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Re: Transcription/captioning

for

From: John E Brandt
Date: Apr 13, 2011 1:24PM

Yes, we want closed captions rather than open captions.



I always get open vs. closed captioning mixed up, so I have bookmarked this
page as a reminder:

What is the difference between open and closed captioning?

http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?50



To quote:

"Despite the advantages of open captions, there also are disadvantages. Some
disadvantages stem from the fact that open captions are an actual part of
the video stream, whereas closed captions exist as a separate text stream.
If captions are preserved as text, users potentially can archive and index
video content and allow users to search for specific video content within
these archives; this ability is lost with open captions. Also, open
captions, unlike closed captions, are subject to loss of quality when the
encoded video is compressed."



Open Captions are part of the video and cannot be indexed. Example: old
movies with subtitles.

Closed Captions are in a separate file and can be indexed.



~j



John E. Brandt

<http://www.jebswebs.com>; www.jebswebs.com
<mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> > <EMAIL REMOVED>

207-622-7937

Augusta, Maine, USA



From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E] [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 3:07 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Cc: ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning



Hi, John/Jeb - in the following comment, are you suggesting closed
captioning as opposed to open captioning or as opposed to not captioning?
Are Open Captions not text searchable?



* 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.





Gary M.



-----Original Message-----
From: John E Brandt [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 1:48 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning



We have not left AST. I was only testing the YT and other options as part of

my work.



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 12:28 PM

To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'

Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning



May I ask why you left AST and went to the YT route?



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 John E Brandt

Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 12:24 PM

To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'

Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Transcription/captioning



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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