NAD and Kaleidoscope Produce PSA Series

SILVER SPRING, MD — In an effort to boost media awareness of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and to recruit new members, the NAD has collaborated with KALEIDSCOPE Television to produce six national public service announcements (PSA) for dissemination to the public.

Five of the public service announcements have a synonymous theme entitled “NAD NEWS UPDATE” which cover several aspects of the NAD including its mission, programs, policy development, youth development, and interpreter certifications. They feature Benjamin J. Soukup, Mark D. Apodaca, Nancy J. Bloch, and Nancy B. Rarus as on-camera talent. The sixth PSA was designed generically and focuses on membership recruitment.

Nancy J. Bloch, NAD executive director, and David H. Pierce, vice president of programming and operations for KALEIDOSCOPE, both co-wrote the PSAs while Pierce served as the producer/director.

“Over the years, the NAD has safeguarded the rights of the nation’s 28 million people who are deaf and hard of hearing and has had a steady membership to support its mission. With the release of these PSAs, the NAD has entered a new arena using the media to get its message out to larger numbers of people to increase its membership base and strengthen its advocacy efforts,” said Bloch.

The NAD NEWS UPDATE PSAs are sixty seconds each in length while the generic PSA is thirty seconds in length. American Sign Language (ASL), captions, and voice-overs are utilized for maximized accessibility. All the PSAs are now airing nationally on KALEIDOSCOPE.

The NAD focuses on grassroots advocacy and empowerment, captioned media, deafness-related information and publications, legal assistance, policy development and research, public awareness, and youth leadership development.

KALEIDOSCOPE is a 24-hour national channel that is 100% captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Along with programming in sign language, the network airs health, wellness, and ability programming for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, people with disabilities, as well as those with major health concerns. KALEIDOSCOPE is currently seen in 15 million households nationwide. More information on the NAD can found on the World Wide Web at http://www.nad.org.