The US starts campaign to ensure online captioning for deaf and hard of hearing people

In the US, there is a group of people launching a captioning campaign aimed at getting captions on all online and internet videos. They are calling it Caption Action 2, after the 1st successful Caption Action, which got captions onto videos and DVDs back in the 80s.

Click here to read about the history of the two captioning actions.

It will be really interesting to see if they are successful with it – and I truly hope that they are – because it would change the way we use the internet for the better. Meaning that deaf and hearing impaired people will have the same access to online videos and media as other people.

If you are interested in following their progress, they have started a blog on it, called Caption Action 2.

Now Australia just needs to catch up, and launch our own Caption Action campaign! If you are interested, check out the Media Access Australia website, as they are very active in this area, and have some ideas in the works as to how to approach this.

Rear Window Captioning at the cinema for deaf and hard of hearing – what is it like?

Just thought I would report back that I attended the Sydney Film Festival on Friday night last week to trial the new Rear Window Captioning technology, provided by Accessible Arts – I took my sister, and we saw “Cheri”.

It was a surprise – I had expected something different (thought we’d all be corralled into a little room by ourselves watching the movie through a big window!) – but it worked quite well.

I was also very surprised, (and disappointed) to find that I was the only deaf person there using the technology – everyone else was blind. (What is wrong with us deaf people? We clamour for changes, and then no one turns up to try it out when it’s offered!! gah!)

Anyway – so, we were seated way up the back, and on my chair was a small tinted panel in the shape of a long rectangle, with rounded edges, but only about a handspan in width.. And this was attached to the chair with a very squeaky adjustable arm.

This is me at the State theatre in Sydney, you can just make out the RWC in front of me, a small tinted screen.

Before the movie started, they asked us to adjust the panel to suit my line of sight – and then I realised that it literally was just reflecting the words from a small screen set up on the wall behind us!!

The screen had the captions appear backwards when you turned around to look at the screen on the back wall – it was red chunky text that is a but like the ones you see showing numbers at the Deli in the supermarket – just slightly smaller.

Couldn’t believe it… I thought it was going to really suck – but then when the lights went down, the captions became very clear, and after a few (very squeaky) adjustments, I was able to watch the movie quite well, with the captions sitting just below by line of eye-sight – so the captions didn’t appear to be on the screen of the cinema at all.

So it actually worked really well!

The only bad things were a couple of times my sister moved, and bumped my arm rest, which led to the adjustable arm being whacked out of place, and then of course required more squeaky adjustments, with us sniggering away up the back like a couple of school-girls.

Also, when people walked behind us, along the walkway, as they passed the captioning equipment, they blocked it momentarily – but this only happened very rarely – so not a big problem.

And we had to sit waaaaaaaaay up the back of the cinema – but luckily my eye-sight is pretty good, so it didn’t worry me – but might be an issue for others with sight-problems.

The best thing about it was I was watching this movie in a cinema with all these other people with normal hearing – and for once I didn’t feel like the rest of the audience was sniggering at some of the captions that appeared, or annoyed by them. So that was a big plus.

Overall, I would say this technology is pretty cool, and will change the way cinemas operate – if they decide to bring them in. And I hope they do!!

The current state of online captioning in Australia

Currently there are very few online videos from Australian websites that are captioned.

None of the major TV channel or newspaper websites in Australia caption their online videos.

Many US-based online blogs of deaf and hearing impaired people report better captioning of online videos on the websites of big corporates, such as NBC – which provides movies and episodes of TV shows to US audiences only – apparently captioned.

Hulu.com, which is a website that offers dozens of television series to click and watch, recently added a filter to its search engine to return only closed-captioned videos. Sadly, Australian internet users can’t access these online videos as they can only be streamed from the United States. However, it is good to know that these changes are happening in the US, as there is hope that these changes will filter through to us here.

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. It is a fascinating site which has had a huge social impact. Some videos have been picked up and discussed widely by mainstream media.

 The signing deaf community has found a niche on this site, as they can create videos of people signing.

YouTube has also added captioning/subtitle support to its videos, and when I did a search, there is even a video entitled “How to add closed captioning to YouTube videos”, which is created by the University of Oklahoma, and also has captions on it. Right now, however, YouTube doesn’t seem to offer a feature to search for captioned videos only.

I also found a captioning company called ‘SubPLY’ that will caption 5,000 YouTube videos submitted by user for free. If you are interested, you can read the details at this site  – and submit a YouTube video you’d like to see captioned.

 From a blog on http://www.deafdc.com/, Shane Feldman writes about ‘Project ReadOn’, an online service that offers to caption any videos for you free of charge.

 The concept behind Project ReadOn is to allow universal access to online media content via their online video and caption player. To use it, you simply click on any thumbnail on the site and it will open up that content from the actual source and simultaneously and in perfect synch play captions in the player.

There is also a search engine dedicated to looking for captioned video and audio on the web. To use it, go to harkle.com, type in the name of the video you want, and Harkle finds it. They also offer a selection of videos.

As you can see, there are many innovations and projects out there that aim to open up these videos and media to everyone. But in Australia we are definitely lagging behind the world with our accessibility of online media.

If you would like to know more about media accessibility, visit the Media Access Australia site.

How accessible is online media for deaf and hearing impaired people?

For deaf and hearing impaired people, there have been so many good things that have come from the digital revolution of the internet. To name just a few that have improved communication and social interaction are email, video, instant messaging, and access to a large range of online content through websites.

One of the downsides about the dynamic and quickly changing environment of the internet is there are less rules and regulations covering equal accessibility, and these rules are also are more difficult to enforce.

As someone with a hearing impairment, I find that there is nothing worse than clicking on an interesting link on a website, only to find it opens up a video file without captions.

Although television stations are required by law to caption a percentage of their programs, there is no Australian legislation specifically addressing access to new media such as online video.

Australia has largely followed international movements in relation to new media accessibility, and a major reference point for our standards is the ‘World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines’, which was published in 1999.

Australian anti-discrimination legislation is supposed to enforce accessibility of new media, but this system is largely reliant on individuals making complaints about the practices of organisations.

This means that the growing number of online videos and new media are becoming inaccessible for deaf and hearing impaired people, because we are not speaking up about media that is not captioned.

In a perfect world

In a perfect world, when a person is born deaf, or goes deaf later in life, they should be able to live easily in society, without feeling like an outcast, an outsider, a burden. They would have access to visual aids around the house; be able to get free hearing aids, and free hearing services; be able to access information and communications just like everyone else.

There would be no discrimination the workplace, at schools, or at home.

Being deaf would be just like having bad eyesight. Normal.

Deaf people would be treated like everyone else, because they would be given every opportunity to be able to access everything that everyone else can.

Deafness would not be a difficulty, or a disability – but merely a difference.