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Re: Transcription/captioning

for

From: John E Brandt
Date: Apr 13, 2011 10:27AM

YouTube's (YT) "automatic captioning" is still an imperfect process. I
tested it last year and blogged the results:
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2010/05/captioning-youtube-videos/

I tested YouTube automatic captioning again a few weeks ago and compared the
results with a relatively new (to me) free online captioning API called
Universal Subtitles. This is basically an app that allows you to view/listen
to the video and type in the captions yourself:
http://jebswebs.net/blog/2011/03/captioning-video/

In both instances the YT results were pretty bad, but you can download the
file transcription file, edit it using a captioning product like the one I
mention in the blog, and repost it to YT.

As I also mention in one of the blogs, I attended an Accessibility
Unconference in Boston last year and the issue of automatic/machine
generated captioning Speech-to-Text (S-t-T) versus human transcription
captioning was discussed. There were representatives from two companies that
do professional captioning - one automatic/machine - the other human
transcription - and each defended their methodology. But the guy
representing the company that did human transcription captioning clearly was
more convincing and had data to support his position that this method was
superior and cost effective. This position is consistent with my experience.
If you are an untrained person (not a professional
stenographer/scribe/transcriptionist) it takes almost as long to edit an
automatic machine-generated transcription as it does to type up one "from
scratch"- listening to the video and transcribing it yourself.

The company we have used for transcription/captioning is AST Sync out of
California http://www.automaticsync.com/captionsync/ They are very easy to
work with, provide great customer service, are fast and very reasonably
priced (about $185 per one hour of video; less if you already have a
transcript). If you do it yourself, count on it taking you a minimum of
3-to-1 in staff time to do a complete transcription with edits and time
marks. In other words, a one hour video will take three hours of your - or
someone's time to get a quality final product. You can do the math.

One last comment. I would recommend everyone *close caption* all of their
videos that are going to be posted on line. The accessibility issues are
obviously the primary reason, but there is an added value - closed caption
files are searchable. By adding the captioning to your videos, you make the
content accessible and usable to a very wide audience including Google bots.
This improves SEO and services to your constituents who will then be able to
search and find specific content contained within a video.

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Poore-Pariseau,
Cindy
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:37 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning

Can you share the costs (approx) for the captioning service? Also, have you
found Google's service any more accurate than YouTube's? Has anyone else
used Google's services?

Cindy Poore-Pariseau
Disability Specialist

Bristol Community College
777 Elsbree Street
Fall River, MA 02720
508.678.2811, ext. 2470
<EMAIL REMOVED>

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Keith Parks
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 5:34 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning


On Apr 12, 2011, at 6:43 AM, Palmer, Becca wrote:

> I am seeking information as to what services are offered by various
institutions of higher education in the way of transcription and captioning
of audio and video . Our university offers these services, however, I would
like to get an idea of how many colleges or universities offer such services
and how they are funded; is the service institutionally funded or are there
any fees associated with those services (do the colleges or departments pay
or is it the responsibility of the instructor to cover the cost, etc.)?

A few years ago our statewide university system had a contract with
Automatic Sync Technologies for captioning services. Each campus handled it
a bit differently. Individual offices/departments could create their own
account, and each department had to pay for the services they used.

Lately we've been encouraged to use Google/YouTube's free auto
transcription/captioning function as a method to get transcripts/captions.
>

******************************
Keith Parks
Graphic Designer/Web Designer
Student Affairs Communications Services
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-7444
(619) 594-1046
mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/communications

http://kparks.deviantart.com/gallery
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