Best Practices for Implementing
Video Captioning
AHEAD – July 16, 2014 Tole Khesin 3Play Media [email protected] +1.415.298.1206 1 Haris GunadiAlternate Media Specialist Portland Community College
About 3Play Media
‣
Captioning + transcription + subtitling
‣
MIT spinout in 2007
‣
Based in Cambridge, MA
‣
800+ customers concentrated in higher ed
Agenda
‣
Highlights from recent accessibility data
‣
What are captions?
‣
Accessibility laws
‣
Transcription & captioning standards
‣
Benefits
‣
Portland Community College (PCC) overview
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Captioning workflow
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Process, tools, and technologies
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Looking ahead
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Q&A
Accessibility - a Growing Concern
‣ Worldwide: 1 billion people have a disability
‣ U.S.: 56.7 million have a disability (48 million related to hearing)
‣ U.S.: 11% of higher ed students have a disability
‣ U.S.: 45% of 1.6 million veterans sought disability (177,000 related to hearing loss)
What Are Captions (1/6)?
‣ Text that has been time-synchronized with the media
‣ Captions convey all spoken content as well as relevant sound effects
What Are Captions (2/6)?
What Are Captions (3/6)?
Terminology
‣ Captioning vs. Transcription
What Are Captions (4/6)?
Terminology
‣ Captioning vs. Transcription
What Are Captions (5/6)?
Terminology
‣ Captioning vs. Transcription
‣ Captioning vs. Subtitling
‣ Closed vs. Open Captioning
What Are Captions (6/6)?
Terminology
‣ Captioning vs. Transcription
‣ Captioning vs. Subtitling
‣ Closed vs. Open Captioning
Caption Formats (1/2)
11
Format Type Use Cases
SCC Broadcast, iOS, web media
SMPTE-TT Web media
CAP Broadcast
EBU.STL PAL Broadcast
DFXP Flash players
SRT YouTube and web media
WebVTT Emerging HTML5
SAMI Windows Media
QT QuickTime STL DVD encoding CPT.XML Captionate RT Real Media SRT Example 01:02:53:14 94ae 94ae 9420 9420 01:02:55:14 942c 942c 01:03:27:29 94ae 94ae 9420 9420 94f2 SCC Example
Caption Formats (2/2)
How to Associate Caption File with Video File
‣ Sidecar file
‣ Encode captions with video
Accessibility Laws
Section 508 + Section 504
‣ Rehabilitation Act of 1973
‣ Applies to federal agencies and organizations
with federal subsidies
Accessibility Laws
Section 508 + Section 504
‣ Rehabilitation Act of 1973
‣ Applies to federal agencies and organizations
with federal subsidies
ADA
‣ Title II - public entities
‣ Title III - commercial entities ‣ Recent case law:
– NAD vs. Netflix
Accessibility Laws
Section 508 + Section 504
‣ Rehabilitation Act of 1973
‣ Applies to federal agencies and organizations
with federal subsidies
ADA
‣ Title II - public entities
‣ Title III - commercial entities ‣ Recent case law:
– NAD vs. Netflix
– GLAD vs. Time Warner
CVAA
‣ Applies to content that airs on TV + Internet
WCAG Standards for Captioning
‣ Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
‣ International standard referenced by 14 countries + EU
‣ Section 508 standards (published in 2000 when most websites were static) - heavily influenced by WCAG
‣ WCAG standards much more comprehensive
‣ All WCAG levels require captions for video
‣ Section 508 refresh may adopt WCAG 2.0
Copyright Considerations
17 Fair Use
‣ Purpose and Character – Is it “Transformative”?
‣ Effect on Work’s Value
‣ Nature of the Copied Work – Factual/Fictional
‣ Amount and Substantiality
Section 107 – Legal Exemptions
‣ “Teaching is a purpose that is considered exempt from copyright infringement”
‣ Also includes comments, criticism, news reporting, scholarship, research
FCC Standards for Caption Quality
18
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Caption accuracy
– Must match spoken words to fullest extent possible and include verbal information
– Allows some leniency for live captioning
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Caption synchronization
– Must coincide with their spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible
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Program completeness
– Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program
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Onscreen caption placement
FCC Guidelines for User Control
19
‣ Took affect January 1, 2014
‣ Only applies to online full-length programming that previously appeared with captions on television in the U.S.
‣ VPDs must comply with advanced closed captioning standards CEA-708
‣ End user control of font type, size, background color, opacity, character edge style
Transcription Standards
‣ Spelling should be at least 99% accurate.
‣ When multiple speakers are present, sometimes it is helpful to identify who is speaking, especially when the video does not make this clear.
‣ Both upper and lowercase letters should be used.
‣ Non-speech sounds like [MUSIC PLAYING] or [LAUGHTER] should be added in square brackets.
‣ Sound effects that are pertinent to the plot should be included.
‣ Punctuation should be used for maximum clarity.
‣ Captions can be used to preserve and identify slang or accents (preferential)
Captioning Standards
‣ Font style should be non-serif, such as Helvetica medium.
‣ Each caption frame should hold 1 to 3 lines of text onscreen at a time
‣ Each line should not exceed 32 characters.
‣ Minimum viewable duration of 1 second.
‣ Extended sound effects (like [MUSIC]) should drop off the screen after 4 to 5 seconds
‣ Each caption frame should be replaced by another caption (unless
there’s a long period of silence).
‣ All caption frames should be precisely time-synched to the audio.
‣ A caption frame should be repositioned if it obscures onscreen text or other essential visual elements.
Benefits
‣ Accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing
‣ For ESL viewers
‣ Flexibility to view in noise-sensitive environments
‣ Search
‣ Reusability
‣ Navigation, better UX
‣ SEO/discoverability
Why Not Caption?
3Play Media’s Goal: Simplify the Process
Captioning Transcription Transcript Alignment (Automated) Translation Integrations / API Interactive PluginsPortland Community College (PCC)
‣
We have approximately 90,000 students in 4
campuses and online learning (e-Campus)
‣
Summer 2013 – Spring 2014:
– Disability Services had 1476 students requesting
accommodation during
– 69 students requested Communication Access for
services in 387 classes
– 46 students requested Captioned Media in 287
classes
PCC Staff
‣
1 FTE program manager for on-campus classes
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0.5 FTE program assistant dedicated to video
captioning
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0.3 FTE program assistant dedicated to online
learning (e-Campus)
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2.0 FTE reserve (shared) support within Alternate
Media Group (for E-Text and Braille)
PCC Numbers
‣
Summer 2013 – Spring 2014:
PodCast Camtasia DVD Internal VHS Online Others Total
Count 3 42 74 218 5 184 90 526
Dream vs. Reality
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Dream:
– Instructor(s) submits list of video requests with due
dates and sources
– Instructors contacted our department in advance to
get videos captioned.
Reality
‣
Reality:
– Instructors have syllabus ready by the first day of
class.
– 50% Instructors do not know what videos that will be
shown in the class.
PCC and Instructors
‣
Common Misconceptions:
– Too much additional steps for instructors to get videos
captioned
– Disability Services cannot handle last minute requests
– It is difficult to show caption videos on multimedia
console in the classroom
PCC Outreach to Instructors
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We realize the importance of working collaboratively
with instructors and notifying instructors in advance
‣
In same cases, we called instructor to explain the
process of captioning videos, which is:
– the only thing they have to do actually send us list of
videos that will be shown in classroom)
– Instructor will get a link to show video within 1
business days after we get the video and subtitle will
show within 3 business days or less.
PCC Outreach to Instructors, Cont.
‣
Assure instructor that last minute videos can be
done (typically shorts videos less than 10 minutes)
– Disability Services handles short and last minute
videos in house with turn around of 3 - 5 minutes for
each 1 minute of the video
– We always encourage instructors, unless the even
just happened, we would like the instructor to notify
us within 1 business days
PCC Outreach to Instructors, Cont.
‣
Result:
– Instructor realizes the process is not burdensome and
actually like how we store instructor video in
one place
– Instructor wants us to caption all the videos they have
(even though there is no video captioning request)
• Timeline is not guarantee, accommodation is always a
priority
• In order for us to caption the video, the videos must be
durable (will be used for multiple terms)
Choosing Third Party
‣
Challenges PCC were facing:
– Limited staff resources
– Turn-around time for long last minute videos
– Streamlining processes from getting videos to
sending instructor link
Choosing Third Party (cont.)
‣
Benefits
– Able to put more resources to contact instructors
– Option to do in-house captioning is available for short
videos or last minutes videos
– We were able to request specialize player to include
interactive transcripts.
PCC Work Flow
‣
Student submits captioning
video/interpreting/transcribing video requests.
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Instructor(s) are contacted before the term starts
(and during).
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Accessibility Aides will find whether videos were
already captioned or if transcripts can be found
online.
PCC Work Flow (cont.)
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If it is captioned, our aide provide an instruction on
how to turn on CC function in multimedia console or
use VLC Player.
‣
If it is available for purchase, we will purchase the
video instead.
‣
If it is an audio only media, we will provide transcript
to student directly.
PCC Work Flow (cont.)
PCC Work Flow (cont.)
‣
Upload video to Kaltura.
‣
Send instructor a link to video ahead while closed
captioning being processed.
‣
Remind instructor that the video link will only
Embedded Player Example
Q&A
Tole Khesin 3Play Media [email protected] +1.617.764.5189 X103 Haris GunadiAlternate Media Specialist Portland Community College