Dicapta Plays Leading Role Providing Spanish Language Captioning of Educational Media for Blind and Hearing-Impaired Students

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. --- Dicapta has emerged as a leading provider of Spanish-language video descriptions and captions for educational media for blind and hearing-impaired students in the U.S.

Maria Diaz, chief executive officer, said Dicapta has been named a strategic partner of the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), a private not-for-profit organization funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the National Association for the Deaf.

“The mission of the DCMP is to make educational media accessible to all, including blind and deaf students, by captioning and describing the vast educational media resources available in the U.S. today,” Diaz said.

Educational media---videos and tapes---is a major resource in the education of students with disabilities at all levels, Diaz said. But almost all U.S. educational media are produced in English.

“That is as it should be, but Spanish-speaking students with disabilities have limited access to such resources. This is why we are so pleased that the DCMP is going to add Spanish titles to its existing collection,” Diaz said.

The U.S. Department of Education funds efforts by the National Association for the Deaf to caption and describe educational media, Diaz said.

Now, Dicapta is playing a leading role in captioning and describing educational media for Spanish-speaking students.

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that Latinos develop visual impairments and blindness at the highest rate of any ethnic group in the country,” Diaz said.

“Gallaudet University reported in 2009-2010 that more than half of all deaf children are from ethnic/racial minority groups and that almost a third---30.4 percent---of these children are Latino,” she said.

“Educational media with Spanish-language captions and descriptions can offer many of these students a level playing field in the race to gain literacy skills and beyond and an education that will help make them productive citizens,” Diaz said.

“That is the need we are filling and we are pleased to say that we are a leading provider of these services in the U.S.,” she said.

Dicapta is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program in Winter Springs.

About the UCF Business Incubation Program:
Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 200 emerging companies (including more than 125 current clients) create over $200 million in annual total economic output and more than 1,600 new jobs with an average salary of $59,000. With nine facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development between the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Winter Springs, The City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. The UCFBIP will open its 10th incubator in Apopka in spring 2012. Please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu and UCFBIP on Facebook, on www.facebook.com/ucf4bip.