Over the past couple of years – and after several lawsuits filed against a few Ivy League schools – a growing number of universities are working toward accessibility compliance with their online video courses. Initially, the process can be overwhelming and take up a lot of resources. One university even resorted to removing its public library of 20,000 free educational videos because of a complaint filed by the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, because accessibility requirements are often met by a big-bad lawsuit when standards are not met, the whole process gets a negative designation right from the get-go.
Where to Begin
It appears that the initial obstacle for universities is a lack of appropriate education on both the requirements and the benefits of closed captioning. Often, universities do not take the proper initiative in allocating suitable funding or appropriately equipping the classrooms until the school is approached by an organization advocating for accessibility rights – at which time the need to comply becomes a time-crunched burden with a possible lawsuit attached.
It’s important to know that public and private educational institutions must provide equal access for students with disabilities in agreement with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as detailed in Title II (publicly-funded universities & vocational schools) and Title III (privately funded). Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 also ensure equal accessibility in any system of higher education that receives federal funding.
Beyond ensuring equal accessibility to all students, closed captioning is used as an effective learning tool by a significant percentage of students who do not self-identify as having difficulty with hearing. The availability of lecture and video transcripts helps students review and retain information outside of the classroom. It also aids students with learning disabilities, as well as ESL students.
Breaking Down the Roadblocks
Universities should not be overwhelmed by the thought of having to equip classrooms with an array of expensive technologies. The closed captioning process is simple. As long as clear audio can be transferred via the internet or a phone line, real-time captioners can write remotely to a variety of web platforms across multiple devices already available to students – devices such as mobile phones or laptops.
Furthermore, the educational value and benefits of closed captioning are often overlooked when it’s perceived as economically burdensome. Captioning is not only for the deaf and hard of hearing. Recognizing the value of captioning as a successful tool for all students should motivate all administrators to provide captioning on all their online courses.
The instant popularity of live video streaming apps like Periscope, Snapchat, and Facebook Live proves that authentic, in-the-moment content effectively captures the attention of audiences worldwide. Today, one out of five videos on Facebook are broadcast live and are watched three times longer on average than non-live. Considering that more than 5% of the world’s population – about 360 million people – have some degree of disabling hearing loss, there’s a significant number of users that the social networking service cannot ignore when over 100 million hours of videos are watched a day.Read
The final deadline of the FCC’s Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) pertaining to online videos is quickly approaching. On July 1, 2017, video clips (both straight-lift and montage clips) of live and near-live television programming (such as news or sporting events) will need to observe the following turnaround times for posting online with captions:
- For clips of live programming, up to a 12-hour delay is permitted in posting a captioned clip after the programming has been shown on TV.
- For clips of near-live programming, up to an 8-hour delay is permitted in posting a captioned clip after the programming has been shown on TV.
Live & Near-live Programming
Live programming is defined as programming shown on TV substantially simultaneously with its performance. When the Commission evaluates the compliance of captioning standards on live programming, there’s an understanding that live programming cannot be perfect since there’s a human element to live captioning and no opportunity to review and edit captions in a live setting. Therefore, there’s a little bit of leeway provided given the nature of live programming.
Near-live programming, which is programming that is performed and recorded within 24 hours prior to when it is first aired on television, is evaluated under the same standards applied to live programming. Although the FCC encourages measures to be taken prior to the program’s airing to improve its captioning quality, it’s understood that the window of time to make those corrections is very limited.
Revisiting the Internet Captioning Rules
The rules of the CVAA require video programming distributors that show programming on TV to post captioned clips of their programming on their own websites or applications ("apps"). Currently, the video clips rules do not apply to third-party websites or apps.
- The Internet closed captioning rules only apply if the video programming was shown on TV in the U.S. with captions.
- "Full-length video programming" is video programming that is shown on TV and is distributed to end-users in its entirety.
- Excerpts of full-length video programming (with the same video and audio) captioned for television and posted online are denoted as video clips, or “straight-lift clips”, and require captioning as of January 1, 2016. The timeline for posting captions on videos online is within 15 days after the date of its initial broadcast.
- On January 1, 2017, the law extended to “montages,” or edits composed of multiple single excerpts (“straight-lift clips”). For example, an hour-long talk show that aired on television may appear as multiple segments on the web afterward – say, abridged interviews of each of the guests. Those clips, all stemming from the original full-length program, are required to be captioned.
- As of July 1, 2017, live and near-live programming will have to follow the turnaround times noted at the beginning of this post.
It’s also important to remember that consumer-generated media (e.g., home videos) shown on the Internet are not required to be captioned unless they were shown on TV with captions.
Further reading from the FCC: Captioning of Internet Video Programming & Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).
Repurposing caption files for the web can be as simple as reformatting and a quick file conversion. After all, the videos have already been transcribed. It’s just a matter of matching your video player’s specifications for web play-out. To learn more about getting your Internet clips compliant, please contact us.
On November 10, 2015, the FCC held a roundtable event concentrating on the accessibility of public, educational, and government (PEG) video programming. With the increasing number of local governments and educational institutions feeling the pressure to become compliant, this all-day event was focused on promoting a discussion on the benefits, best practices, current obligations, and solutions - both technical and financial - of adding closed captioning to PEG video programming. The event was comprised of local government professionals, policymakers, captioning vendors, consumer groups, engineers, and others working in applicable fields of video programming.Read
The following blog was written by one of our clients, Simon Roberts, from Rock Church San Diego.
Since the Rock Church San Diego launched Closed Captioning at the 10 am live stream recently, I've had several inquiries into how we went about adding this essential feature.
I figured the best way to answer this is simply to write about it. So, in what is hopefully the first of many posts regarding church technology projects, let's begin.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Approximately 17 percent (36 million) of American adults report some degree of hearing loss. Source: Deaf Statistics for USA
ReadWe recently came across an article in the Washington Post about a woman who relies on closed captioning to watch television programs. Her husband Stephen decided to compile a list of the descriptive terminology used during musical interludes to determine if it was helpful or not. The verdict was the more accurate the description, the better.
So [music] or just music notes wasn’t as helpful as a fully descriptive phrase. This is especially true when the music is pertinent to the meaning of the program. For example, on an episode of “Glee” where someone is auditioning to sing and is singing poorly, it is helpful to note that in the captioning. Otherwise, the deaf or hard of hearing viewer loses the meaning of that particular scene.
Some of the more descriptive phrases for music on Stephen’s list: “piano and clarinet playing mischievous melody,” “orchestra playing accelerated frantic,” or “flute fluttering bird song.” Think of the difference between “piano” versus “sinister piano” or, “upbeat piano.” Sometimes just one descriptive word can make the difference!
To read the full article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/with-closed-captioning-music-can-help-tell-a-story/2013/07/24/18a172e2-f3d2-11e2-aa2e-4088616498b4_story.html
The captions are horrible! Why can’t they spell? These are the valid questions asked when watching live closed captioning of a TV broadcast. Let’s briefly look at the behind the scenes of live closed captioning. Live closed captioning, in the majority of cases, is completed by a human. Live captioners, called writers, write to a steno machine (keys are all based on sounds). The steno machine is connected to live captioning software that has an extensive dictionary to take the steno strokes and convert to English words. A dictionary is not just imported from Webster’s to the software but rather created per writer based on their writing theory. So how do they know the difference between words that sound the same such as to, two and too? They have to remember the stroke they gave that word when creating their dictionary. So when writing 200-300 words per minute the human behind the machine can mistroke the word and you could see errors such as:
prays Hymn when it should be praise Him
mall mighty God when is should be almighty God
top or pop
There are other times when a word may just clearly not be in their dictionary and it would show up as:
graph fight when it should be graphite
authentic cater when it should be authenticator
you know sex when it should be unisex
ear gates when it should be irrigates
Aberdeen’s live Abercap department strives to write every show with a 98% or better accuracy rate. This is completely possible as long as the following is provided:
1) Show information such as key words, hosts, guests, websites and phone numbers
2) Clear audio feed to the live captioner so they can hear the audio they are to write well
98% accuracy means you may see 4 errors per minute when the speaker is speaking at 200 words per minute.
To see a live demo of a live writer, watch this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCPEjz--BvE
If you are interested in learning more about our live captioning department or any other of our broadcast services, feel free to send us a note here.
Have you ever wondered how live captioners caption Christian programming? Biblical and Christian terms used during a sermon or teaching do not come easy to the common captioner.
Captioners writing for Christian programming are required to specialize in this area of captioning. Not just any experienced live captioner can accurately write a church sermon. Captioners must add each and every word that is spoken to their dictionary prior to writing the show. To build a large Christian dictionary may take years and endless hours of practice. It doesn't just take time and practice, it also takes a captioner who understands the Bible and Christian terminology. If not, [speaking in tongues] could get captioned as [speaking in a foreign language]. So, if you are a Christian broadcaster that is getting your show captioned, ask about the captioner who writes it. Do they have a comprehensive Christian dictionary? Watch the captions and see if the words that matter most to you are captioned properly.Read
