser, including all user selected options. See the live demo and let us know what you think!

STREAMING/MOBILE:
If you haven't already started using DCMP media on your smartphone or tablet, please give it a try! Simply visit our website (www.dcmp.org) on your device and search for media as you would on your computer. DCMP has tested streaming with great results on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad along with newer Android devices. Our goal is to make streaming compatible with as many devices as possible. If you have issues streaming to your device, please let us know by emailing support@dcmp.org and include the device model and operating system.

NEWSLETTER:
You may have noticed that the newsletter you're currently reading looks a bit different than in the past. We've redesigned it with every user in mind. Our newsletter is now mobile friendly, so rotate your device portrait or landscape and enjoy dynamic resizing that fits your screen.

     

Recently Added Titles - Highlights

Harry Potter: Real Worlds and Heroic Myths   Ameriquest Kids - Your Right To Vote   How the States Got Their Shapes - Season 1   Biz Kids   See All Recently Added Titles

Quick Hits

American Council of the Blind logo, a black circle with ACB in the centerDCMP Receives Achievement Award
In July, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and its Audio Description Project (ADP) announced that the DCMP had been named the recipient of the "2012 Audio Description Achievement Award (Media)." The award guidelines indicate: "The Achievement Awards are made to individuals for outstanding contributions to the establishment and/or continued development of significant audio description programs in each of four areas: media, performing arts, museums, and international activity." All award winners are listed on the ADP website. Jason Stark, DCMP Project Director stated, "We are deeply honored by this award, and wish to express our thanks to the U.S. Department of Education for its support and to our many collaborators and description vendors who made it possible."

DVD package for How the Earth Was Made dvd setSpectacular New DCMP Video Series
Dazzling, on-location shooting, evidence from geologists in the field, and dramatic graphics combine in a stunning new described and captioned video series from HISTORY™. How the Earth Was Made shows how immensely powerful, and at times violent, forces of geology have formed our planet. Take your students back in history—from 4.5 billion years ago to today—peeling back layers of rock, filling up river canyons, parting the oceans, and leveling mountains and volcanoes to investigate the origins of some of the most well-known locations and geological phenomena in the world.

Spanish described and captioned icon, a rectangle in the shape of a tv screen with a C for caption in a small black rectangle on the screen, and a D in a word balloon. Both have Spanish exclamation points before and after the letter.First DCMP Spanish-Language Described Production
Our first media title with Spanish description was presented to more than 100 key human rights and development leaders from around the world at the Leadership Conference on International Disability Rights, hosted by the United States Department of State in May. GeoQuest: Guatemala is more than "just" described in Spanish. It is completely bilingual, with English and Spanish narration, on-screen graphics, captions, and description. You can preview the title in English and Spanish on DCMP's YouTube channel. More Spanish-language media is currently being described and captioned. Don't miss the DCMP brochure in Spanish.

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Copyright © 2012, All rights reserved.
The contents of this newsletter were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Cooperative Agreement #H327N110002. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Jo Ann McCann.

The DCMP is administered by the National Association of the Deaf.