Concepts & Techniques for Accessible, Closed Captioned Web-Based Video 10th Annual Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference Boulder, Colorado November 7, David Klein K. “Fritz” Thompson

Captioning Definitions  Closed captions  Open captions  Subtitles  Transcription  Audio Description

Closed Captions  Captions can be turned on / off by user  Separate “track” in video  Can be outside video area  TV and Web different

Open Captions  Captions always present  Embedded in video  Located inside video area

Subtitles  In UK, used synonymously for closed or open captioning  In U.S. refers to language translation  Can behave like either closed or open captioning

Other Definitions  Transcription  Text rendering of the audible portion of an event  Can be used to create captions  Audio Description  Spoken description of the salient visual parts of a video  Used to communicate meaning

Process - Precaptioning Steps  Transcribe from audio  Speaker identification  Nonverbal elements: [Laughter], [Inaudible]  Transcript saved in text format  Plain.txt for caption file  Turn off smart quotes, other autocorrect options (Word)  Smart quotes “ ” ‘ ’  Curly apostrophes ‘  Em dash —  En dash –

Process - Precaptioning Steps  Text is broken up into “ caption-sized chunks ”  Captioned Media Program guidelines (TV)  Caption timing software (MAGpie, HiCaption) or text editor MAGpie HiCaptionMAGpie HiCaption  Import prepared transcript  Attach time codes to text  Export  QuickTime SMIL  DFXP (Flash)  SAMI (Windows Media Player)

Captioning with MAGpie Prepare for Activity 1  Find folder “ahg2007CD” on your desktop  Open folder  Drag folder “activities” to the desktop  Open “activities” folder  Open “magpie” folder

Captioning with MAGpie Activity 1  Handout: Activity 1: Captioning with MAGpie  Objectives:  Convert a transcript to timed captions  Export captions to QuickTime file

Caption File Contents  Caption text  Time codes for synchronization with video  Text formatting  Font and font size  Carriage returns  Bolding, colors, etc.  Speakers  Language support

Caption File – QuickTime  Open your QuickTime caption file (ahg2007_captions.txt)  Note use of curly brackets  Heading  {QuickTime Text}  Timescale  Font/font size  Background and text color  Justification  Time codes  QuickTime Standards HH:MM:SS.DD  Caption text

Break? Take 10 minutes