With more and more people making videos, and/or posting them on Facebook and other social networking sites, we are confronted (again!) with the issue of Equal Communication Access – how can we in the Deaf Community enjoy such videos when they are not accessible?
The answer of course lies in captioning such videos – adding visible text or subtitles which appear usually at the bottom of the screen and can be read by the viewer.
Captioning such videos can be beneficial not only to the deaf and hard of hearing, but also for individuals who may not be fluent in English, or who desire to improve their understanding of other languages. Indeed, as seen in the video below – created by YouTube – there are many advantages to adding captioning to your videos:
One of the arguments that has been utilized by many individuals to justify their not adding captions to their videos is that the software does not exist, or that it’s just too difficult and time-consuming to do.
Not so!
The software does indeed exist for captioning your videos, and while it may require a bit more time and effort, it’s not as hard as it may seem. Most multimedia technologies do include a mechanism for captioning/subtitling videos. There’s also subtitling websites such as Overstream.
My good friend Geo – who vlogs (video blogging) on his website Seek Geo – created this video which explains how to add captions using Overstream (note: you do not need to click the CC icon for this video, they will automatically come on):
Obviously Geo is a Deaf man who uses Overstream to transcribe American Sign Language into English for non-signing viewers. But the same procedure applies – instead of watching your video to type out a script of your signing, you would listen to it to type a script of the audio.
Yes, it may be a little frustrating at first. Yes, it may take a little time and practice. But is the effort worth it? Speaking for myself, I think it is.
But have no fear, folks – YouTube has taken all of the hassle out of captioning your videos. They’ve now introduced automatic captioning for your videos!
HOWEVER …
please, Please, PLEASE people! A lot of you are obviously taking the easy way out and simply requesting AUTO-CAPTIONING for your video, and letting YouTube’s speech recognition transcription software do all the work. This is all fine and good, and at least it shows you are making the attempt, for which I do thank you. However, the auto-captioning is far from perfect. Although it does appear to have improved somewhat since it was first introduced, it still leaves something to be desired. Judging from the number of “captioned” videos I have seen on YouTube, I’m beginning to suspect that a good number of folks do not take the time to actually watch their video in captioned mode. If so, you would see that the captioning for these videos is often riddled with errors. This is especially true if the video contains vocabulary that is not so familiar, or the speech is not so clear or comprehensible. Remember, this technology bases itself on speech recognition. It listens to the voice and attempts to make an (often not) accurate translation of what’s being said.
This is why I strongly recommend that you upload an actual TRANSCRIPT of your video. This involves doing what Geo was talking about – actually sitting down with your video and typing a transcript of what is actually said, with all the proper vocabulary, etc. You can also use [brackets] to add audio descriptions, such as [laughter] or [car honking horn]; or arrows >>> to identify the speaker, such as >>>John: or >>> Jack: .
YouTube will then use the speech recognition technology to provide automatic timing for your transcript, to make a caption file that can then be downloaded with your video.
That’s not so difficult, is it?
For more information about captioning your YouTube videos, check out the below article:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=100077
And yet, it’s vital to remember that the most important part of captioning your video is…
Actually thinking about doing it.
All the technology and software and subtitling sites and helpful videos are not going to matter if people don’t use them.
Think about it, Gentle Reader. Suppose someone were to send you a video, or post one on Facebook that was done in a foreign language that you couldn’t understand. Suppose Geo had not added captions to his above video and you don’t know sign language. How would you feel?
This is how I and my fellow members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community feel on a daily basis.
Day after day we are bombarded with more and more videos, as the world becomes ever more web-focused. Not merely personal videos on YouTube; but also internet news videos, instructional videos, movie trailers, television programs and movies… and the list goes on.
The vast majority of them are not captioned.
We’re working on it. But we need your help. If you make a video, if you’re involved in the creation of a video, if you’re the webmaster of a web site, or whatever…
Add captions to the video, or advocate for captions to be included.
Together we can change the world… one video at a time.
Deaf Pagan Crossroads would like to thank Geo of “Seek Geo” for his kind permission to use his video in the creation of this post. Thanks for supporting Equal Communication Access, Geo!
For those of you who do not use YouTube for your videos, I encourage you to do your own investigation to learn how to add captions utilizing whatever multimedia technology you use. Most do have methods for subtitling.
If you have any questions, post a comment or send a private e-mail to me at oshginva@gmail.com While I am no technical expert, I will be happy to refer your question to my contacts who may be able to assist with answers. Thank you!
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads 
Your post has auspicious timing for me. I’m working on making my Pagans with Disabilities blog accessible so I’ve read the free information at http://www.evengrounds.com/ and got their Ebook. I’ll be captioning pictures when I do put any up and making sure links also include the URL and not just a highlighted word this way hearing impaired internet will be notified by their voice readers of images and links.
Hi Masery!
Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad that I was able to provide you with some info. However, I must confess to being a little confused, and perhaps you are as well.
If you don’t mind…I would like to take a moment to clarify something, or maybe I am missing something here, to which I certainly invite some clarification.
If my knowledge is correct, Voice Readers are intended for use by the blind, not for those with hearing impairments.
Captioning as I am referring to is used for transcribing audio information into print. So for example, if a video has sound (which most videos do), captioning will transcribe the speech and the sounds of the video into text so it can be read by deaf and hard of hearing people who otherwise cannot understand it.
There is Descriptive Video for individuals who are blind or low-vision, which does describe what is happening in the video. This can certainly be helpful, and is another example of access. However, this is a different thing, and not what I am referring to in my above post.
I know…all the different accessibility terms and services can be confusing! But it is important to make sure that we do understand which services are intended for which group, and that we do not unintentionally offend individuals by offering the wrong type of service. I have had airport staff meet me at the gate with a wheelchair, and restaurants give me a braille menu. A nice gesture, but neither are what I want or need.
By all means, I applaud you for taking steps to make your blog accessible! This is a wonderful thing…and I hope others will follow in your footsteps.
Hello Deaf Pagan.
I found this post from Quinn McDonald’s Facebook comment.
I had no idea that YouTube put captions in now, I will have to experiment. Thank you for pointing out the limitations of voice recognition software. For several years I was a student of machine stenography (a.k.a. court reporting) and people were always telling us that a computer would be doing our job, and it just isn’t so! I’ve sent a link to the program director at the school I went to, so I’m sure she’ll be checking out this post.
Captioning has also been shown to help children improve their reading, so I’ll post a link from my homeschooling blog onesizefitsnone.wordpress.com
Hi textisle!
Thanks for the kind words, and I also must thank Quinn for sharing the info on this post.
I agree…computers can be great tools, but they are not substitutes for the human mind, and its ability to comprehend language in a way that technology just can’t equal.
You bring up an excellent point – there are so many benefits to captioning that go beyond merely access for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. It has indeed been shown to help with literacy.
Thank you for posting a link – the more people who share and learn about this information, the better!
[…] out in the last few minutes that YouTube has a way to caption videos that you are posting. Deaf Pagan’s post describes how to do it and discusses the limitations of voice recognition software. Having spent […]
Just when I believe my awareness has been expanded, the universe rightly slaps me in the head. I have been working on a DVD project. Even after connecting with Deaf Pagan at a one on one level, the thought of captioning (or closed captioning, if that works) never occurred to me. Duh.
Thank you for the wake up call. I will certainly start exploring these possibilities.
Another excellent example of the need for captioning, Edain.
While most DVDs which come out of the big motion picture studios are captioned, many of those coming from small, independent film makers are not.
I applaud those (such as Jo Carson’s “Dancing With Gaia”) which have in fact included captioning in their DVDs.
If you do create a DVD or a movie or whatever, please do consider adding captioning. And if you make a trailer for such to be posted on the web, please make sure your trailer is captioned.
There’s plenty of folks out there who will be thanking you.
And Edain – consider yourself slapped!
I stumbled across this article on the Witchvox feed, and I’m very glad I did! ^_^
I’m rather humbled to say that it honestly never occurred to me that there is a whole group of people in the Pagan community that miss out on the resources that others take for granted. You bring up a very excellent point on the need for captions.
Pondering this new information, it strikes me that it’s not only vids that need captions/transcripts, but that it would also be important spread the word on the need for transcriptions of Pagan podcasts. I certainly will.
Thank you for making me more aware and mindful of my fellow Pagans. ^_^
I suspect you’re not alone… unless one is directly involved with the Deaf Community, this is not an issue one is inclined to think about.
You bring up an excellent point, Spider – Podcasts (whether Pagan or otherwise) are another area that need access. Providing transcriptions would be very helpful. Although I do have to admit that many Deaf people just naturally steer clear of podcasts, simply because it is not a media form that fits our visual language or visual needs. I myself don’t normally search out podcasts, but if there was some interesting information which was made available and accessible to me, I would certainly take a look.
Thank you for your kind words. I have been very touched by the positive response that this post has received from those who saw it via the Witchvox feed.
If this post results in a greater number of captioned videos on the web, then I will feel it has served its purpose.
Bright Blessings
~ Ocean
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