Read Captions Across America

New DCMP RCAA Poster

Everyone is invited to join DCMP for our eighth annual Read Captions Across America (RCAA) event! RCCA is a partnership with the NEA's Read Across America activity.

DCMP’s RCAA is the only such event to put emphasis on the importance of captioned media (e.g., broadcast, Internet, DVD, CD-ROM) as an instant reading incentive and literacy tool for all children, not just those who are deaf or hard of hearing. But everyone already knows this, right? If so, why is so much educational media not captioned? Why also do some schools actually resist showing captioned media in their classes with students who are deaf or hard of hearing?

If you are a believer, we need your help! Join the fun on March 1 to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday, and order your free RCAA Event Kit consisting of posters, bookmarks, certificates, and a special DVD containing six Dr. Seuss video titles. Use this opportunity to show your students great DCMP videos such as those listed here: Accessible Children’s Literature Videos, Children’s Classics from the DCMP, and Watch Any Good Books Lately?

DCMP Related Resources:

• RCAA Event Kit
• Read Captions Across America: Article
• Read Captions Across America: Dr. Seuss Collection
• Dr. Seuss on the Loose

Black History Month

DCMP has numerous described and captioned media resources listed on this flyer to support your study. In addition, don’t miss the five-part series entitled America’s Journey Through Slavery which has these titles: Opposing Slavery: The Abolitionist Movement in America, The Life of an Enslaved Person in America, Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator, Escaping Slavery on the Underground Railroad, and Harriet Tubman and Her Escape to Freedom. Finally, your search of our catalog for African American history and culture will revel several others including America The Story of Us: Civil War, A Rose For Abby (English and Spanish), Rainmakers II: Celso Magumbe, and many more.

DCMP Related Resources:

• Blindness and Black History: One Leader's Perspective
• Deafness and Black History: One Leader's Perspective

Related Links:

• The African-American Mosaic: Beyond Black History Month
• Black History Month: Activities and Resources for Children
• Multicultural - Deaf and African American
• National Black Deaf Advocates
• A Short History of National Black Deaf Advocates

Quick Hits

Award for Inclusion Through Technology
The Disability Cinema Coalition just announced the presenting of the inaugural “Malcolm J. Norwood Award for Inclusion Through Technology” to AT&T. The name of the award honors Dr. Norwood, who is on everyone’s list of greatest achievers in the community of deaf and hard of hearing persons. He was a mainstay and leader in the development of captioning, from its infancy until 1988. Teachers looking for student role models can view the only known video footage of Dr. Norwood on the DCMP YouTube channel and refer to this DCMP lesson guide.

Help for Families of Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
The National Family Association for Deaf-Blind (NFADB) is the largest nonprofit national organization of families of individuals who are deaf-blind. NFADB would like to help you get information out to families. Please like them on Facebook and use their Wall to inform families of activities that you have going on in your state or nationally.  Also know that the DCMP has many resources for these families and teacher use, including Helen Keller resources. Especially don’t miss this short YouTube clip containing actual footage of Anne Sullivan describing the process by which Helen learned to speak.

Presidents' Day (February 18)
We have great Presidents’ Day accessible media for all grades! For older students we have titles such as Barack Obama and The Modern Presidency: Tools of Power. Younger students will like the Weston Woods titles Duck For President and So You Want to be President? Search our catalog by a President’s name and find titles like Fillmore, Pierce, & Buchanan, Cleveland, McKinley, & Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many more!

Les Misérables: Free (and Captioned) for Your Classroom
Millions of people are currently flocking to movie theatres to see the new version of Les Misérables. There have been several filmed adaptions of this French historical novel by Victor Hugo which was first published in 1862 and is considered to be one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. Anyone can see the 1957 film version of this classic on DCMP’s YouTube Channel, and DCMP members can view it on the DCMP website. NOTE TO TEACHERS/PARENTS: There are several lesson guides and lesson plans for this film that are available for free on the Internet. Three of these are made available by eNotes, Learning to Give, and TeacherVision.