Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"Good Morning America" features youth dancers from schools for the deaf



In more positive fallout from Marlee Matlin being on "Dancing with the Stars," deaf and hearing impaired children who are part of the performing arts programs at the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf appeared in a segment of ABC's "Good Morning America" March 24.

Children from the schools, which are operated by Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., talked about how Matlin's appearance on DWTS inspired them. "I was really surprised. 'Wow — a deaf person is dancing.' So, now I want to dance also," Zachary Jones, a dance student at Gallaudet's Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) performing arts program, in the "Good Morning America" story.

However, Gallaudet University's PR department did point out one glitch with the "Good Morning America" story -- the video of the story posted on ABC's web site is not captioned. Gallaudet has asked ABC to caption the story. No word yet when that will happen.

Let's get it together, ABC -- Marlee Matlin is bringing thousands (millions?) of viewers to your network with her appearance on DWTS, you should make captioning everything for her deaf fans a top priority!