"Captioned Media Program"
By Debbie Hardwicke

he National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is working with the U. S. Department of Education to manage the Captioned Media Program (CMP). The two groups have agreed to work together for the next five years. The NAD contribution to the project amounts to 3% of the program costs or approximately $500 thousand for the five-year period.

The CMP selects, captions and distributes open-captioned media through a nationwide library system. It is available to the approximately 28 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans, teachers, and others who serve deaf and hard of hearing people. The CMP also serves as a clearinghouse of captioning information and advocacy, and also trains and evaluates captioning agencies.

Vickie Franklin, mother of a teenage deaf son, discovered the Captioned Media Program in Kentucky. "I discovered a few years ago, that I too have a progressive hearing loss. My son and I watch CMP captioned videos together. His grades have improved dramatically in school, and together we are learning sign language from the CMP videos."

While most television networks and many cable channels provide closed-captioning, very little media, other than that, is captioned. Approximately 15% of educational videos, 5% of educational CD ROM, 0% of webcasts and only a few movies produced before 1980 are captioned. Major corporations and many television networks utilize the "Captioning Key," CMP's guide to captioning.

"Captioning has allowed me to become more independent and is an important part of my entertainment, academics and lifestyle," says actor Anthony Natale. He was featured in the films "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Jerry Maguire" and he is also the spokesperson for the CMP. "I want to pay my respect to the CMP and other captioning companies for what they have provided to me, my deaf fellows, families and others."

The CMP has more than 4,000 videos available including classic Hollywood movies, special-interest and educational videos. They have also begun to add CD-ROM, Internet video streaming and DVD's to their collection. The CMP is currently working to provide Spanish-language captioning to the more than 3 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans of Hispanic origin.

Any deaf or hard of hearing individual qualifies for CMP's free-loan service. Teachers, parents and others who work with individuals who work with deaf and hard of hearing persons, also qualify. The CMP reaches more than 2 million audience members each year.

For more information: Call toll-free (800) 237-6213 V or (800) 237-6819 TTY, visit the CMP Web site at www.cfv.org or email at info@cfv.org.