Now is the time to ASK for CART or Captioning you need in 2014

Now is the time to ask for CART or Captioning you need in 2014.  We invite you to use the non-profit service of the CCAC – http://captionmatch.com to find a captioning provider who fits your needs. 

CaptionMatch is a clearinghouse for connecting people who need captioning or CART with people who can provide captioning and CART services.

Give it a try – registration for the service online is free. When you are ready, place your request for CART or Captioning with as many details as you can. Replies from providers will be sent to you (anonymously), and when you select a provider to work with, then contact information is shared. 

What are you waiting for? Communication access is all. Go to http://CaptionMatch.com and get in touch with any questions to info@captionmatch.com

A service from the CCAC, all volunteers, official non-profit organization.

Captioning – a joy in the world!

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CAPTIONS not ONLY FOR DEAF! HEAR US ROAR

Okay, overload on something makes us roar today- Captions (subtitles) are not only for “deaf” and people with hearing loss!

Captions serve so many millions of citizens globally in other good ways – quality captioning teaches us language, it helps people with tinnitus (and no hearing loss), they are useful for people along the autism spectrum of differences in learning and cognitive styles; they help us learn a foreign language, and for people who must learn the language of a new country, they are priceless aids; they help children learn to read too (literacy rocks!)…they allow others to find your media online in more ways (if you media is captioned)…live captioning gives you an immediate transcript for record-keeping. Anyone who wants to add to this pretty good list? Please do! CAPTIONS ARE NOT FOR DEAF (only). Roar for Captions – they Communicate to everyone.

Join us now – go to HTTP://CCACAPTIONING.ORG

Include our LOGO on your webpages, blogs, newsletters and more. Link it to http://CCACaptiojning.org – let us know and we’ll share it too! If you need this in a different format, just ask:

LOOKING FORWARD TO TALKING WITH YOU- VIA TEXT.

Captioning Captures Communications!

Imagine going to school and being allowed to “hear” one word an hour.

Imagine working at a wonderful job and being allowed to “hear” one sentence a day.

Imagine how tiring, frustrating, and explosive denial of communication access is for mega-millions of citizens who have a hearing loss or deafness.

Advocate for inclusion! Join the CCAC now.

http://CCACAPTIONING.ORG

Ask for any captioning you need. Ask here:

http://CAPTIONMATCH.COM

It’s not going to happen immediately, but so important to take the first steps! Thanks if you do. We’re here to talk:

CCACaptioning@gmail.com

TIS THE SEASON – WE ASK FOR YOUR DONATIONS PLEASE

CCAC welcomes your donations during this very special season! We depend on you!

PayPal is on the site (to use a credit card).

Questions anytime to CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

(regret that a different message for a different organization showed up here yesterday – my mistake!)

Ho ho ho – may the world become truly accessible for all….

 

ccacaptioning.org

captionmatch.com

CAPTIONING CULTURE – YES, WE ARE!

OUR CAPTIONING CULTURE

 

Do you know the origin of the word caption? The old history of the word is to capture or seize. How wonderful is that?! It’s a good fit for text that captures the meaning of conversations for us – for communications and relationships – for life! Seize the day, yet first, capture all the words.

Captioning is truly much more than a mere label for a photo or a tiny bit of text in bubbles of a cartoon. Seize the words! Communicate! Use captioning on all media, and real time for life. Captioning is language. It’s speaking with text. It’s written, readable, and interactive.

By the time automatic captioning systems perfect automatic text for all human voices in all languages, we probably will have a pill to reverse deafness! (Some want it, and some don’t. We respect those choices and differences.) Meanwhile…

For decades, until small and affordable machines translate any voice and all voices in groups into quality text, real time, as we all speak, we suggest we are a Captioning Culture, we live in it, we breathe it, and we advocate to expand it.

Read on…

People who need and deserve quality captioning every day (not only for television, cinema, and videos) are not only people with hearing loss or deafness. Millions more able citizens, in all countries, use captioning to enhance learning – learning to read, learning new languages, and for searches online for knowledge. Yet for many, captioning (or subtitles, the same idea) allows access and inclusion for millions with hearing loss or deafness. 

And yet…

The word “captioning” has no respect! It’s beginning to earn respect, yet we have a long way to go. Forty-five years since the beginnings of relay telephones (text calling), and still, millions want more quality captioning for everyday life, and the sooner the better. No thanks, we don’t need a wheelchair, we need captioning.

Did you say a Culture of Captioning?

Yes. Each language in the world, is a vital and essential ingredient of that culture. Many groups are interested in the development of “culture”  – not only anthropologists who study cultures professionally, but also sociologists, psychologists, politicians, economists, educators, and deaf people also.

Those who use Sign Language (SL), are deaf people who have fought bravely to define and protect their own culture and language. They talk about SL of their country, and about their own deaf identity. There is also an established international SL now.

The culture of the deaf, sometimes called Deaf Culture, deaf-hood, or a deaf identity, has other building blocks also. It’s not only built around a sign language, since it includes behaviors, customs, attitudes – some typical ingredients of any culture. Nevertheless, the language, SL, is of highest value.

Now we suggest a Captioning Culture. Captioning is already an international language since it’s easily translated into the language you need (text can be translated by professionals, and even automatic translations now with new technology are often much better than automatic machine-only captioning).

Indeed, we refer to captioning as our language, as the world’s language.  What other building blocks are there for a Captioning Culture. What behaviors, attitudes, and expectations, and cultural norms are included?

One behavior or value is reading and literacy. In fact, captioning boosts literacy. Getting the word out globally about this (pun intended) is not easy, yet pockets of people in the USA, in India, and in other countries are captioning inclusion advocates for literacy (not for deafness and hearing loss). We belong together however.

Another attitude or value in a captioning culture is access and inclusion, and while insisting on captioning, we are open to many languages. Inclusion means that people with the full range of abilities (and dis-abilities) are valuable citizens, and societies are obliged to find resources for inclusion and using their combined many talents. Of course this attitude is not unique to our captioning culture.

A third item in a Culture of Captioning is an important behavior – we “speak.”  Most of us do. And if not, that’s okay of course too. We are oral. Many of us, among our mega-millions, speak just the same as “hearing” people because hearing loss or deafness occurred after learning to speak (deafened we are, or hearing loss of various degrees).  We don’t have an accent. We may have a language accent if we were born in one country and live now in another, yet for the most part, we haven’t accents different from all the beautiful accents of regional and national hearing people.

Our identity is mixed. We identify primarily as citizens of the country we live in, and as users of that country’s language. We speak that language as our primary language. We understand and support sign language and “deaf culture” among friends, colleagues, and others, yet we do not enjoy accusations of “resisting” sign language or “ignoring” deaf culture. We are who we are. Some are bilingual with other languages, some are multi-cultural, some use sign language also. Our identities, after all is said and done, are multi-faceted (woman, explorer, mother, captioning user, etc.)

What other items describe a Captioning Culture? We are cross-cultural in the sense that we know that people who are deaf, hearing, hard of hearing, and deafened, as well as many deaf-blind, and others with different visual and learning differences, all need and use captioning for some situations. Entertainments such as films, videos and theaters are good examples. We all need captioning – quality captioning – for these human and healthy experiences.

At the same time, we stress and value advocacy for “real time” or “live” captioning as our receptive language – this is less well understood and much less available for many. We use real-time captioning (called CART or STTR) as our language when we are in school, at work, in meetings and conferences, during community events, political rallies, anything that’s happening!

We do not use sign language. We need captioning. Real time means immediate speech-to-text translation with display of the words (everything everyone is saying). Some say live transcription, some say fast writing, and some call it interpretation).  All this is accomplished with new technologies and always along with professional providers – captioners with the right training, experience, knowledge of systems and more – to serve this need. They are the motors of our culture, and we users (consumers) are the hungry communication users.

Join our culture – all welcome.

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http://CCACaptioning.org – now is the time to join the CCAC, the place to be for captioning advocacy – join from the website

http://CaptionMatch.com – ask for captioning or CART you need now, soon, or in the new year, it’s not far away!