To: TECHNOLOGY EDITORS

Contact: Heather York of VITAC, +1-703-807-2763, Heather-y@vitac.com

CANONSBURG, Pa., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- VITAC, the nation's leading provider of accessible media services, helped the Internal Revenue Service to reach the largest possible audience with the agency's economic stimulus videos, currently available on YouTube.

The public service announcements began as American Sign Language (ASL) videos with no audio. Text transcripts were posted along with the video. The new format, created by VITAC for the IRS and its partners, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Government (DHHIG), includes captions and voice over.

"This is a three-in-one model which is more favorable in increasing visibility and outreaching efforts to native ASL and hearing taxpayers alike -- video clips for everyone to receive the same information," said IRS Producer/director Toby Silver, who is deaf. "Releasing ASL videos levels the playing field for deaf taxpayers by presenting an alternative to written text-based English. VITAC has provided me a one-stop shop for captioning and voice over resources."

VITAC's ASL-fluent Director of Offline Captioning, Dina Smith, worked with Ms. Silver to create and synchronize open captions to the programming. The captions were then recorded as audio, with narration and sound engineering by VITAC's Audio Description Department.

"We are honored to have been chosen by the IRS to provide this valuable service," said VITAC President Patricia Prozzi. "The agency's dedication to reaching the broadest possible audience with this important message is evident in these videos, and we're proud to have been a part of it."

"As a deaf producer/director, it was empowering to plan, design and produce deaf-centric ASL videos for the TV screen," said Silver. "Knowing the deaf community, I was able to cater to the needs of the targeted audience. ASL videos has been shown to be one of the most effective communication tools within the deaf community on the Internet since ASL is a visual language."

To view the Economic Stimulus Payment Video Clips, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/NADASLTV

Information about the Economic Stimulus Package can be found at: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

ABOUT VITAC

VITAC Corporation, a Merrill Communications Company, is the nation's leading provider of closed captioning and other accessible media services, with offices in Los Angeles, CA, Washington, DC, and headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. Learn more at www.vitac.com

SOURCE VITAC Corporation

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