Major Changes at the Described and Captioned Media
Program
Editor: I've long been a proponent of the Captioned Media Program (CMP),
because of the wonderful service it provided to the hearing loss
community. You may have heard that they are adding described media to
their program and have changed their name to the Described and Captioned
Media Program (DCMP). What you may not have heard is the changes they
are making to their program.
The following press release details those changes, but by far the
largest is the elimination of captioned media services for adults!
That's right! The program will now serve K-12 exclusively!
It's the end of a wonderful program!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2007
As you might already be aware, the Captioned Media Program (CMP) has
become the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP). The National
Association of the Deaf (NAD) has administered the CMP since 1991, and
the NAD is proud to have been selected to administer the grant to
operate the DCMP (see http://www.dcmp.org/caai/nadh180.pdf).
Along with the change in name, there will also be many program
changes, especially to the free-loan media service. We at the DCMP
wanted to make you aware of the changes and to describe how they will
affect your use of the program.
First, beginning April 1, 2007, free-loan media services are only
available to K-12 schools (including home schools) and school
professionals, and are no longer available to postsecondary teachers,
adults, senior citizens, and other nonschool individuals. IN addition,
families of qualifying students in K-12 settings remain eligible for the
free-loan program, along with interpreters and others serving in K-12
academic settings. You will soon receive another communication from us
asking you to verify your continued eligibility for loan services.
Clients who no longer qualify for loan services will still be able to
use the Web site to find captioned media available for purchase, learn
more about captioning, and find other information.
Second, effective on April 1, 2007, the old CMP library that served
you will no longer be in operation. All media will be mailed from a
centralized DCMP library in Oklahoma. This library is called the
National Accessible Learning Center (NALC) (see http://www.dcmp.org/caai/nadh182.pdf),
and the NALC will mail items to you.
Third, the DCMP will begin exclusively circulating DVD copies from
the NALC on April 1, 2007. Video copies will no longer be available.
We've been working hard to convert video titles to DVD, and we are
excited about the move to this newer, preferred format. Remember that
many titles are streamed on our Web site, and we will be announcing
other new ways you will be able to use DCMP captioned media through the
Internet.
Fourth, the DCMP media collection will now contain described media
for blind, visually impaired, and deaf-blind students. These media items
will offer description of visual elements (pictures, charts etc.), just
as captioning provides visual representation of audio elements.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. We
look forward to serving you in different ways and to the benefits these
changes will bring to the students we serve across the United States.
