RCS Pioneers Closed-Captioned Media for Hearing-Impaired Students

“No Jewish woman will be left behind,” is the ambitious mandate adopted by the Rosh Chodesh Society, the monthly women’s learning program initiated in 2010 in memory of Rivkah Holtzberg, Hy”d.

This goal was put to the test last winter during the series of classes titled Portrait of a Woman. Students Tracey Rattner and Su Robbins attended the course accompanied by a sign-language interpreter. The two women have some ability to hear, thanks to cochlear implants, but they rely on visual clues, like lip-reading and signing, to help with comprehension.

“They couldn’t watch the video and the interpreter at the same time, and the video is very much both visual and aural,” said Rosh Chodesh Society teacher Chana Kaplan, who brought the program to Potomac, Maryland, last year.

“Going back and forth between the images on the screen and the interpreter’s signing was a dizzying experience that left them feeling they were missing too much.” It was also a challenge for the interpreter.

They asked, “Could closed-captioning be added to the video?”

Mrs. Kaplan immediately sent off an e-mail to Shaindy Jacobson, director of the Rosh Chodesh Society, which is a division of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI), asking if closed-captioning was an option.

Impressed that the women had been coming out to the class in freezing February weather, Mrs. Jacobson wrote back that she would contact JLI’s multimedia department to ask if they could do it.

“I was amazed and genuinely touched by these women’s deep interest in exploring the message of the Torah classes, even though they had to rely on an interpreter,” she said.