[Athen] Checking for Captions

Bourne, Sarah (MASSIT) sarah.bourne at mass.gov
Mon Nov 5 05:46:03 PST 2018


A use case for burned-in (or "open captions") is for videos that are created to post on social media sites that have no support for closed captions. (Twitter, for instance.) It should be consider a work-around rather than a desirable solution. If you do need to use open captions, try to position them on the screen so you leave room for closed captions or subtitles, e.g. for other languages, at the bottom without overlap.

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of IT Accessibility
Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS)
1 Ashburton Place, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02108
Office: (617) 626-4502
sarah.bourne at mass.gov | www.mass.gov/eotss<http://www.mass.gov/anf/research-and-tech/oversight-agencies/itd/>

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Bossley, Peter A.
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2018 10:16 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Checking for Captions

I should have probably clarified that we discourage burned in captions for all the good reasons others have put forward here, but we do still occasionally see them; and if I had to choose between no captions or burned in ones, I'll take the burned in ones.
[The Ohio State University]
Peter Bossley
Director, Digital Accessibility Center
ADA Coordinator's Office - Office of University Compliance and Integrity
Student Life Disability Services
950 Lincoln Tower, 1800 Cannon Dr, Columbus, OH 43210
614-688-3028 Office
bossley.5 at osu.edu<mailto:bossley.5 at osu.edu> accessibility.osu.edu<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__accessibility.osu.edu_&d=DwMFAg&c=lDF7oMaPKXpkYvev9V-fVahWL0QWnGCCAfCDz1Bns_w&r=rhLenV33VPpmkT7iP0-OkUlRYw9YWn3HMLHZVP2q9y8&m=rsd7BBfTkOCFxV6_uB5lY6VO_AClObKLyTG4DBsZEsY&s=cGCN96i8aywtkvAMhmRh06Wr23Artz1833-gJvKf-cg&e=>
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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Schipul, Dan
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 6:58 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Checking for Captions


"Burned in" text can obstruct closed captions if you ever add them in, so they become hard to see, defeating the purpose of both.

________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of chagnon at pubcom.com<mailto:chagnon at pubcom.com> <chagnon at pubcom.com<mailto:chagnon at pubcom.com>>
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 6:22 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] Checking for Captions

< - - MESSAGE FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER - - >
Peter B wrote: " But if a video has burned-in captions, there wouldn't be a way for a screen reader user to detect those. "

That's correct. Burned in captions are like photos with text in them. A T can't determine which pixels create text letters and which create the background graphic. Always best to keep text live, not "burned in" graphics or videos or any other form of graphical communication.

Machines like screen readers can only access and process live text.

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Bossley, Peter A.
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 5:17 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Checking for Captions

Many video players do have accessible caption toggles and some make the text accessible to screen readers. But if a video has burned-in captions, there wouldn't be a way for a screen reader user to detect those.

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Robert Spangler
Sent: Thursday, November 1, 2018 6:41 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] Checking for Captions

Hello, is it possible for a blind person to check if there are captions in a video? Everything I know tells me not, but I want to ask anyway in case there is some way that I am unaware of. The captions are displayed in the actual video content, which is not readable by a screen reader. I know on YouTube, I might be able to tell by whether the captions button is present or not, but I'm not sure if that button is always there or just when captions are available. Even then, I don't think I would be able to evaluate the captions anyway.

Thanks,
Robert


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Robert Spangler
Disability Services Technical Support Specialist
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