On Sept. 11, NCRA’s government relations team attended the Maryland Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Council Meeting held in Baltimore, Md. The Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) represent the state’s governor, Martin O’Malley, and his goal of promoting equal access for all Marylanders by providing expertise that enhances the general welfare of state’s deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind residents. The ODHH vision is that all Maryland citizens who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or deaf-blind will have equal and full access to resources, services, and opportunities for participation in all aspects of community life.
Adam Finkel, NCRA assistant director of government relations, and Brandon Schall, NCRA government relations specialist, presented on behalf of NCRA’s interest in the ODHH vision as well as in the deaf and hard of hearing communities. They provided insight on relevant statistics related to the court reporting, CART, and captioning professions and introduced NCRA’s Captioning Matters: Best Practices project.
As the nationally recognized certifying body for court reporters, captioners, and CART providers, NCRA created the Captioning Matters: Best Practices project to address the need to define the roles of all parties involved in the distribution of closed captioning. The practices presented in this project were created to ensure that the most accurate, understandable, and timely captions are produced.
In addition to ODHH and NCRA representatives, members from organizations such as the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, the Maryland State Department of Education, the Maryland Department of Human Resources, the Hearing and Speech Agency, and the Maryland School for the Deaf were also in attendance.
View the draft of NCRA’s Captioning Matters: Best Practices project
