1. Go Beyond TV: Captioning and Video Description as Teaching Tools for the DVD and Multimedia Environment OSEP Conference 07.16.07: ET Grants: H327C060013 & H327C060014

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

3. CaptionMax Founded 1993, privately held Video description - 2003 Media accessibility is all we do Goal: Level the educational playing field

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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

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

12. 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

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

14. Any questions at this point?

15. 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

16. Caption/Subtitle Choices Verbatim or edited for slower reading

17. Caption/Subtitle Choices Choose larger or smaller text

18. Caption/Subtitle Choices Less obtrusive subtitles

19. Caption/Subtitle Choices High- contrast subtitles

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

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

22. 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

23. 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

24. View CaptionMax’s Enhanced DVD Demonstration

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

26. 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)

27. Outreach Efforts Teacher outreach “For Teachers” subsite: www.captionmax.com/teacher

28. New Marks for Public Domain

29. Thank You