NEWSrelease

News from the National Captioning Institute, Inc.

Date: August 25, 2003

Contact: Jay Feinberg

703-917-7600 (V/TTY)

703-917-9853 (FAX)

jfeinberg@ncicap.org

Scholastic Entertainment and NCI Partner
To Introduce Clifford’s Puppy Days (TM)
With Three Accessibility Options

Washington, DC – Scholastic Entertainment, the entertainment and media division of Scholastic Inc., and the National Captioning Institute (NCI) and are pleased to announce the debut of an all-new animated children’s series called Clifford’s Puppy Days, a PBS program that will include closed captioning, video descriptions and a Spanish language sound track. Like Clifford The Big Red Dog?, Clifford’s Puppy Days is based on Scholastic’s best-selling children’s books by Norman Bridwell.

NCI was awarded a contract to provide closed captions and video descriptions for 25 new episodes of Clifford’s Puppy Days, scheduled to begin airing on PBS KIDS in September 2003. Created for children ages 4 through 7, Clifford’s Puppy Days features the young, bright, loveable bundle of energy painting the town a new shade of red, this time in an urban locale with all of his friends. Funding for the captions and descriptions is provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Just as captioning provides access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, video description provides access to television and prerecorded video programming for people who are blind or have low vision, an estimated audience of over 12 million Americans. This detailed process provides concise and vivid descriptions of a program’s visual elements enabling viewers to “see” colors, costumes, settings, facial expressions, gestures and actions. Descriptions can be heard through the Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) option on the Multi-channel Television Sound (MTS) feature on most newer televisions and usually accessed through the remote.

With the addition of descriptions, millions of children who are blind or have low vision will be able to fully comprehend the pro-literacy and community-based lessons featured in each episode of Clifford’s Puppy Days. These lessons strive to teach children how to cope with some of the challenges and issues of everyday life, such as resolving and communicating problems with others, and understanding and appreciating diversity within communities. Video descriptions will also help children enhance their vocabulary and articulation skills as well as their understanding of word associations.

“NCI is honored to partner with Scholastic Entertainment to provide description and captioning services for Clifford’s Puppy Days,” stated Jack Gates, President and CEO, NCI Operations. “The combination of video descriptions and closed captioning on the program will help all children improve their language skills, along with benefiting from the life lessons they are exposed to through the program.”

In addition to closed captioning and video descriptions, Clifford’s Puppy Days will also include an alternative Spanish language sound track. Clifford The Big Red Dog was the first children’s program on PBS stations to offer all three accessibility options. Local listings and public television station Web sites should be consulted to see what options are available in a particular viewing area.

“Scholastic Entertainment has always been committed to providing quality programs to children,” stated Deborah Forte, executive producer of Clifford’s Puppy Days and president of Scholastic Entertainment. “We are excited to partner with NCI to make Clifford’s Puppy Days accessible to the broadest range of children possible.”

 

Scholastic Entertainment
Scholastic Entertainment (SE) is a leading producer of quality, family-oriented television programming, feature films, videos, web sites and is a major licensor and marketer of children’s properties worldwide. In addition to Clifford’s Puppy Days™, SE produces the award-winning, top-rated animated series Clifford The Big Red Dog? (PBS KIDS™), the Emmy-award winning series I SPY (HBO Family), the Emmy-award winning series, Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus? starring Lily Tomlin (TLC); the award-winning Dear America series; the popular kids’ adventure series Goosebumps?; and the recently announced The Misadventures of Maya & Miguel, set for debut on PBS KIDS in fall, 2004. SE’s critically acclaimed feature films include The Baby-sitters Club, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Mighty, and the recently announced co-production with New Line Cinema of the award-winning Philip Pullman trilogy, His Dark Materials. Scholastic Entertainment is the entertainment and media division of Scholastic Inc., the global children’s publishing and media company, which creates and distributes innovative and quality educational materials for use in school, and engaging and appropriate products for use at home.

National Captioning Institute
With offices in the Washington, DC metropolitan area; Burbank, CA; New York, NY; Dallas, TX; and London, England, the nonprofit National Captioning Institute is the global captioning leader, supplying the highest-quality closed captioning and related services for broadcast and cable television, home video and DVD, and government and corporate video programming.

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Editor’s note: Funding for Clifford’s Puppy Days is part of a three-year grant awarded to NCI by the U.S. Department of Education that provides $403,200 in funding (90%) matched by $46,200 in private funding (10%) for accessible educational programming.

Additional Contact: Stacey Sanner

Goodman Media

212-576-2700

ssanner@goodmanmedia.com

 

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