NAD Announces Accessible Obama Biography Online The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is pleased to announce that it has teamed with Arts & Entertainment Television Networks (AETN) to provide captions and description (narration added to visual program elements during natural programming pauses) to the A&E Biography of Barack Obama in celebration of his Inauguration as the 44th President of the United States. For the first time, this episode from the popular Emmy award-winning Biography series is accessible on the Internet to the more than 50 million Americans with hearing or vision loss - including millions of students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. As part of the agreement between the DCMP and AETN, everyone can enjoy the streamed version of the A&E Biography of Barack Obama on DCMP's Web site (www.dcmp.org/obama) for a two-week period beginning January 20, 2009, the date of the Inauguration. Viewers will be able to choose between a captioned, described, or captioned AND described version of the program. After February 2, 2009, access will be limited to registered DCMP clients (those who qualify for DCMP services include teachers, parents, and others involved with educating K - 12 students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind). Description of the Barack Obama Biography was donated by Joel Snyder, director of the American Council of the Blind's (ACB) Audio Description Project. Captioning was provided by CaptionMax. About "Biography: Barack Obama" This cable-television biography about the life of Illinois senator Barack Obama was made before he began campaigning to be the Democratic party's candidate for the 2008 presidential race. Still, the program suggests Obama has one or another kind of profound, American destiny as a mixed-race activist who never comfortably fit into one or another group, and had to look deep into his own roots to understand his identity. The son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father, Obama was abandoned by the latter when he returned to his native country to work for its improvement. Raised by his mother-whom Obama credits with teaching him many of his values-and his grandmother, Obama lived in Hawaii as a child but moved to Indonesia for a few years when his mom remarried. There, Obama saw cyclical poverty and the underlying factors that perpetuate it before returning to Hawaii. Interviews with childhood friends and his sister describe Obama's restlessness before attending Harvard law school and propelling himself into a life of public service and community activism. Often accused of lacking enough political experience to qualify him for the White House, Obama comes across in this show as a visionary and experienced consensus-builder who can reach across opposing points of view. The program ends with details about Obama's entry into the U.S. Senate and his rise in the Democratic party, but a post-program coda catches us up with the history of his recent campaign. -Tom Keogh (excerpted from Amazon.com)