Concepts

1
Concepts Techniques for Accessible, Closed
Captioned Web-Based Video
David Klein K. Fritz Thompson

• 10th Annual Accessing Higher GroundAccessible
  Media, Web and Technology Conference
• Boulder, Colorado
• November 7, 2007
• http//disability.law.uiowa.edu/lhpdc/publications
  /kleinpubs.html

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Captioning Definitions

• Closed captions
• Open captions
• Subtitles
• Transcription
• Audio Description

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Closed Captions

• Captions can be turned on / off by user
• Separate track in video
• Can be outside video area
• TV and Web different

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Open Captions

• Captions always present
• Embedded in video
• Located inside video area

5
Subtitles

• In UK, used synonymously for closed or open
  captioning
• In U.S. refers to language translation
• Can behave like either closed or open captioning

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Other Definitions

• Transcription
• Text rendering of the audible portion of an event
• Can be used to create captions
• Audio Description
• Spoken description of the salient visual parts of
  a video
• Used to communicate meaning

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Process - Precaptioning Steps

• Transcribe from audio
• Speaker identification
• Nonverbal elements Laughter, Inaudible
• Transcript saved in text format
• Plain .txt for caption file
• Turn off smart quotes, other autocorrect options
  (Word)
• Smart quotes
• Curly apostrophes
• Em dash
• En dash

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Process - Precaptioning Steps

• Text is broken up into caption-sized chunks
• Captioned Media Program guidelines (TV)
• Caption timing software (MAGpie , HiCaption) or
  text editor
• Import prepared transcript
• Attach time codes to text
• Export
• QuickTime SMIL
• DFXP (Flash)
• SAMI (Windows Media Player)

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Captioning with MAGpie Prepare for Activity 1

• Find folder ahg2007CD on your desktop
• Open folder
• Drag folder activities to the desktop
• Open activities folder
• Open magpie folder

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Captioning with MAGpie Activity 1

• Handout Activity 1 Captioning with MAGpie
• Objectives
• Convert a transcript to timed captions
• Export captions to QuickTime file

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Caption File Contents

• Caption text
• Time codes for synchronization with video
• Text formatting
• Font and font size
• Carriage returns
• Bolding, colors, etc.
• Speakers
• Language support

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Caption File QuickTime

• Open your QuickTime caption file
  (ahg2007_captions.txt)
• Note use of curly brackets
• Heading
• QuickTime Text
• Timescale
• Font/font size
• Background and text color
• Justification
• Time codes
• QuickTime Standards HHMMSS.DD
• Caption text

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Break?

• Take 10 minutes