Webinar Accessibility With Streaming Captions: The User Perspective. Deirdre McGlynn elearning Specialist Clerc Center at Gallaudet University

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1 Webinar Accessibility With Streaming Captions: The User Perspective Deirdre McGlynn elearning Specialist Clerc Center at Gallaudet University Shaitaisha Winston Instructional Designer Clerc Center at Gallaudet University Webinars are becoming an increasingly popular option for affordable and convenient distance education and training. (Training 2007 Industry Report, 2007). Streaming captions are one way to make them accessible for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and participants. Several webinar tools, such as WebEx Event Center, Adobe Connect and HorizonWimba, can support streaming captions but feedback from Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and participants indicates that simply adding this functionality is not sufficient in and of itself to provide a satisfactory learning experience. What is the scope of the usage and impact of Internet streaming captions for webinars and other web conferencing events today? Given the accelerating growth of live virtual classroom training and its potential to replace other kinds of formal training, ensuring equal access to educational and professional opportunities may hinge on the availability and effectiveness of Internet streaming captions for the deaf and hard of hearing community. At present, the primary federal and higher education service provider for internet streaming captions is Caption Colorado, which has not as yet released statistics on hours of internet streaming caption services provided. Despite the lack of published data, it is indisputably a new and very limited phenomenon at this point: in the description of Randy Holyfield, VP for Business Development, Government, Internet Services, and Education, at Caption Colorado, the current level of internet streaming caption usage barely registers on the voltmeter, constituting a teeny tiny number of minutes of usage in relation to the considerable volume hours of synchronous webinar and virtual classroom events nationwide and is yet an even tinier fraction of the huge volume of captioned TV programming. (Holyfield, R., personal communication, August 9, 2006, and May 8, 2008) Some possible reasons for its limited usage may include the fact that both Webinar producers and potential caption-using attendees don t know that it is available. Another reason is that producers may not know how to integrate Internet streaming captions into the webinar platform of choice, especially taking into account the rapid pace of releases of new webinar tools or new version of existing tools. Finally, Internet streaming captions may not be considered by the some users to offer equivalent and satisfactory access to an online event. Given the current reality, this document should be understood as a preliminary exploration of the implementation of Internet streaming captioning for webinar and virtual classroom events and of user perspectives of its role in making these events accessible to them. We hope it will prove beneficial in informing more in-depth analyses of internet streaming captioning in the future as webinar platforms evolve and the number of caption users grows. To get a sense of the potential scope of the population that Internet streaming captions could serve, it is necessary to look at the demographics of deafness as well as of all caption users. Based on available federal data and published research, anywhere from 9 to 22 out of every 1,000 Americans have a severe hearing impairment or are deaf. (Mitchell, 2005) This means that of 304,013,972 Americans (US Census, 2006), there are between 2.7 million and 6.7 million Americans who fall in this category. While this is a significant number of individuals, the number of Americans who use captioning is many times more. According to the Caption Colorado s estimates, only about 8-15% of users of captions are deaf and hard of hearing. Other caption users include people learning to read, second language users, as well as people 1

2 working or exercising in noisy environments, who make up 85-92% of caption users. (Caption Colorado, 2002) In any case, producers should be aware of the potential range of users, many of whom may wish to use captions for unanticipated reasons and consider accommodating their needs. It has become axiomatic that adaptations implemented for reasons of accessibility are invariably found to have a range of unforeseen uses and users well beyond the population it was designed for. It should also be remembered that federal agencies and institutions of higher education are responsible for making their constituent services and educational materials accessible to all users. The National Center for Accessible Media indicates that all internet video conference communications, such as webinar and virtual classroom events, need to be captioned in a synchronous manner to provide full accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing users. In other words, a transcript posted after the fact does not by itself constitute equivalent access. (Guidelines for Developing Accessible Synchronous Communication and Collaboration Tools, 2008). For the sake of this preliminary exploration of the usage of internet streaming captions, we believe that our panel of five deaf users to be highly representative of the small early adopter population for this evolving technology though perhaps not representative of the wider pool of potential users of streaming captions in the future. All of our interviewees Identified themselves as deaf Were highly proficient in both ASL and English Were university graduates Were comfortable with technology and daily users of computers for and instant messaging Were users of videophones And were professionals in higher education The most salient comment that was made by every respondent was that when following streaming text, it is very hard to maintain attention for long stretches estimates for how long it can be followed with interruption ranged from 0 to 30 minutes the average is 15 minutes. For every interviewee, the typical webinar presentation duration of one hour was uniformly considered untenable if there was a strong expectation for the user to maintain an uninterrupted attention to a continuous stream of scrolling captions. Pace is a major concern and potential source of frustration in face-to-face settings, the pace of communication is flexible, whereas the rate of the caption stream is not. Skilled VRS interpreters also can make adjustments for the deaf user, for example, knowing to pause when the deaf user turns to focus on the presentation window, making that a more user-friendly mode of communication. Interviewees stressed the value of adding breaks to do other kinds of activities not requiring sustained attention to scrolling captions. Polling activities and other types of interactivity offered by some webinar platforms were considered desirable, as were activities that allowed users to shift focus to visually interesting content such as animation and video. The next most salient theme to emerge was the issue of prosody or tone. Deaf users valued the sense of emotional content and presence lent by being able to see a video of the presenter making the presentation even if they could not access the presenter s voice directly it was felt that even video facial expression and body language they could access with the talking head video of the presenter significantly helped to compensate for the monotone quality of captioned communications. 2

3 In regards to placement of the streamed captions on the screen, users stating a preference indicated that it is best if captioned appear directly below the presentation panel, rather to one side or the other, as shifting visual attention vertically was more comfortable than shifting horizontally. Another concern is the high error rate not atypical with real-time captions. Spelling and accuracy errors in captions inevitably occur even with the most highly skilled and prepared captioners. Also not uncommon are transmission errors caused by glitches in steno codes which can insert strange codes in place of the actual captioned text (White, 2002). Both human and machine errors can significantly impair the comprehensibility of captions (Clark, 2006). Another emerging theme for our respondents was an interest in integrating videophones with webinars. In the deaf and hard of hearing community, particularly among deaf professionals, the use of videophones has become very widespread. Many deaf professional have videophones, either in the office, at home, or in both locations. All the deaf respondents felt they could comfortably sustain attention to a webinar event for a full hour when accessing its audio component through a videophone relay service. Coupled with the use of streaming captions, use of interpreting services via VRS or otherwise has the potential to allow the webinar format to approach a satisfaction and effectiveness level for many deaf and hard of hearing professionals and students who use sign language on par with hearing peers. An interviewee who used VRS services for access to online course sessions had a comment about event archives that may be particularly significant in regards to educational settings where equal access is mandated. If only VRS were used for accessibility during the webinar, then the archived version of the session, available to hearing members of the class or to the public would not be accessible to the caption user. (This, of course, would not an issue in a circumstance in which the video window of the webinar happens to be the signed interpretation of the audio component of the session (Briggs, 2007)). If the webinar event incorporates streaming captions, this can provide archival access to the user. In fact, for caption users who prefer control of pacing, this can be a more user-friendly alternative to the experience of watching a stream of synchronous captions for an event. Another attribute of real-time captions noted is that the lack of paragraph form makes text less readable and navigable. One interviewee suggested that post-event editing would create more readable text and would be preferred, if feasible. As skilled interpreters can convey the tone and humor of the presenter, the lack of prosody that make voluminous streams of text tiresome for the user of captions is ameliorated. As was mentioned above, an error-free captioned event is rare. Therefore, having interpreting services available is often beneficial for clarification. Also, in regards to compensating for eye gaze and attention shifts, the interpreter can pause the communication while the deaf person looks at the presentation window and then resume when the deaf person shifts attention back to the interpreter. This flexibility enhances the deaf person ability to follow and integrate both the presenter s visual and auditory communications as the presenter intended. Streaming captions may also provide a critical supplementation to a signed interpretation when specific terminology needs to be communicated verbatim such as when highly technical or discipline-specific information is presented. Interpreters not expert in these areas may not be able to capture and convey these details with adequate precision. Likewise, the use of regional signs may also result in miscommunications. Having synchronous access to the written text can ensure that the precise communication is transmitted. In conclusion, our sample of users unanimously indicated a preference for having access to both signed and captioned content for webinars. A future avenue of research might explore in more detail whether the coupling of the use of streaming captions with interpreting services via VRS or otherwise would have the potential to allow the webinar format to approach a satisfaction and effectiveness level for many deaf and hard of hearing professionals and students who use sign language on par with hearing peers. Also needing 3

4 to be explored are the user perspectives of deaf and hard of hearing caption users who do not know sign language, as well as other users of captioning services as related to webinar events employing streaming captions. Internet Streaming Captions Checklist: What to Do Before, During and After the Webinar: Schedule a webinar with the tool of your choice: Adobe Connect, Wimba and WebEx are some examples of Webinar platforms that support captions Inform your audience that the webinar will be recorded, that real-time captions will be available during the event and, when relevant, will be part of the archived session. Contact Caption Colorado or FedRCC to make the request 48 hours in advance is preferred Upload preparatory materials such as a presentation outline or PowerPoint for the benefit of the captioner this will help the captioner to reduce the error rate of the streamed captions Send to any of the participants using the captions the URL that they will need to access the stand-alone captioning window for that event, if that is what they would prefer to use If applicable, include any information needed for accessing the captioned event archives. Use the URL provided by the captioning service to integrate the caption stream into your scheduled webinar event. With WebEx, Internet streaming captions show up in the multimedia panel (this is available in the Event Center only there is no support for streaming captions in the WebEx Training Center or Meeting Center web conferencing tools) With Wimba, Internet streaming captions shows up in the chat panel (in future versions of the product, captions will be shown in a separate window) With Adobe Connect, Internet streaming captions shows up in what is termed a captioning pod If there is no panel available through a specific webinar tool, users may use the web browser interface offered by the captioning service instead. Note that even when panel is available, users may prefer the flexibility of the web interface. The way the caption stream displays within each of the webinar platforms may not be modifiable to the user: font type, size, and the size of the panel in which the captions appear are mostly or entirely pre-determined by the individual tool. References Briggs, L. (2007, November 11). Bloomsburg U tailors online learning to the deaf. Campus Technology. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from Clark, J. (2006). The freakonomics of captioning errors. Retrieved May 8, 2008, from Personal Weblog of Joe Clark Web site: Closed captioning in the U.S. (2002). Retrieved May 8, 2008, from Closed Caption Web site: Guidelines for developing accessible synchronous communication and collaboration tools. (2008). Retrieved May 8, 2008, from IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications Web site: Mitchell, R. (2005). Can you tell me how many deaf people there are in the United States?. Retrieved May 8, 2008, from Gallaudet Research Institute Home Page Web site: Training, (2007). Training 2007 Industry Report. United States Census. (2006, November 22). Retrieved May 8, 2008, from U.S. and World Population Clocks - POPClocks Web site: 4

5 White, P (2002). Caption Colorado. Retrieved May 8, 2008, from WEER NOT BAD SPELERZ Web site: About the Presenters Deirdre McGlynn is an elearning Specialist Clerc Center at Gallaudet University. In her current work as an elearning Specialist at the Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University, Deirdre McGlynn develops accessible distance courses and elearning materials to provide professional development for teachers and other professionals across the US who work with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Address: Training and Professional Development Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC deirdre.mcglynn@gallaudet.edu Phone: (V/TTY) Fax: Shaitaisha Winston is an Instructional Designer at the Clerc Center at Gallaudet University. Address: Training and Professional Development Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC shaitaisha.winston@gallaudet.edu Phone: (V/TTY) Fax: