Have you ever wondered how people who are deaf-blind communicate among themselves? There are diverse communication methods that use, for example, variations of sign language, tactile alphabets or Braille displays. The disadvantage of those methods is that most of them require of an interpreter and the methods themselves limit the spontaneity of a conversation. That started to change in 2007, when a group of deaf-blind people in Seattle thought of a way of interacting directly among themselves. 

Since last year, Canal 22 Internacional offers a programming slot with accessibility on Saturdays and Sundays. To promote it, the station has launched a video clip showcasing the accessibility features in action.  Ricardo López, a fantastic member of our advisory group, who is deaf and works at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf at Gallaudet University, joined the effort by bringing ASL to the table. Now the video clip es accessible for all! 

Last month Dicapta Foundation's development team visited the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths & Adults (HKNC) for a new training session of our GoCC4All technology. GoCC4All is a solution that integrates hardware and software to deliver TV captions to a Braille display. 

We are honored to have Maria Victoria Diaz, Dicapta's President, appointed for a second term with the FCC's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC). The DAC provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on a wide array of disability matters specified by the Federal Communications Commission.

G3ict The Global Initiative for Inclusive Accessibility of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) released its Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation (DARE) Index 2017-2018 last month. The index measures the progress made by the 177 countries, that signed the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in promoting and implementing digital accessibility.

Starting July 4th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) increased the mandatory number of hours of video description that TV stations and networks have to provide. Previously, the mandatory number of hours per quarter during prime time or children’s programming was 50.  Now, in addition to those 50 hours, the networks have to provide 37.5 hours per quarter between 6 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.

Doctor Juanita Rodriguez is presenting the results of our projects "Captions and Video Description: Educational Tools for Hispanic Children with Disabilities," and "DAD: A collaborative platform to encourage learning through creativity and dialogue" at Edulearn18 this week. She will be sharing the project's results with academics from around the world during the Special Education session.

When I was born I was diagnosed with grade III microtia and atresia on my left side and I had a shorter jawbone on that side too.  I realized just recently how hard that was for my parents.  I was their first child and when they saw their baby missing her left ear, their world crumbled.  Fortunately, that has not been a big deal for me.  When I was a child, kids sometimes were cruel; but I had opportunities for revenge. 

Today is the 7th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) and Dicapta is joining this awareness day by launching a campaign to inform Spanish-speaking children who are deaf, blind, deaf-blind or have some degree of hearing and vision impairment, and their parents, about the availability of audio description and closed caption services in Spanish and how they can access them.