[Athen] captioning

[Sean J Keegan]

 > We are in the process of developing some
 > policies regarding captioning of media,
 > and wanted to find out how some other
 > campuses are handling it.
 > Do you outsource it?

It depends.  If the materials need to be done very fast (e.g., 24-48hr 
turnaround) and is a non-Web based format, then we will most likely 
outsource.  Also, if the video is a foreign language, or in a recent 
case, heavily accented British English slang, then we outsource.  Our 
office coordinates the captioning process if it is intended as an 
accommodation (e.g., specific student for specific class).  This is 
usually coordinated either through myself or our Accommodations 
Coordinator.  We have used a few different transcription companies for 
the outsourcing part, particularly when we need the materials back in a 
very specific file format (e.g., DVD, VHS, QuickTime/Windows Media 
movie, etc.).

In terms of software, I use several depending on the final output.  Most 
of the work I see is already in a digital format, so I tend to use 
MAGpie (free) and MovCaptioner (low-cost).  If you have money, then 
CPC's MacCaption or CaptionMaker software will do just about any format. 
  It is good to review the type of video materials your institution is 
predominately using as it may also be cheaper to outsource the 
captioning of some content than to purchase whole racks of equipment.  I 
know some institutions who had VHS tape they wanted captioned, but were 
also moving to DVDs.  It was far cheaper to just purchase captioned DVDs 
than to go through the captioning process.

In terms of how we address captioning right now, our office, in 
collaboration with the Stanford Online Accessibility Project (SOAP), 
built a Web-based system to facilitate the process of getting video 
content captioned, particularly for Web-based video.  This was initially 
a pilot project aimed at converting video into Web-ready formats as well 
as delivering caption files.  The transcript process was outsourced to 
transcription companies and the captioning system then used the 
transcripts to automatically synchronize the video and transcript.  If a 
staff member already had a prepared transcript, then that could be 
loaded into the system and the time-stamping would be done at no cost.

The idea of the project was to give the University a means that 
coordinated the outsourcing and creation of captioned materials in 
Web-friendly formats "semi-autonomously".  We did not want one person to 
have to manually handle each transaction or to do the actual 
time-stamping, so we built a Web system to handle that part for us.

A presentation from Accessing Higher Ground is online:
http://captioning.stanford.edu/presentations/ (best viewed using Opera 
Slideshow)

In terms of captioning policies, my suggestion would be to develop 
practices and processes before the policy.  Too often I have seen 
colleges develop a "captioning policy" that creates the situation where 
faculty, staff, etc. abandon the use of media altogether (or just ignore 
getting the video captioned) because the policy is so restrictive or so 
removed from actual practices that it becomes near impossible to comply.

Take care,
Sean

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