Introduction
Slide 1
Onscreen Content
Video Captioning for Accessibility – what’s covered:
• Key reasons why captioning is beneficial
• Laws and Guidelines around captioning
• Guidelines around writing captions – technique
• How to caption using Universal Subtitles online tool
• TechTV overview and login
• How to caption using Movie Captioner software
• Determine which tool works best for your workflow process
No images here on this slide
Detailed Script
Welcome to Video Captioning for Accessibility. Today we’ll be covering the following points. (Read bullet points aloud)
Interactivity / Navigation
Click to the next slide which includes a full frame video on YouTube. The instructor will click to begin the film after going through the
“What’s covered” section.
Introduction
Slide 2
Onscreen Content
We think we know why we’re here, so let’s have a look at this clip.
No images here
Detailed Script
We think we know why we’re here today, right? Well, lets have a look at this clip.
Interactivity / Navigation
The image on the right is a short film called “Say… What” – it will be used to gain students attention. The film has no audio and the main
character is signing using American Sign Language (ASL). Unless we know ASL we can’t understand what he’s saying. Frustration builds
until about 26 seconds when the captions kick in. From there we see the protaganist explain and debate the advantages of captioning.
Introduction
Onscreen Content
We think we know why we’re here, so let’s have a look at this clip.
Detailed Script
Interactivity / Navigation
This is a full frame video on YouTube. It continues to play until it ends at 3:39
Slide 3
Introduction
Slide 4
Onscreen Content
We think we know why we’re here, so let’s have a look at this clip.
Detailed Script
Interactivity / Navigation
The Deaf protaganist argues with his devil side whether or not he should caption his video. His “Screw the audience . . .what have they
done for you?” message echoes the thoughts of many web video producers with regard to captioning.
Introduction
Slide 5
Onscreen Content
Captioning benefits and facts:
• Helps Deaf and hard of hearing audiences
• Reinforces learning for people developing their English
language skills
• Helps in noisy areas such as restaurants or bars
• Increases search engine effectiveness in finding video content
• Users tend to watch captioned videos longer than uncaptioned
Prediction
• By 2025 up to 40 Million Americans will have some hearing
impairment
Detailed Script
“Captions serve as a visual tool for the people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captioning also can be used as a learning tool for people
studying or developing their English language skills or when watching television in noisy places such as restaurants or bars. Studies and
surveys have found that up to 35 million Americans are hearing impaired and that number is expected to increase to more than 40
million by 2025. Additionally, captions can increase search engine optimization by helping users find your video and captions tend to
retain viewers and keep them viewing longer.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Clip ends and instructor details the benefits of captions broadly.
Introduction
Slide 6
Onscreen Content
Let’s open our first 2 minute clip.
• Go to Appications > Quicktime to launch Quicktime
• From Quicktime go to:
• File > open > desktop folder > sample clips
• Open “clip-1-captioning.mov”
sample
video clip
will go here
Detailed Script
“Computers should be turned on. Open the video clip on your desktop entitled “video sample”. We are going to spend the day learning
how to caption and the benefits for doing so. By the end of the class you should be able to:
• List three key reasons why captioning is beneficial to any website that serves video.
• Successfully caption a two-minute video clip accurately.
• Determine an online or software workflow process for captioning content you own or are linking to from your site.”
Interactivity / Navigation
The sample clip will be onscreen along with instructions for finding it.
Introduction
Slide 7
Onscreen Content
After reviewing the two minute clip in brief, we will navigate to
Amara’s Universal Subtitles site.
• Click on your bookmark for Amara’s Universal Subtitles in your
bookmarks bar
• Or enter http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/
• Captioning can be completed on this site and use of this tool is
FREE. The other tool we’ll learn with is not.
• This tool does require an Internet connection. The other tool
we’ll learn with does not.
Detailed Script
“Universal Subtitles is a free online captioning tool. Here you create an account, upload your video, and you can begin captioning
videos within minutes. This site has a nice tutorial which we’ll watch. Then, we’ll upload our sample clip and get right to work on
captioning. We all have the same two minute clip. So, we will be doing this together. I’ll demonstrate the first 20 seconds of the clip and
then you’ll begin to caption on your own. Barbara and I will be walking around the classroom and available for questions, but we expect
everyone to caption the full two minute clip before we move on to the next section. You will have 40 minutes to complete this clip.”
Interactivity / Navigation
This is where the instructor switches to the Chrome browsers and we all click to load the Amara Universal Subtitles site.
Introduction
Slide 8
Onscreen Content
Let’s review Universal Subtitles video tutorial.
Detailed Script
“Let’s review Universal Subtitles video tutorial before getting started with captioning. This tutorial will be available to you to review
anytime during your captioning today. For now, let’s watch together on the large screen and I’ll answer any questions you have after the
clip. Then I’ll show you the steps for the first 20 seconds of the clip. You may watch the tutorial again on your own machine before you
begin captioning your clip.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor enters the url for the video clip that the class will be captioning and the Universal Subtitles tutorial is spawned. After instructor
speaks she begins to play the tutorial.
Introduction
Slide 9
Onscreen Content
Questions? Let’s begin.
Detailed Script
“If anyone has questions or needs clarification please ask now. After questions, I’ll show you once more how it works and then it’s your
turn to dig and start captioning.”
Interactivity / Navigation
For the sake of this storyboard I’ve used a clip about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. In the real class the clip has not been sourced yet.
However this clip is close to the content I’d like to use. I want something that’s relevant to accessibility and disabilities to reinforce
awareness around the issue.
Introduction
Slide 10
Onscreen Content
Step 2: syncing the subtitles with the sound. Here’s part 2 of the
tutorial.
Detailed Script
“Now that we’ve added some captions we’ll move on to syncing the subtitles with the sound. Let’s watch step 2.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor clicks the next step and we see the syncing process demonstrated.
Introduction
Slide 11
Onscreen Content
Questions on syncing the subtitles to the sound?
Detailed Script
“If anyone has questions I’ll take them now. Otherwise, I’ll demonstrate how syncing works before we move to the final step.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor begins syncing the first few sentences of the clip before moving to the next step.
Introduction
Onscreen Content
Step 3: Reviewing the content and checking your work.
Detailed Script
“Let’s watch the final step and see what’s left to learn before we complete this caption job.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor clicks step 3 to start the final tutorial clip.
Slide 12
Introduction
Slide 13
Onscreen Content
Questions on step 3?
Detailed Script
“Any questions about the final step? Let’s proceed and tidy up our work before we close out the captioning project and download the
caption files for MIT TechTV.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor clicks to begin illustrating how to clean up typos and tighten up the timeline.
Introduction
Slide 13
Onscreen Content
Download the subtitles by pasting them into a text file i.e. Word or
TextEdit. You should see something like this:
Your code should look something like this:
browser_id: aaa62279764bc5894d1177d2f07d8688ed045b71
video_id: EtBIth5K8w7b
session_pk: 435777
1
99:59:59,000 --> 99:59:59,000
In this room sits a remarkable woman. She is Miss Helen Keller.
Save this text file as Helen-capt.srt
Note: .srt files are what TechTV uses to embed the subtitles in
video.
Detailed Script
“We’ll paste this information into Word and save the file as Helen-capt.srt. TechTV uses .srt files to match the subtitles to the video you
upload to their site. This file includes important timing information that allows TechTV to sync the captions accurately. After we have the
file saved we’ll navigate to TechTV to upload the video and .srt files.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor clicks back to the browser and loads the URL shown on screen. All students must have an active MIT TechTV account set up
prior to joining this class.
Introduction
Slide 13
Onscreen Content
Save the captions file and open the bookmark for MIT’s TechTV
and login to your account.
Go to: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/new
Detailed Script
“Now that we’ve saved the captions file as Helen-capt.srt we can upload the video clip we have on our desktop and upload our new .srt
file to associate it with the video. Next, we can turn on the captions.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor navigates to the TechTV site, logs in and uploads both files. The next step is to associate the files and turn on captioning. After
this step is complete students will begin captioning on their own and instructors will be available to help them through the 3-4 steps.
Instructor will be available to demonstrate any onscreen steps as needed while students caption. All students will be wearing
headphones while captioning, unless they are following along with the instructor’s recap.
Introduction
MovieCaptioner software is available as a stand alone software
tool
to createContent
captions.
Onscreen
Slide 13
Benefits of using software vs Universal Subtitles
- No need to be connected to the Internet
- No need to upload video files
- Works with Mac and Windows
- Good for use with longer video clips (greater than 15 minutes in
length - without any technical issues
- Creates multiple types of captions
Detailed Script
“We spent time learning the basics of captioning with Universal Subtitles. Now we’re ready to learn about a separate tool that’s useful
for longer videos. MovieCaptioner software is a great choice for frequent captioning. Go to your desktop folder and click the
MovieCaptioner icon to launch the tool.”
Interactivity / Navigation
Instructor will illustrate the use of MovieCaptioner as she did with Universal Subtitles and students will export the final captioned .srt file
to upload to TechTV. The process is identical and will offer students a way to repeat what they’ve learned while familiarizing themselves
with the nuances of this optional software tool.
Introduction
References
Images
Amara - universal subtitles. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/
Iamhelenkeller. (2011). Helen keller speaks out [Web]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8&feature=related
Kielbus, M. J. (2010). Say.. what!? [Web]. Retrieved from
http://youtu.be/HiSTiSjGlkU
Mit techtv [Web]. (2011). Retrieved from http://techtv.mit.edu/
Synchrimedia – MovieCaptioner (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.synchrimedia.com/
Slide 13