MAA launches education DVD database

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 11:31

An enthusiastic group of teachers of the deaf, education experts, disability advocates and suppliers gathered at Media Access Australia’s Sydney office on 26 October to launch the Accessible Education Database. The first stage in a long-term project to achieve full captioning of classroom resources, MAA’s database provides an interactive resource for teachers, librarians, educators and parents.

Starting with a brief presentation by MAA’s Education Team (Anne McGrath and Yasodai Selvakumaran), the audience was then invited to try the database for themselves. Like all good launches there was a gift to take home, in this case an ‘apple for teacher’ with strict instructions to complete their ‘homework’ and log onto the database and start tagging titles.

Underpinning the launch is a very important need in assisting Deaf and hearing impaired students.

“Schools have a duty of care under the Disability Discrimination Act to provide curriculum support materials that are accessible,“ explained Anne McGrath, Education Manager at MAA, who is also a Teacher/Consultant with RIDBC School Support Services (Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children).

“The Accessible Education Database will mean captioned curriculum support materials will be much easier to find.”

Although the database will be primarily used for supporting Deaf and hearing impaired students, captions can also help students with learning difficulties, visual learners and students who have English as a Second Language.

The database has been designed to save teachers planning time by allowing users to search titles and tagged information about the content.

“A key element of the database will be its interactivity, allowing teachers to add titles or keywords, helping improve the accuracy and searchability of the database. The ongoing success of the database will be assisted greatly by teachers’ commitment around the country, to helping build it – a shared resource for all,” explained Ms McGrath

The Accessible Education Database has a large number of titles that have been captioned as a result of the support of the Federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) through the Captioning Grant.

In support of the database launch, the National Geographic Channel, in consultation with MAA and with the assistance of the Captioning Grant, will distribute 500 sets of 63 hours worth of educational captioned content to schools where Deaf or hearing impaired students are enrolled by the end of 2009.

“This is a great example of how MAA can bring together various supporters of education access and deliver a greater outcome for students,” said MAA CEO Alex Varley.

“The FaHCSIA grant provides base level funding of captioning, the National Geographic titles provide a ready-resource and profile for the need for captioned content in schools, and the database provides an ongoing resource and catalyst for expanding the range of captioned titles. Now we call on the education community to help populate that database and benefit their colleagues across the country.”