The City of Makati this week served as the pilot site of hands-on training on Real-Time Captioning specifically for persons with disabilities (PWDs) jointly undertaken by the Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) of Thailand and ASTEM Co., Ltd. of Japan.
In a meeting with Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay at City Hall on Wednesday, APCD general manager Ryuhei Sano expressed his vision of making Makati the ‘center of online captioning’ in the country and even in Asia.
Captioning is the text version of speech and other sounds that can be provided on television, DVDs, online videos, and on films shown in cinemas and theatres.
For his part, Binay thanked the partner-agencies and expressed his support for further pursuing the project.
“On behalf of PWDs not only in Makati but all Filipino PWDs, I would like to thank the APCD and ASTEM for having chosen our country, particularly our city, to be the pilot and model for such a noble undertaking. It will truly make a difference in the lives of our differently-abled citizens,” he said.
Binay said the project was a ‘breakthrough’ for PWDs, who often have limited access to employment opportunities and sustainable means of livelihood.
He also expressed hope that the pilot training will be “the start of a lasting relationship with the project sponsors, APCD and ASTEM.”
The mayor also shared to the foreign visitors his wish that the project will eventually be institutionalized in the city, possibly through integration of the training program in the curriculum of the city-run University of Makati.
Among those present at the meeting were ASTEM president Yuzon Oshima and executive director Hiroko Umeda, APCD media expert Lynette Lee Corporal and coordinator, Arch. Don de Vera, National Council for Disability Affairs executive director Carmen Zubiaga, United Architects of the Philippines president Jaime Silva, Makati PWD Federation president Errol Barba, Ma. Filomena Gaya of the HOH (Hard of Hearing) Group Phils., and MSWD chief Ryan Barcelo.