Free Resources for Read Captions Across America Day

March 2 is Read Across America Day – and it’s also Read Captions Across America Day!

Read Captions Across America poster. Cartoon drawing of five children wearing top hats with red and white stripes. One is holding a tablet with captions enabled.

Led by the Described and Captioned Media Program, Read Captions Across America (RCAA) is held in conjunction with the National Education Association’s (NEA) Read Across America event every year on or around March 2.

The purpose of Read Captions Across America is to raise awareness—particularly among children and their parents and teachers—that video-based media can be just as effective at encouraging and fostering reading skills as books, as long as captions are always turned on!

Captions aren’t just for deaf and hard-of-hearing people! Studies show that captions benefit almost everyone, including beginning readers, people with learning disabilities, and English language learners! 

Get your FREE Read Captions Across America toolkit, including activity ideas, posters, bookmarks, and certificates here.


Celebrate Read Captions Across America Day with these captioned storytimes with Kathy MacMillan!

The Runaway Shirt Storytime with Kathy MacMillan and art demo with Julia Castaño

Nita’s First Signs/Nita’s Day Storytime with Kathy MacMillan

Nita’s Food Signs Storytime with Kathy MacMillan

Get Ready for World Read Aloud Day!

World Read Aloud Day is an annual celebration of sharing stories organized by LitWorld. This year’s World Read Aloud Day will be Wednesday, February 4, 2026.Many authors and illustrators volunteer to provide quick virtual read-aloud visits with classrooms around the world to share the joy of stories, and many also provide video resources for you to share with the children in your life. Read on for more resources to help you celebrate World Read Aloud Day!

English and ASL Video Storytimes from Kathy MacMillan for World Read Aloud Day (or anytime!)

 

Continue reading Get Ready for World Read Aloud Day!

Book now for Summer Reading 2026!

The Collaborative Summer Reading Theme for 2026 is: Unearth a Story/Desentierra una Historia.

Stories by Hand has you covered with a high-energy, interactive program for multiple age groups:

I Dig American Sign Language. Book now for summer reading 2026! Let’s dig deep and learn basic American Sign Language for dinosaurs, diggers, and the things we love through stories, songs, and more! StoriesByHand.com/summerreading

I Dig American Sign Language

Let’s dig deep and learn basic American Sign Language for dinosaurs, diggers, and the things we love through stories, songs, and more! Presented by Kathy MacMillan, author of the Little Hands Signing series and Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together.

This program can be presented as an all-ages program or adapted to a baby, toddler, preschooler, or school-age audience.

Indoor, outdoor, and online programs available.

  • Single program (45 minutes): $500 plus travel expenses.
  • Additional same-day sessions: $400 plus travel expenses.

Book a program for Summer 2026 by February 1, 2026 and get 15% off the single program rate!

Maryland libraries: ask about FREE programming with Arts in Education grant funding!

Availability calendar

Complete booking details

Interested in a different program theme? Check out all program offerings here.