ANASTASIA TREKLES, PH.D.

Captioning Videos for Accessibility

• Provide text transcripts of a video or webcast

• Can be used for translation and to accommodate the deaf and hard of hearing

• Increases understanding for all!

What are captions?

• Helps all viewers understand dialogue and sound effects in video

• Helps with word recognition and fluency

• Makes video accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing

Why do captions matter?

• Captions should be onscreen long enough to be read

• Limit to no more than two lines

• Synchronize as well as possible with the spoken word

• Punctuation and italics can clarify meaning

• Describe sound effects when they convey meaning

• All actual words are captioned

Captioning Best Practices

• There are several tools available to help you caption videos you produce

• Camtasia has captioning built-in

• YouTube has online caption editing services

• Subtitle Workshop is a free tool that allows you to write or import captions to almost any type of video

Tools for Captioning

• Echo360 and longer in-house videos can be transcribed or captioned by an outside vendor on an as-needed basis

• Publisher-created materials must be captioned/transcribed by the publisher, or permission must be granted to do it ourselves

• Consult with Disability Services about these issues should they arise in your course

What about Publisher and Echo360 videos?

• http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-8.html

• http://accessproject.colostate.edu/udl/modules/multimedia/tut_camtasia_studio.php

• Camtasia can import transcript text and turn them into captions

• Or, you can use the automatic speech recognition to create captions – make sure you edit!!

Camtasia

• http://captiontube.appspot.com

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4WJs94FfY

• http://accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessibility-tools/easy-youtube-caption-creator/

• You can add captions to YouTube videos if you own (uploaded) them

• Upload a caption file with time codes

• Or, provide a transcript with no time codes and use automatic syncing

• Automatic captioning available but you MUST EDIT!

YouTube

• Keep your PowerPoints accessible: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/creating-accessible-powerpoint-presentations-HA102013555.aspx

• PowerPoint can be its own “transcript” if you use the Notes section to provide detailed information on each slide

PowerPoint

• Student/Classroom: Contact the Disability Services office with request for accommodation

• Staff/Faculty: Contact Office of Institutional Equity (Laura Odom, x5545)

• Community Events: Contact Physical Facilities Coordinator(Ella Taylor, x5531)

Support for Captioning Services

• Lecture video for EDCI 27000: http://www.screencast.com/t/J4X3No9kiu

• Described and Captioned Media Program (many free-loan videos on a lot of topics): http://www.dcmp.org

• Cap That! Links to libraries with captions: http://www.capthat.com.au/resources/find-captioned-videos

• Great automatic caption “fail”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKdOxQhf0s

Some Examples and Resources

Reach us at: • pncolt@pnc.edu • Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT• http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all workshop notes, links, and training needs

Thanks!