Best Practices for Implementing Video Captioning AHEAD July 16, 2014 Haris Gunadi Alternate Media Specialist Portland Community College haris.gunadi@pcc.edu +1.971.722.4340 Tole Khesin 3Play Media tole@3playmedia.com +1.415.298.1206 1
About 3Play Media Captioning + transcription + subtitling MIT spinout in 2007 Based in Cambridge, MA 800+ customers concentrated in higher ed Higher Education Customers 2
Agenda Highlights from recent accessibility data What are captions? Accessibility laws Transcription & captioning standards Benefits Portland Community College (PCC) overview Captioning workflow Process, tools, and technologies Looking ahead Q&A 3
Accessibility - a Growing Concern Worldwide: 1 billion people have a disability U.S.: 56.7 million have a disability (48 million related to hearing) U.S.: 11% of higher ed students have a disability U.S.: 45% of 1.6 million veterans sought disability (177,000 related to hearing loss) 4
What Are Captions (1/6)? Text that has been time-synchronized with the media Captions convey all spoken content as well as relevant sound effects 5
What Are Captions (2/6)? Originated in the early 1980s from an FCC mandate for broadcast TV 6
What Are Captions (3/6)? Terminology Captioning vs. Transcription 7
What Are Captions (4/6)? Terminology Captioning vs. Transcription Captioning vs. Subtitling 8
What Are Captions (5/6)? Terminology Captioning vs. Transcription Captioning vs. Subtitling Closed vs. Open Captioning 9
What Are Captions (6/6)? Terminology Captioning vs. Transcription Captioning vs. Subtitling Closed vs. Open Captioning Post Production vs. Real-Time 10
Caption Formats (1/2) SRT Example Format Type SCC SMPTE-TT CAP EBU.STL DFXP SRT WebVTT SAMI QT STL CPT.XML RT Use Cases Broadcast, ios, web media Web media Broadcast PAL Broadcast Flash players YouTube and web media Emerging HTML5 Windows Media QuickTime DVD encoding Captionate Real Media SCC Example 01:02:53:14 94ae 94ae 9420 9420 01:02:55:14 942c 942c 01:03:27:29 94ae 94ae 9420 9420 94f2 11
Caption Formats (2/2) How to Associate Caption File with Video File Sidecar file Encode captions with video Open captions (burned in) 12
Accessibility Laws Section 508 + Section 504 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Applies to federal agencies and organizations with federal subsidies 13
Accessibility Laws Section 508 + Section 504 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Applies to federal agencies and organizations with federal subsidies ADA Title II - public entities Title III - commercial entities Recent case law: NAD vs. Netflix GLAD vs. Time Warner 14
Accessibility Laws Section 508 + Section 504 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Applies to federal agencies and organizations with federal subsidies ADA Title II - public entities Title III - commercial entities Recent case law: NAD vs. Netflix GLAD vs. Time Warner CVAA Applies to content that airs on TV + Internet 15
WCAG Standards for Captioning Web Content Accessibility Guidelines International standard referenced by 14 countries + EU Section 508 standards (published in 2000 when most websites were static) - heavily influenced by WCAG WCAG standards much more comprehensive All WCAG levels require captions for video Section 508 refresh may adopt WCAG 2.0 ADA Title III may adopt WCAG 2.0 16
Copyright Considerations Fair Use Purpose and Character Is it Transformative? Effect on Work s Value Nature of the Copied Work Factual/Fictional Amount and Substantiality Section 107 Legal Exemptions Teaching is a purpose that is considered exempt from copyright infringement Also includes comments, criticism, news reporting, scholarship, research How to Caption Third Party YouTube Videos 17
FCC Standards for Caption Quality Caption accuracy Must match spoken words to fullest extent possible and include verbal information Allows some leniency for live captioning Caption synchronization Must coincide with their spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible Program completeness Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program Onscreen caption placement Captions should not block other important visual content 18
FCC Guidelines for User Control Took affect January 1, 2014 Only applies to online full-length programming that previously appeared with captions on television in the U.S. VPDs must comply with advanced closed captioning standards CEA-708 End user control of font type, size, background color, opacity, character edge style 19
Transcription Standards Spelling should be at least 99% accurate. When multiple speakers are present, sometimes it is helpful to identify who is speaking, especially when the video does not make this clear. Both upper and lowercase letters should be used. Non-speech sounds like [MUSIC PLAYING] or [LAUGHTER] should be added in square brackets. Sound effects that are pertinent to the plot should be included. Punctuation should be used for maximum clarity. Captions can be used to preserve and identify slang or accents (preferential) 20
Captioning Standards Font style should be non-serif, such as Helvetica medium. Each caption frame should hold 1 to 3 lines of text onscreen at a time Each line should not exceed 32 characters. Minimum viewable duration of 1 second. Extended sound effects (like [MUSIC]) should drop off the screen after 4 to 5 seconds Each caption frame should be replaced by another caption (unless there s a long period of silence). All caption frames should be precisely time-synched to the audio. A caption frame should be repositioned if it obscures onscreen text or other essential visual elements. 21
Benefits Accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing For ESL viewers Flexibility to view in noise-sensitive environments Search Reusability Navigation, better UX SEO/discoverability Used as source for translation 22
Why Not Caption? 23
3Play Media s Goal: Simplify the Process Captioning Transcription Transcript Alignment (Automated) Translation Integrations / API Interactive Plugins 24
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Portland Community College (PCC) We have approximately 90,000 students in 4 campuses and online learning (e-campus) Summer 2013 Spring 2014: Disability Services had 1476 students requesting accommodation during 69 students requested Communication Access for services in 387 classes 46 students requested Captioned Media in 287 classes 26
PCC Staff 1 FTE program manager for on-campus classes 0.5 FTE program assistant dedicated to video captioning 0.3 FTE program assistant dedicated to online learning (e-campus) 2.0 FTE reserve (shared) support within Alternate Media Group (for E-Text and Braille) 27
PCC Numbers Summer 2013 Spring 2014: PodCast Camtasia DVD Internal VHS Online Others Total Count 3 42 74 218 5 184 90 526 Minutes 59 390 2897 1920 111 1769 758 7146 28
Dream vs. Reality Dream: Instructor(s) submits list of video requests with due dates and sources Instructors contacted our department in advance to get videos captioned. 29
Reality Reality: Instructors have syllabus ready by the first day of class. 50% Instructors do not know what videos that will be shown in the class. 30
PCC and Instructors Common Misconceptions: Too much additional steps for instructors to get videos captioned Disability Services cannot handle last minute requests It is difficult to show caption videos on multimedia console in the classroom 31
PCC Outreach to Instructors We realize the importance of working collaboratively with instructors and notifying instructors in advance In same cases, we called instructor to explain the process of captioning videos, which is: the only thing they have to do actually send us list of videos that will be shown in classroom) Instructor will get a link to show video within 1 business days after we get the video and subtitle will show within 3 business days or less. 32
PCC Outreach to Instructors, Cont. Assure instructor that last minute videos can be done (typically shorts videos less than 10 minutes) Disability Services handles short and last minute videos in house with turn around of 3-5 minutes for each 1 minute of the video We always encourage instructors, unless the even just happened, we would like the instructor to notify us within 1 business days 33
PCC Outreach to Instructors, Cont. Result: Instructor realizes the process is not burdensome and actually like how we store instructor video in one place Instructor wants us to caption all the videos they have (even though there is no video captioning request) Timeline is not guarantee, accommodation is always a priority In order for us to caption the video, the videos must be durable (will be used for multiple terms) 34
Choosing Third Party Challenges PCC were facing: Limited staff resources Turn-around time for long last minute videos Streamlining processes from getting videos to sending instructor link 35
Choosing Third Party (cont.) Benefits Able to put more resources to contact instructors Option to do in-house captioning is available for short videos or last minutes videos We were able to request specialize player to include interactive transcripts. 36
PCC Work Flow Student submits captioning video/interpreting/transcribing video requests. Instructor(s) are contacted before the term starts (and during). Accessibility Aides will find whether videos were already captioned or if transcripts can be found online. 37
PCC Work Flow (cont.) If it is captioned, our aide provide an instruction on how to turn on CC function in multimedia console or use VLC Player. If it is available for purchase, we will purchase the video instead. If it is an audio only media, we will provide transcript to student directly. 38
PCC Work Flow (cont.) 39
PCC Work Flow (cont.) Upload video to Kaltura. Send instructor a link to video ahead while closed captioning being processed. Remind instructor that the video link will only available on limited time basis because of copyright. 40
Embedded Player Example 41
Q&A Haris Gunadi Alternate Media Specialist Portland Community College haris.gunadi@pcc.edu +1.971.722.4340 Tole Khesin 3Play Media tole@3playmedia.com +1.617.764.5189 X103 42