Go Beyond TV: Captioning and Video Description as Teaching Tools for the DVD and Multimedia Environment OSEP Conference : ET Grants: H327C & H327C060014

Purpose of Today Introduce You to CaptionMax Demonstrate What CaptionMax is Doing with the Emerging Technologies Grants Outreach Efforts Research Opportunities

CaptionMax Founded 1993, privately held Video description Media accessibility is all we do Goal: Level the educational playing field

Media Accessibility Today: What they are FCC Rules Limitations Closed Captions

Closed Captions – FCC Rules 2006: all new programming 2008: 75% of anything produced before 1998 Spanish: 2010 and 2012 respectively Broadcast Only

Closed Captions - Limitations Viewer has little control over settings Captioning signals can interfere with each other Not all TVs are capable of reading all captioning signals

Media Accessibility Today: When it is used, features FCC Rules –No requirements Limitations –Timing –Menu option hard to find –Shares channel with Spanish translations Video Description

2006 Emerging Technology Grants CaptionMax won 2 of 3 available awards Funding the development of accessibility for emerging technologies 5 year project, in year 1 now 5 year goal: Standard part of educational landscape

Our Project: Go beyond standard captioning and description practices Collaboration with media suppliers DCMP as distribution partner Rely on CAB for feedback NOT a research grant

Going Beyond the Standard New technologies create new opportunities Multiple tracks Interactivity User options Scheduling Flexible interface

Phase One: DVD Inexpensive and widely available format Familiar technology Schools have capacity to use DCMP can deliver files via web

DVD Menu Accessibility Auto-play spoken menu Voiced navigation instructions Large type and high-contrast coloring CaptionMax as DVD author Accessibility is the first option

Spoken Menus Action verbs describe visual cues “Go back to the chapter menu” Simple, direct menu structure

Any questions at this point?

DVD Subtitles Traditionally limited to dialog Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) Activated via on-screen menu Any font, color, background Up to 32 subtitle streams

Caption/Subtitle Choices Verbatim or edited for slower reading

Caption/Subtitle Choices Choose larger or smaller text

Caption/Subtitle Choices Less obtrusive subtitles

Caption/Subtitle Choices High- contrast subtitles

Caption/Subtitle Advanced Features Clickable words/phrases –Identified by highlight and sound –Definitions and annotations Enables greater interactivity and learning opportunities

DVD Video Description No SAP channel required Eight audio tracks available – Spanish – Video description – Other languages

Expanded Description Menu: Expanded description track –Pause video –Detailed description –Adds few minutes to program Optimized for classrooms with a variety of abilities Very positive feedback Potential data source for research

Subtitled Description Dialog and descriptive narration Italicized description subtitles at top of the screen –For students with both vision and hearing loss –For classrooms with students of varying abilities –For those learning about accessibility Positive feedback Research resource

View CaptionMax’s Enhanced DVD Demonstration

Other DVD Elements “Extras” Subtitled and Described –Slideshows –Lesson planning videos DVD-ROM Supplements –Tagged, described PDFs optimized for screen reader software

Future Features/Enhancements More text size options User feedback on menu options Repurposing for reuse on other display systems –web streaming –hard drives –portable devices (iPod)

Outreach Efforts Teacher outreach “For Teachers” subsite:

New Marks for Public Domain

Thank You