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The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a national leader in making digital media accessible for people with disabilities.

Established in 1991, NCAM is a research, development and consulting group that continues a half-century of ground-breaking media accessibility work at GBH.

Accessibility Consulting Services

Making any digital service or product accessible guarantees opportunities for organizations to broaden their reach, and to impact the largest possible audience of customers and users. NCAM partners with industries that recognize the need for accessible content, interactivity, and functionality throughout all stages of the digital experience.

Accessibility means something different for each industry, organization, audience, and product. With that in mind, NCAM tailors its services to meet a broad range of trends, needs, and expectations. Simply match your goals with one or more of NCAM’s services to learn about the accessibility possibilities.

Contact us to get started.

People

A group photo of the NCAM team.

The team in NCAM are inventors, implementers, and problem-solvers frequently anticipating and creating solutions for tomorrow's technology challenges.

Tools and Resources

Below are free resources available to the public. For more information about our consulting services and custom solutions, please contact us here.

Achievements and Standards

Our History

The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) was originally founded in 1991 under its name: the Media Access Research and Development Office (MARDO), which was a pioneering facility dedicated to examining the needs and desires of audiences traditionally denied access to media in all forms. In 1993, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), MARDO was renamed the National Center for Accessible Media, which was quickly condensed to the now-familiar acronym, NCAM (pronounced "N-CAM"). In 2006, NCAM received a major five-year gift from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation to complement NCAM's federal, corporate and foundation support. In recognition, NCAM was renamed the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH.

NCAM's broad mission has always been to ensure that media and all forms of electronic communication are fully accessible to people with disabilities. NCAM is an extension of WGBH's ground-breaking work in media accessibility that began in 1972 with the establishment of The Caption Center and the development of captioning for television viewers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1990, WGBH's access mission was expanded by the development of video description for television audiences who are blind and visually impaired, and the establishment of Descriptive Video Services (DVS). NCAM's work in Web accessibility stretches back to 1996, when it launched the Web Access Project, one of the first studies focusing on accessible online materials.

NCAM influences technology development and public policy through research into effective practices; development of demonstration models, solutions and standards; and advocacy and outreach. These efforts have had a significant impact on the accessibility of Web technologies, streaming media, interactive technologies, e-book hardware and software design, distributed learning platforms, digital libraries and mobile content and devices in every conceivable environment. Read more about NCAM and GBH's major milestones in media accessibility.