CCAC on SOCIAL MEDIA

GREETINGS ALL WHO KNOW THE VALUE OF QUALITY CAPTIONING GLOBALLY,

There’s renewed interest in a CCAC collaborative project called

“Show Us the Captions” on FB: https://www.facebook.com/ShowUsTheCaptions/

And the CCAC webpage for Cinema Advocacy is: http://ccacaptioning.org/show-captions-cinema-captioning-advocacy-november-2/

The other FB pages for Captioning Advocacy in addition to one above are:

CaptionMatch – https://www.facebook.com/CaptionMatchcom/

CCAC.Captioning –  https://www.facebook.com/ccac.captioning/

CaptionsCaptureVotes – https://www.facebook.com/Captions-Capture-the-Votes-610967952314071/

Volunteers to add posts and comments on any of above welcome. Let me know if you’d like to become an administrator of any of those pages.

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA

CCAC does a lot on TWITTER as well as FB.

OTOH, we have been lagging on Google Plus and LinkedIn. Volunteers to do those invited! Let me know.

Other ideas to advocate? Let’s Talk Captioning!

CCACAPTIONING.ORG Official Non-Profit Citizen Captioning Advocates. CCAC Mission-Inclusion of Quality Captioning Universally.

CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

Where do YOU need captioning?

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Types of Live Captioning Internationally

Greetings all Captioning Users, Providers, and Many Others who know the value of access and inclusion,  

Here’s a message I shared in two good groups today. I hope it’s of interest to you and comments welcome (discussion, questions, corrections, suggestions). It’s an international short summary.

Hello All –

Re Qwerty – we have always suggested Qwerty keyboards and finding a very experienced “Fast Typist” for areas where there is little hope (yet) of finding a steno-live-captioning provider. For example, the Swedish brothers who do live event captioning (CART, STT) all over Europe for major meetings produce close to (if not 99.9%) full verbatim text. They are unusual though. They also have some special software they use, though I have never been able to find out exactly what that is.

A “regular” typist can serve, yet as someone said, it can vary enormously on how much of the needed full words, or even the full “meaning” gets across to the folks who need it.

Steno captioning is not the only full verbatim – just to list for those who may not be so familiar with all this, in other countries there are machines called Palantype and also Velotype which are “steno-like” machines but with differences. They produce full verbatim text.

And now in many countries, especially in USA, Italy and perhaps UK also (not sure) there is Voice Writing – also called Re-Speaking. A trained captioner speaks into an automatic STT system (e.g. Dragon products) and this, with the required software, produces Live Event Captioning also (and full verbatim). They can correct any errors (just as do the steno-caption providers if errors happen).

All above in the ideal world of course. And in the USA and other countries, there are many less than full verbatim providers as mentioned,  from “note-takers” to C-print and Typewell and more.

In terms of when and where and for whom “less than verbatim” is acceptable – I would frame that as follows —  for media, less than full verbatim is often required. For students with different learning profiles,  for live captioning in the classroom, even for media also, it’s said that some learn better with less than full verbatim.

Media today is often “live” also – live online – and as a “hybrid” experience (broadcast and also live and needing live event captioning) – less than full verbatim may serve, and yet…it may not.

My personal view (which many others agree with, but not all by far) is that full verbatim speech to text is our standard of excellence in most situations. I cringe when less than full verbatim is said to be “as good as” because I think ALL people everywhere deserve to have full verbatim for fully “equal communication access.” Yes, in some situations it’s not the first choice, agreed also.

Full verbatim text boosts literacy. It’s not only for people who are hard of hearing and deaf – it serves many others in many situations. You have the full transcript afterwards. If full verbatim is a high goal or bar for some, it’s something we don’t want to remove from choices offered to all.

Your mews about some different services provided in the Scandinavian countries is good to read. Two things:

a. for newcomers, the term “interpretation” is often used in Europe for what we call “captioning providers or live subtitles or speech to text” – yes, the same word as is used for sign language “terps.”

b. Also, in all the countries mentioned regarding access for that conference, the government offers annual funding for captioning where needed – funding for any individual who meets the eligibility requirement of hearing loss/deafness — a certain number of hours or amount of funding – for the individual to use as s/he chooses. In the USA we have no parallel resource for individual citizens.

Similar benefits exist for all deaf/hoh in the Netherlands, and Germany, and perhaps other areas, though the number of hours provided vary.

There’s a lot of development needed globally to train more providers, and to fund technical systems, and to become inclusive in all of life with quality captioning.

Lauren

CCACaptioning.org

CCACAPTIONING.ORG

CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

Facebook Advocacy Continues! Join the Action Soon

YOU KNOW THAT THE CCAC started new advocacy for Facebook videos a few weeks ago.

We have a right to EQUAL COMMUNICATION ACCESS.

When there are no quality captions on social media videos, that’s not right. We’re left out, ignored, and dis-respected. Quality CC vital.

Now there are so many more LIVE STREAMS – LIVE VIDEOS on Facebook also. See our recent blogposts here about this too.

Today CCAC member have begun to send FB this message, directly to Facebook Accessibility teams, using this link: https://www.facebook.com/help/accessibility

Take two minutes soon to use that link to send your message for this vital captioning advocacy, something like this please:

“There are 48 million of us in the US with significant hearing loss who could understand Facebook a lot better with live captions. Automatic and other poor captions are referred to as “craptions.” They’re often unintelligible. LIVE VIDEOS ON FB NEEDS LIVE CAPTIONING and ALL VIDEOS ON FB NEED QUALITY CC. Thank you Facebook.”

Many more organizations and others are putting LIVE videos on FB. We want to participate. Don’t leave us out! Live streams with live captioning needed!

Will you help?

Any questions?

CCACaptioning@gmail.com

http://CCACaptioning.org

CCAC is Place 2 B 4 Captioning Advocacy – Join us soon.

 

 

 

Sharing a Caption Advocacy Letter

Hi Everyone,

We get all sorts of questions regularly – all sorts! Related to captioning (most of them).

Aiming to answer very quickly to all – to encourage good interest in Captioning Inclusion for all – media and live events – we share one among many replies sent from the CCAC. They genuinely wanted to learn more, and they quickly said thanks :-).

Hope the below is helpful for YOUR own captioning advocacy. Please let us know.

What do we do? CCAC advocates, educates, raises awareness…repeat…repeat…repeat!

The Inquiry: — asked CCAC if there is free captioning (for meetings). It came from the director of a state department …in one of the USA states. (I removed names below).

First their reply today:

Thank you so much for this information, this is very helpful!

And my reply to her two days ago when the query came in on email:

 

Subject: Re: Need help with captioning meetings

Hello xxxx,

Thanks for your email and interest in all this.

 

Live Event Captioning is a great idea for your group. Unless the person prefers SL only; and that is up to her/him.

 

There is no free captioning that we know of. There are all sorts of options – a local CART provider, someone on contract to be on call for any/all meetings, a negotiated contract, or a remote provider if your place has good audio and Internet.

 

Equal communication access should be in the budget from day one. We hope you are quickly successful.

 

I believe the (your state) area has a good department for the deaf/hoh or a commission. Talk to them also. They may provide for you?

 

Live Event Captioning (CART) not only serves a deaf or hard of hearing person. One in 5 people on average, all ages, has a hearing loss. So in your group there may be “hidden” hearing loss in a few others Captioning also serves many others (with tinnitus, language or attention differences, autism, and more). Yet on top of all this, you’d also have a ready transcript (minutes) for everyone (to be discussed with the provider).

 

By the way, lip reading gives most of us only 35% of any conversation. Some folks who are born deaf and SLusers do better.

 

Cost depends on so many things – how many hours per week? per month? The nature of the discussion (many technical terms or fairly routine). Find a provider and start talking to them to learn more.

 

CCAC is not a captioning company.

 

We do also have a service called CaptionMatch.com where you can place a request to find a provider and get proposals, only after you know there are funds to pay for it.

 

Machine systems – someone talking into Dragon for example, can be tried but not only are these often not accurate, they fall apart in group conversations as far as our experience goes.

 

Where did you hear about the CCAC? Is some of this helpful for you?

 

Keep trying please – everyone, especially those wanting to work and contribute, should have the resources they need for “equal communication access.”

 

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Lauren E. Storck, Ph.D. (deafened)

CCAC president

 

CCACAPTIONING.ORG Official Non-Profit Citizen Captioning Advocates. CCAC Mission-Inclusion of Quality Captioning Universally.

twitter.com/CCACaptioning, www.facebook.com/ccac.captioning, www.youtube.com/user/CCACORG/videos, www.amazon.com/Dont-Have-Deaf-Love-Captioning/dp/1515135799

Are you a CCAC member yet? Join today.

 

FACEBOOK HEAR THIS:DON’T LEAVE US OUT!

CAPTIONING ADVOCATES – YOUR MESSAGE TO FACEBOOK NOW IS NEEDED AND IMPORTANT – WILL YOU HELP?

LIVE STREAMS ON FB MUST HAVE QUALITY LIVE CAPTIONING – NOW!

TWEET: @fbaccess and @facebook

On your own FB page ab- go to settings, go down to bottom three ways to send them a message – Help, Support, and Report a Problem

Do you know more ways to contact FB? Tell us please.

If you don’t help with this, well, maybe you are part of the problem. We must ASK for equal communication access, all of us. Any questions?

Let us know your activity.

Providers reading? Keep in touch and let us know if you are doing LIVE STREAM CAPTIONING on social media or anyplace else on the Internet. We know you are. Please participate and help consumers advocate – your support is valuable for us, as always.

CCACAPTIONING@GMAILCOM

IF WE ALL DO THIS, OUR VOICES WILL BE HEARD.

LD

PLEASE TELL OTHERS TO HELP. YOUR LOCAL HEARING LOSS OR DEAF GROUP, YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

WE DON’T WANT TO WAIT ANY LONGER. YES, THEY CAN DO IT NOW. FACEBOOK, LIKE YOUTUBE/GOOGLE, SHOULD PUSH ALL LIVE STREAMERS TO INCLUDE SPEECH TO TEXT.

DON’T LEAVE US OUT! CAPTIONING IS OUR LANGUAGE TOO!

 

 

 

 

HEAR THIS FACEBOOK: LIVE STREAMS NEED QUALITY CAPTIONING

DEAR CCAC BLOG READERS ALL,

PLEASE JOIN THIS ADVOCACY. All of you Users/consumers of captioning, all providers, all disability advocates, and others who know how important equal access is.

Please volunteer soon!

CCAC making progress on learning more and advocacy for LIVE CAPTIONS FOR LIVE STREAMED EVENTS, e.g. on FACEBOOK. Step by step! Many more of you needed to help please.

Seems that even FB may not be aware that there are several CAPTIONED STREAMS now. We have yet to see one, but now we are in touch with two captioning providers who are kindly getting more information for us all.

Stay tuned. It’s about equality! Captioning is our access, our language.

Hope many of you will help in this advocacy – on FB, twitter, and many other places. Please tell us what and where you are advocating soon. We’ll join you there too!

Member of the CCAC yet? Join today. If not, we want your advocacy with us anyway . 

Get in touch here or via email to CCACaptioning@gmail.com

Join via http://CCACAPTIONING.ORG/join

What hashtag to use on FB?  Tweet to @fbaccess and @facebook for now.

How about #@fblivecaptionsnow

or your suggestion?

CAPTIONING USERS: three ways to contact FB from your own FB page – go to settings and then bottom has Help, Support, and Report Problem. Follow steps of all to ask for “Live Captions on Live Streams on FB Now!” Thanks if you do.

There are MANY live webcasts now, live events all over the Internet. There is no LAW yet that says Internet events and information and communications must be accessible. Many good captioning providers are using many good systems to figure out and deliver quality captioning LIVE. This is what we need, mega millions of us globally. If you know more about any of this, if you are a provider or consumer, please tell us more here or email.

CAPTIONING COMMUNICATES.

LET’S ADVOCATE!

LET’S TALK CAPTIONING!