Don’t Leave Us Out! Captioning Counts!

This blogpost has now disappeared from a U.S. Government page – it was published in 2012 and it still is one of our best articles for captioning advocacy. Hope you like it. CCAC is now 7 years old – time flies. The article below is not changed from 2012 however. Lots has been successfully accomplished since 2012 – enjoy recent posts and also updates on the CCAC website.

Disabilty.gov Blog, for 13 June, 2012, by invitation, including Video, “Don’t Leave Us Out!”

DON’T LEAVE US OUT!

INVISIBLE MILLIONS

“Don’t Leave Us Out” rings familiar bells with all of us living with “disability.” For a huge and richly-diverse population – mega-millions of us with hearing loss and people who are deafened or deaf – it signifies a struggle for a visible identity, and asserts an urgent and vital need for inclusion of quality captioning everyday and universally.

Captioning inclusion? What are you talking about, cartoons?

We are talking about a disturbing gap in communication access for millions of people who cannot hear well or are deaf, who speak, and most of whom do not use sign language. We are also speaking about captioning needs among millions of others with different language and learning needs. Captioning is a “language” that is way beyond one line of text under a photo, much more than few words in a funny cartoon, and is not merely a transcript or another page of text, but is an equivalent experience of listening via reading captioning. This is called equal access.

We are talking about inclusion of quality speech-to-text. Call it translation, interpreting, reporting, transcription, or plain talking. Speech-to-text is the real-time conversion of speech and sounds to visual words, done with high accuracy and immediately. We need captioning when we speak together with others, in person or via media and technologies.  Literacy is important in our lives, since we read all the words, and captioning is vital as our receptive language. Communication access is most of life.

It’s time to move away from an embedded concept that thinks about so many as dumb mute, or daft; or assumes most people who are deaf or have a hearing loss use signing. We are deaf also – or live with hearing loss – we speak and need captioning.    

Don’t you read lips? …why don’t you use sign language? …did you turn on your hearing aids? …don’t you know that implants cure deafness now?”

Instead of those questions, it’s past time for us to be asked –

Is the captioning turned on? …is the size and background readable for you? …do you need a real-time verbatim captioning professional for communication access in school … for job-hunting… at work …for medical consultations… to listen to politicians for informed voting …in the airport…for healthy social activities such as theater and movies? 

Is the automated captioning high quality? Are you guessing what half the sentences are saying due to errors? Is the automatic system making any sense at all? Do you need assistance in convincing public places to provide communication access? How can we promote more awareness and resources for all who need quality captioning?

Forty-eight million people have a hearing loss or deafness in the USA, with millions more around the world. Most have established relationships that depend on oral communications, yet they do not hear enough to comprehend the many voices in everyday human experiences. Sometimes, it takes years to find captioning inclusion.

There is some progress, yet it’s still patchy and slow. In many regions and most arena of everyday life, it requires repeated requests, a legal assault, or years of legislative discussion. Much media on the Internet is not captioned.

Captioning is lacking at town meetings (real-time captioning), in schools, for weddings and funeral, in theaters and museums, and for jury boxes. The bottom line is a huge waste of educated, talented, and creative citizens who are excluded due to lack of captioning inclusion.  

Most people using aids, implants and other technologies also need captioning for much of everyday life, especially all group communications, in small to large groups, for training and employment, participation in their communities, and much more.

Headlines tell us that boomers are living longer and teenagers are losing hearing due to loud music and noise in modern life. Other news tells us about new systems and machine translations. Keep in mind these systems are for one person talking to his or her device. They are not useful for actual human conversations. Captioning professionals, along with improved systems, are required now, and always will be, for decades to come, due to the significance and variety of modern human communication needs.    

Why spend the money? Why pay for electricity, clean water, and ramps for mobility access? Communication access via captioning is a human right and a civil obligation.  

VIDEO HERE – Go to CCAC webpage →> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w91A_nB4rx0&t=2s 

COLLABORATIVE FOR COMMUNICATION ACCESS VIA CAPTIONING (CCAC)

CCAC, created December 2009, has grown into a membership organization of significant numbers. (It becomes an official non-profit in 2012). Volunteers advocate regularly, as well as reaching out to educate via the website and other CCAC resources (http://ccacaptioning.org).  The focus is grass-roots advocacy for captioning where none exists now.

CCAC is not a deaf or hearing loss group, since captioning also provides bottom-line benefits for millions who are not deaf.  It creates an immediate record (transcript), allows language translations, and maximizes online search functions.

CCAC salutes all organizations working on captioning issues among larger diverse goals, and invites all to come together in the CCAC to share information, push forward more captioning advocacy, and accomplish the mission – inclusion of quality captioning universally. CCAC is a hub and meeting place.

New members and concrete support are always welcome. CCAC advocacy accomplishments in two short years are significant, stemming from membership discussions in the online working community. For two examples only, a huge national organization for older adults has begun inclusion of captioning for all webinars online thanks to CCAC member advocacy; and a regional theater accomplished inclusion via theater captioning thanks to energetic advocacy by another CCAC member with good local collaborations.

The newest CCAC advocacy project, the video above, makes its debut on this site. We invite you to place it on your own blogs and websites soon. If you do, let us know and we’ll say thanks. Don’t leave us out!

Lauren E. Storck, Ph.D. Founder and President, Collaboration for Communication Access via Captioning (CCAC), http://ccacaptioning.org

As it says on top, this article is unedited from five years ago. Much has been accomplished since then for access and inclusion with quality captioning, and there is so much more to do.

We need you! Join today –  as an all volunteer community, new voices and energies are always valuable. If the suggested donation is a hardship for any captioning user/consumer, tell us and it’s waived. If a hardship for providers or students of captioning – let’s talk on emails soon.  

Advertisement

Live Online with Live Captions: Yes!

THIS IS HAPPENING NOW AS I TYPE – live stream of conference with live captioning.

 

 

If you miss it, see the screen shot just taken – and find more information from the event pages. Go to https://nb2017.org/

ALL STREAMS ONLINE MUST BE CAPTIONED FOR ACCESS AND INCLUSION.

Including FACEBOOK and other live events online.

Applause for this conference. And the Captioning (subtitle) Providers there and all involved!

CCACAPTIONING.ORG  – JOIN TODAY

Making Captions Happen: CCAC Grants

CCAC offers three sorts of GRANTS to eligible associations and individuals for inclusion of LIVE EVENT CAPTIONING. And the newest thank you from a recipient makes our day! See below.

All grant recipients are very grateful. It always helps to ensure an event is inclusive and accessible, and at the same time, it educates and raises awareness that live captioning exists! You can ask for it. You can see what others can hear clearly.

The newest grant recipient is a worthy organization in Canada. Information on this webpage – http://ccacaptioning.org/ccac-sponsorship-for-cart-a-new-captioning-advocacy-program/

And their thank you is delightful – we thank them for using live captioning!

From the organization-

Thank you again for all your help and your grant towards making events around the world more accessible! …for your assistance with this and for CCAC’s great work! CCAC’s grant program makes a significant difference to the attendees of all the events you support, and is changing the accessibility landscape for the better with every event that you contribute to!

With much appreciation. 

Happiness!

CCAC – Place to be for Captioning Advocacy. Join today. Your membership and energy is invited!

CCACAPTIONING.ORG

CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

Please email us if you wan to share anyplace – reblog, in news story, webpage, newsletter.

Children Always Advocate Adorably

Enjoy this one – bravo to all involved. Is BBC listening? Can they hear the need? Mega-millions globally require quality CAPTIONING (subtitles) on all media online, including all the live streams now. Not only sign language users. Millions of other deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people too – in many situations!

Hope you can open this on VIMEO website: https://vimeo.com/209772831

Hear this – do you have children or grandchildren? Care about quality CAPTIONING? We encourage you to make a 1-2 minute video for the CCAC – email us soon. If you are a professional video maker – tell us. If you are not a pro – fine too. CCACaptioning@gmail.com

CCAC = PLACE TO BE FOR CAPTIONING ADVOCACY

HTTP://CCACAPTIONING.ORG

CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

CCAC YOUTUBE CHANNEL – https://www.youtube.com/user/CCACORG/videos

All media globally, including live streams online, on social media, on broadcasts must have quality captioning. Let’s advocate.

Please volunteer soon!

GUEST BLOGPOSTS INVITED. SEND IT VIA EMAIL TO CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

HAVE YOUR OWN BLOG – SHOW IT TO US WHEN YOU WRITE ABOUT CAPTIONING OF ANY SORT, SUBTITLES, DISABILITIES, SOCIAL JUSTICE, GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS, LEARNING TO READ, ACCESS AND INCLUSION. CARRY ON!

DIY MEDIA CAPTIONING

DIY MEDIA CAPTIONING – CCAC INFORMATION – LAYPERSON GUIDE

Do It Yourself Media Captioning Training/Learning – For Videos (Not involving Steno or Voice Writing)
See also CCAC website, Resources main page, http://CCACaptioning.org/resources

CCAC member Claude A says: Captioning/subtitling tools are straightforward and don’t require any formal training, and they all work similarly: they offer you an interface for transcribing what you hear into reasonably short lengths, and set the time-codes for the beginning and the end of each chunk so that it will play as subtitle/caption on the video. However, they differ in little practical details, in particular in keyboard shortcuts that allow you to work faster. And so it’s good to try them out to see which you prefer.

CCAC member Chris M says: The first step is to make a good transcript. You can create a transcript “on the fly” with most tools but you’re still creating the transcript. Then using your tool of choice to make a subtitle file. The two prominent subtitle formats are SRT and VTT (also called WebVTT).

TRANSCRIPTION STYLE GUIDE by Michael Lockrey Version 1.0 / Oct 2015 (ML is also a CCAC member):
The standard workflow for captioning video assets always requires an accurate transcription as a
starting point. Captioning can be defined simply as the text equivalent of an audio track –
including spoken dialogue, music descriptions and/or lyrics and any other relevant sound
effects.

Here are some general rules for creating a good quality transcription.
SENTENCE CASE-Make sure your transcript is in sentence case. Proper punctuation and grammar ensures that the caption file can be semantically segmented to provide users with the best possible experience.
ELIMINATE DISFLUENCIES-Don’t transcribe disfluencies such as “um”, “ah” or “you know” unless they are relevant.
USE SPEAKER LABELS AND IDENTIFY OTHER RELEVANT SOUND EFFECTS-When multiple speakers are present in a video, they should be given a speaker label in the following format:
NAME OF SPEAKER:
Music descriptions should convey the type of music as far as practicable where there are no
identifiable lyrics.. e.g. (Ethereal singing) – example from the Mount Franklin water advertisement
Music lyrics should be provided where they’re relevant to the context of the video and are
readily discernible.
e.g. ♪ Never gonna give you up ♪ ♪ Never gonna let you go ♪
Other relevant sound effects can be used to denote action or sound from the audio track that is
not spoken but is still necessary (and relevant) for captioning users. e.g. (Jennifer laughs) – example from the Mount Franklin water advertisement; (Lift bell dings) – example from the Mount Franklin water advertisement; (Cracking sound) – example from the Mount Franklin water advertisement
NO EXTRANEOUS TEXT – Make sure that your transcript does not contain any extraneous text that is not part of the audio track, unless it is properly identified as other relevant sound effects.

Next – the Workflow – Step by Step – with screen shots from Michael L also – go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WGO7X9vjnnG5BxzCJGkuN_FTxvBNOGOs5FZ7clKU4iA/edit
A public document, he welcomes your comments. Other questions, email CCACaptioning@gmail.com and we’ll put you in touch with him, or others in CCAC. See also ML’s service called http://nomorecraptions.com/ – let him know CCAC sent you! 🙂

Another flow chart here: http://www.diycaptions.com/help/DIYCaptionsSuggestedWorkflow.pdf and also other suggestions (from Mike R, another CCAC member): http://www.diycaptions.com/

FREE systems online for DIY: Check these and try one or more. Good basic training and info:

YouTube – video shows you how – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCZ-cxfxzvk
or https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en and newest video and https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734799?hl=en&ref_topic=3014331

Newer development from YT/Google is Crowd Captioning for video makers to turn on, then they and others create quality CC (we all hope) – read https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiEybiElXgk

Vimeo – also has video to teach you how to subtitle/caption – http://vimeo.com/help/faq/managing-your-videos/captions-and-subtitles#how-do-i-add-caption-and-subtitle-files-to-my-videos

Amara.org – also has support group online, http://support.amara.org/support/discussions
Aegisubs – http://www.aegisub.org/
http://subtitle-horse.com/ where you don’t need to create an ID
https://dotsub.com/ where you do have to create an ID, but where you
can also upload a video for subtitling.

2017- FACEBOOK also has a system now for you to add captioning to the videos you create and post there.
Check out https://www.facebook.com/help/261764017354370?helpref=faq_content 

CCAC will consider offering a webinar on request, e.g. covering the following topics and more:
*Tips with getting started with YouTube,
*Using a tool like nomorecraptions.com to save time with pre-existing YouTube videos.
*Outsourcing transcripts, if you can’t do the transcript yourself it can be outsourced.
*Captioning guidelines. The same quality guidelines that are used for broadcast TV apply to everything else including internet and DVDs.

Two companies that can create the transcript for you (price per minute) – Syncwords and 3PlayMedia

Pepnet – http://www.pepnet.org/training/access-offline-captioning – check to see if offered to people out of USA
3PlayMedia.com is a company with free Captioning training webinars online, and e.g. this page: http://www.3playmedia.com/how-it-works/how-to-guides/captions-subtitles-facebook-video/?utm_content=buffer0c4d6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Udemy has at least two free courses on captioning. The one below has three hours of video.
https://www.udemy.com/open-closed-captioning-effectivity-on-a-budget/
The DCMP captioning key is an excellent resource.
http://www.captioningkey.org/

CCAC member Jamie S. has suggested this link for more general captioning/subtitle information for internationals: http://expectedly.org/inclusivetech/subtitlingcaptioning-resources/

NOTE! FOR LIVE EVENT CAPTIONING (CART, STTR, VOICE WRITING, RE-SPEAKING) – CCAC has a different resource document, a work in progress. If you use it or find it helpful, please let us know: https://docs.google.com/document/d/144wc5uxvxjjnvB-akUcs3V1Sj15Q8PDKqbLP7IMYg8A/edit?usp=sharing

AND NOTE THIS! CCAC ADVOCATES FOR LIVE STREAMS ON FB AQND ALL OVER TO HAVE LIVE QUALITY CAPTIONING – GET IN TOUCH TO HELP US EDUCATE AND ADVOCATE EVEN MORE STRONGLY – YOUR VOICE COUNTS:
http://CCACAPTIONING.ORG
CCACAPTIONING@GMAIL.COM

Note – If you publish this, please consider making a donation of any size to the CCAC, all volunteers. Use PayPal on any page of the CCAC website – go to http://CCACaptioning.org. Wherever you publish it, add a short note that CCAC welcomes new members, go to CCACaptioning.org/join/