Caption Consulting

05/12/2026

A survey published in mid-April by RNID and DeafATW found that over 40 percent of deaf people using the UK's Access to Work scheme have missed out on training and career development opportunities because they did not have the interpreter support they needed. Access to Work is a government programme that funds communication support, including British Sign Language interpreters, for deaf employees. But the survey of more than 350 users found serious gaps: nearly a third waited four months or more for an application outcome, and close to one in five said delays forced them to reduce their work or change how they did their jobs.

Particularly striking was the finding that over a third of BSL signers renewing their awards had their support reduced by the Department for Work and Pensions despite no change in their circumstances, and half of those received no written explanation for why. Only 37 percent of working-age BSL users in the UK are employed, compared to 77 percent of non-disabled people. RNID's head of policy Robert Geaney said the findings highlight a "serious gap in support," adding that without adequate interpreter funding, "people whose first language is BSL cannot communicate with their colleagues or fully participate in the workplace."

At Caption Consulting, serving clients across the US, UK, and Canada, this issue resonates directly. Interpreter access is not just a workplace accommodation. It is the difference between a deaf professional being able to do their job and not. The data from this survey makes the stakes very clear.

Just over 40 per cent of deaf Access to Work customers have missed out on training and development opportunities in the workplace because they did not have access to the support they needed, a new …

05/11/2026

On April 30 and May 1, students at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind performed The Wizard of Oz at the Berger Performing Arts Center in Tucson. It was the last theater production the school will ever stage there. Due to falling enrollment and budget pressures, ASDB is relocating to a smaller campus in Oro Valley, and the music and theater program is being cut along with more than 70 staff positions.

Music director Kate Scally Howell, who has been part of the annual production for 15 years, learned her program was cut when she was called into the office and placed on the Reduced in Force list. She still drove to the board meeting to speak in defense of the program, and she still made sure the final show happened, partnering with Saguaro City Music Theatre to bring The Wizard of Oz to the stage one last time. The production featured two ASL interpreters on stage for the audience and an additional interpreter in the orchestra pit for deaf and hard-of-hearing cast members. Choreographer Dena DiGiacinto said watching the students perform was deeply moving. "You can see how proud they are of their work. Just seeing them so confident and knowing that they have the power to make an entire audience full of people laugh or cry. That is pretty powerful stuff."

The curtain may have come down on ASDB's theater program, but Scally Howell is not done. She announced plans to continue the program through Saguaro City Music Theatre, unaffiliated with ASDB, serving blind and visually impaired community members. She and DiGiacinto are actively working to find a venue for 2026. At Caption Consulting, that kind of determination is exactly what we celebrate. When a program ends, the people who built it find a way to keep the work alive.

Music and theater programs at ASDB will be cut next year as a longtime music director works to continue them.

05/10/2026

Gallaudet University's National Academic Bowl marked its 30th anniversary, drawing over 250 deaf and hard-of-hearing high school students from across the country to compete in a tournament that has quietly become one of the most important traditions in Deaf education. Under the leadership of alumna Casey Johnson-Pasqua, the event continues to grow in reach and significance, offering students not just a competition but a rare opportunity to be surrounded entirely by peers who share their language and experience.

What makes the National Academic Bowl stand out is not just academic rigor but what it represents for students who spend most of their school year as the only deaf or hard-of-hearing person in their classroom. For many of them, Gallaudet's campus is the first place where signing is the norm, where they are not the exception, and where they can compete, socialize, and thrive entirely on their own terms. After 30 years, the tournament is a testament to what happens when deaf students are given an environment designed for them.

At Caption Consulting, we believe access to education means more than accommodations in a mainstream classroom. It means spaces where Deaf students can see themselves fully reflected. The National Academic Bowl is one of the best examples of what that looks like.

The air is vibrating with anticipation. After weeks of intense competition, only two teams are left out of the 64 that had entered the tournament. Players

05/09/2026

Two Gallaudet University alumni made it to the final pitch of Shark Tank's most recent season, and they did not leave empty-handed. Melody and Russell Stein, both Gallaudet graduates, appeared on the show alongside their children and business partners Taysia and Rylan to pitch pi00a, their Neapolitan frozen pizza company. Iconic investor Lori Greiner invested $200,000 in the company after tasting the product and hearing the family's story. "I see you," she told them after agreeing to the deal. "And the world's going to see you, and they're going to know this pizza, and they're going to love it."

The Steins' story goes beyond a great product and a great pitch. Their pi00a kitchen is staffed by deaf employees trained in the craft of Neapolitan pizza-making, and the family has been deliberate about building something that uplifts the broader deaf community. Russell also works at Gallaudet as part of the Gallaudet Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, where the BisonTank program offers deaf students and alumni the chance to pitch their own business ideas to a panel of deaf entrepreneurs for seed funding and mentorship. For the Steins, Shark Tank was not just a business milestone. It was a platform to show what deaf entrepreneurship looks like.

At Caption Consulting, stories like this one remind us why representation across every industry matters. When deaf entrepreneurs are visible, they change what the next generation believes is possible.

On April 22, Melody Stein, E-’96, and Russell Stein, ’95, appeared on the hit TV show Shark Tank alongside their children and business partners, Taysia

05/06/2026

Today we celebrate the incredible interpreters who bridge communication, create connection, and make inclusion possible every single day.

Your work changes lives. Your presence brings understanding. Your dedication creates access and equity for so many.

From all of us at Caption Consulting, thank you for the heart, skill, and compassion you bring to your work every day. We are so lucky to have you on our team.

Happy National Interpreter Day! 💙
CommunicationAccess CaptionConsulting

05/06/2026

Today we celebrate the incredible interpreters who bridge communication, create connection, and make inclusion possible every single day.

Your work changes lives. Your presence brings understanding. Your dedication creates access and equity for so many.

From all of us at Caption Consulting, thank you for the heart, skill, and compassion you bring to your work every day. We are so lucky to have you on our team.

Happy National Interpreter Day! 💙

05/06/2026

A story out of SUNY Canton published April 21 is a good reminder that inclusion in college sports is about culture as much as accommodation. When Gallaudet University shut down its baseball program, Head Coach Ryan Stevens saw an opportunity. He had already coached against Gallaudet and knew two hard-of-hearing players there, Salvador Diaz and Johnathan Guerrero. He recruited both to come to Canton, and later added first-year student Jared Paone. The three now form the backbone of a team that has built an environment where communication access is simply part of how they play.

On the field, SUNY Canton worked with its Accommodative and Disability Services Office to acquire PitchCom wrist devices, allowing the coach and players to communicate efficiently without violating NCAA regulations. The results speak for themselves. Diaz, the team captain and starting catcher, is batting .360 with five home runs this season, has been named to the D3baseball.com National Team of the Week and SUNYAC Athlete of the Week, and received the college's Phoenix Award for persisting through personal challenges to find success. "What initially drew me to Sal, Johnny, and Jared was how well they play the game," Coach Stevens said. "Their skill and competitiveness stood out right away. I wasn't thinking about their ability to hear."

At Caption Consulting, that is exactly the kind of leadership we believe in. When the right environment exists, hard-of-hearing athletes do not just fit in. They lead.

Communication was essential for three hard-of-hearing student-athletes at SUNY Canton.

05/06/2026

On April 23, Deaf Equality joined a coalition of national disability advocates to meet with Rep. Debbie Dingell in support of the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act, a bipartisan bill that would modernize federal accessibility law to reflect how people actually communicate today. The existing law, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, has not been updated to keep pace with the explosion of video platforms, streaming services, AI tools, and digital communication technology, leaving significant gaps in access for Deaf, hard-of-hearing, DeafBlind, and late-deafened people.

The CVTA Act would expand and improve captioning and audio description standards across television and online streaming, make accessibility features easier to find on devices including smartphones and laptops, strengthen access to video conferencing platforms, improve access to 9-1-1 emergency services, and give the FCC authority to ensure standards keep pace with emerging technologies like AI and virtual reality. "Technology has changed," said Zainab Alkebsi, Chief Policy Officer at Deaf Equality. "Our laws need to catch up. Access to communication is not optional. It is a requirement for full participation in society."

At Caption Consulting, we have been watching the growing gap between what accessibility law requires and what modern communication technology demands. The CVTA Act is exactly the kind of systemic update the field needs. We are glad to see advocates pushing for it.

April 23, 2026April 24, 2026Advocacy, Disability Rights, Federal Government, Press ReleaseHoward RosenblumDeaf Equality Meets with Rep. Debbie Dingell to Advance CVTA Act, Urges Modern Accessibility Standards Washington, DC — Deaf Equality joined a coalition of national disability advocates this w...

05/05/2026

On April 18, the University of Alaska Fairbanks hosted its annual ASL storytelling night, bringing together members of the local Deaf community and ASL students for an evening rooted in one of the most distinctive traditions in Deaf culture. Stories and jokes passed down through generations were told in sign language, some new to the room and some beloved classics that have traveled through the community for decades.

For ASL student Brynn Illingworth, who has attended the event every year of her program, the night captured something hard to get from a classroom alone. "It's a really important part of deaf culture, and seeing that part of it is really important for the immersion for students, because in deaf culture, stories and jokes are passed down for generations." She described the moment she realized she finally understood most of what was being signed, not from studying harder but from being present in the community. Deaf community member Donna Brinkley, who helps organize the night, put it simply: "It bridges our worlds, our communities, and it shows the hearing community that deaf people are really the same as them. They just can't hear."

At Caption Consulting, we believe that understanding Deaf culture is inseparable from providing meaningful access. Events like this one at UAF are exactly how that understanding gets built, one story and one room at a time.

On Thursday, stories were shared in American Sign Language at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in an annual event bringing together members of the deaf community and ASL students.

05/01/2026

HBO Max's hit medical drama The Pitt is earning real praise from doctors and medical students for how accurately it portrays emergency medicine, and one storyline in particular is resonating with those who know Deaf healthcare access firsthand. A Deaf patient named Harlow, played by deaf actress Jessica Flores, spends hours in the waiting room after her name is called over a speaker she cannot hear. When Video Remote Interpreting is finally arranged, the connection is glitchy and unusable. An in-person interpreter eventually arrives, but not before the system has already failed her multiple times.

Boston University medical student Harsh*ta Pattam, who has a Deaf studies minor, told BU Today that the storyline rings true. "Dealing with these kinds of delays is a common issue that many Deaf patients face, especially if they live in rural areas, where access to that type of technology isn't always readily available." The show's decision to cast a real deaf actress in the role, and to tell the story from Harlow's perspective, has been praised as one of the most authentic depictions of Deaf healthcare access in mainstream television.

At Caption Consulting, this storyline matters to us. A glitchy VRI connection in an emergency room is not an inconvenience. It is a patient safety failure. The Pitt is showing millions of viewers exactly why interpreter access needs to be treated as the essential service it is, not an afterthought.

HBO drama is commended for its mostly accurate portrayal of an urban hospital similar to Boston Medical Center

04/28/2026

A lawsuit that has been working its way through the courts since 2021 took another step forward today. The National Association of the Deaf and Disability Rights Advocates originally went to court to force SiriusXM to make transcripts available for the podcasts on its platform and on Pandora, arguing that denying access to over 48 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans violates state and federal law. SiriusXM has contested whether the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to streaming services at all. Both sides have now jointly asked a federal judge to extend the pause on litigation through July 31 as settlement talks continue and a third mediation session, originally scheduled for April 7, is rescheduled for June or July.

The case has moved slowly, but the underlying issue has not gone away. Since the suit was filed, SiriusXM has begun transcribing all English-language podcasts on its own app, with a similar feature planned for Pandora. Progress, but advocates argue it took a lawsuit to get there — and the legal questions about what platforms owe deaf and hard-of-hearing users under federal law remain unresolved. How this case is ultimately settled could set important precedent for how the ADA applies to the streaming era.

At Caption Consulting, we believe that transcripts and captions are not optional extras. They are the entry point for millions of people to participate in the media landscape on equal terms. We will be watching this case closely.

The National Association of the Deaf has agreed to another delay in their lawsuit against SiriusXM over podcast transcript availability as settlement talks continue. A planned mediation has been postponed,