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Number of posts in this thread: 11 (In chronological order)

From: Randy Pope
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 12:21PM
Subject: Converting Web Video Captions
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HI all,

In developing a website for the deaf-blind audience, I'm looking for a
method, program or whatever that will convert web video closed caption into
a format that can be outputted in a braille display. Is there any resource,
article or anything that address this issue? By definition, deaf-blind
means no hearing and no vision.

With Warm Regards,
Randy Pope

From: John Foliot
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 1:03PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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Hi Randy,

What format is your captioning in now? Is it "burned-in" to your video
asset, or is it a stand-along caption file? This will also be related to
the format of the video (i.e. is it a .mov file or a DVD or other?)

JF


>

From: Jared Smith
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 1:18PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Randy Pope < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> In developing a website for the deaf-blind audience, I'm looking for a
> method, program or whatever that will convert web video closed caption into
> a format that can be outputted in a braille display.

The format you want is text. There isn't a special captioning format
that is accessible to a braille display. In order to generate
captions, there had to have been a text transcript. Simply make that
transcript available to address the needs of deaf-blind users.

This transcript should include more than just the spoken audio, but
should include other auditory and visual cues and descriptions so that
the full content of the video is available entirely from this text
content. It's often best to present it in HTML with appropriate
markup, etc.

Jared

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 1:30PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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Agree that providing a transcript is a fine solution. However, this is also good work for a machine. I have an old example from a few years ago (http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/accessiblevideo/) which is a Flash video with some additional player controls, including a "show transcript" button. A braille user can click that button to view a transcript of the video's captions, and the transcript is generated automatically from the TTML captions.

It isn't really that complex to get a simple text stream. However, it is still not an automatic process that players often provide.

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility

From: Randy Pope
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 2:21PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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Hi John,

I referring to all web video close caption in different format that are
being presented on the website. Currently I was unable to find anything
that will convert any movie format into text automatically. While the video
presentation itself can be presented in a text format accessible for those
who use braille to read, it is not a workable solution for real time
captions such as the news broadcast. As far I know no one is providing
alternative text format for real time text or for real time caption that are
delayed for a few hours. In other words the deaf-blind people depends on
written news on the website. With all the ads and others on the website,
it's quite difficult for these readers to read the information on the
website.

Hope this help.

With Warm Regards,
Randy Pope

From: Randy Pope
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 2:33PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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Hey Jared,

Not exactly what I want but posting the text version is probably the only
alternative the deaf-blind people have if it's available for them. The time
to translated into alternative is quite expensive for I will need to hire a
transcribers, from voice into text, since my hearing and vision is not that
good. If the video in American Sign Language (ASL) or similar, I would have
to hire an interpreter since i cannot see the signing well enough on the
video.

So any other idea that won't cost me an arm and a leg?

With Warm Regards,
Randy Pope

From: Randy Pope
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 2:39PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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Hi Andrew,

Let me check with my deaf-blind friends who read through braille. Thanks
for sharing the link.

With Warm Regards,
Randy Pope

From: Jared Smith
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 3:06PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 2:22 PM, Randy Pope < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> While the video
> presentation itself can be presented in a text format accessible for those
> who use braille to read, it is not a workable solution for real time
> captions such as the news broadcast.

I'm not aware of any method for making real-time text accessible to
braille displays. The braille display reading rate and the real-time
text streaming rate will always be different - you can't force a
braille display user to read at the same pace as the text, and you
can't force the text to stream at the user's reading rate or it would
no longer be real-time. This same real-time text issue applies to
screen readers.

This doesn't, however, mean that the user must wait until well after
the broadcast to get the content in a static transcript. They could
start consuming the content at the beginning, and do so at their set
rate, but this would still not be truly real-time content.

Jared

From: Randy Pope
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 3:36PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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That's true, Jared. The ideal system is to have the caption streamline into
the user's buffer in the device and the braille reader can read off the
buffer at their preferred reading speed. If one would notice, more and more
are using these videos without supplying an alternative text version.

So this bring us to the Section 508 issue. Is the websites legally
responsible for providing an alternative text? Often the deaf-blind people
are left out in the rulemaking process. On the other hand it is very
difficult to find them.

With Warm Regards,
Randy Pope

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 4:00PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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There is a company that does real-time captioning on news videos, like
you are looking for Randy. I am forgetting the name, but it is
definitely not low-cost. You have to use their player, which from the
demo it was either not accessible, or just the play/pause button. So
the captions would not be accessible to screen readers.

--
Ryan E. Benson



On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 5:33 PM, Randy Pope < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> That's true, Jared.  The ideal system is to have the caption streamline into
> the user's buffer in the device and the braille reader can read off the
> buffer at their preferred reading speed.  If one would notice, more and more
> are using these videos without supplying an alternative text version.
>
> So this bring us to the Section 508 issue.  Is the websites legally
> responsible for providing an alternative text?  Often the deaf-blind people
> are left out in the rulemaking process.  On the other hand it is very
> difficult to find them.
>
> With Warm Regards,
> Randy Pope
>
>
>

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Thu, Nov 03 2011 1:39PM
Subject: Re: Converting Web Video Captions
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I don't know anything about cost, but WGBH's Media Access Group includes a number of captioning services, including real time. More info at http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/captioning/ (They also do descriptions, by the way.)

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502  fax 617-626-4516
http://twitter.com/sarahebourne
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.mass.gov/itd