Berkeley, California USA

Friday, February 18, 2011--Nanci Linke-Ellis, Partner and General Manager of Captionfish--one of the Internet’s leading captioned movies search engines that finds open captioned, Rear Window® captioned, foreign/subtitled, and descriptively-narrated movies--and longtime advocate for individuals experiencing hearing loss, joined the World Institute on Disability's Board of Directors in February.

Nanci Linke-Ellis has spent over sixteen years advocating for issues critical to individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss, including efforts to have captioning available in movie theaters.  Linke-Ellis is a recent appointee to the California Department of Rehabilitation's State Rehabilitation Council. Linke-Ellis worked as the Executive Director for InSight Cinema from 2002 to 2008, Executive Director for Tripod Captioned Films from 1996 to 2002, and worked in the Television industry and in story development of TV movies and mini-series from 1986 to 1994.

Linke-Ellis has been honored by National Association of the Deaf, Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. and by Oticon as one of their "Focus on People" Award winners.

"We are so fortunate to have Nanci Linke-Ellis join the board of the World Institute on Disability, bringing her vast experience in work on hearing loss related issues to WID's think tank approach to impacting critical disability rights policies and practices," said WID's Executive Director, Anita Shafer Aaron.

"WID is doing many great things, and now the Policy Think Tank is working to engage the world by showing how people with disabilities can use technology to inspire others to high levels of achievement," Linke-Ellis said. 

The World Institute on Disability, a public policy institute committed to the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities in the United States and worldwide, serves as a convener of thought leaders to research, analyze and test policies affecting people with disabilities ability to live independently and equitably in the community and promotes effective benefits planning, financial planning and employment planning as methods for achieving economic equity and independence.