Last March 11, we celebrated Dicapta’s EnhAccess Advisory Group Kickoff Meeting. EnhAccess stands for Enhanced Access to Video for Students with Sensory Disabilities through Emerging Technology. This is a Dicapta initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education-Office of Special Education Programs-OSEP under their TV Access funding umbrella (H327C210001).

The meeting discussed the objectives of the EnhAccess project, which seeks to increase access to educational video programming for students with sensory disabilities utilizing new and emerging technologies while broadening the scope of their learning opportunities.

This project has several unique features, such as using innovative technology in order to reduce costs, increase efficiency and availability of accessibility elements. It specifically wants to fulfill the accessibility needs of deaf-blind students and children with sensory disabilities in U.S households where Spanish is the dominant language. 

EnhAccess is supported by a diverse and talented group composed of individuals with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, Children of Deaf Adults (CODA); and top researchers and leaders on the topics of audio description, captioning, special education, deaf education, educational technology, disabilities research and training; and assistive technology research and development of. They also bring knowledge of public policy, workplace inclusion, accessible public transportation, and working relationships with international organizations that promote equal access for people with visual disabilities. The experience of several of them in film and media production, and public broadcasting, complement the qualifications of this group.

As usual for this type of event held by Dicapta, everybody was able to communicate in their preferred language and be understood by everyone regardless if they used ASL, English, or Spanish, thanks to the availability of live interpretation and captioning.

We were very pleased to announce that we already have the commitment of remarkable content partners, such as Canal 22 Internacional, Crawford Entertainment, Fred Rogers Company, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN), New Day Films, POV, Semillitas, and WIPR. Thanks to the funds from OSEP, EnhAccess is making accessible selected educational content from these partners. 

This meeting was a strong start for the future of the EnhAccess project. We at Dicapta were glad to be able to meet such a skilled support group, and we are sure that with their help, we will see the objectives of the EnhAccess project to fruition.

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