[Athen] Transcripts of podcasts or webinars for deaf student

[National Deaf Center]

Greetings Lorraine,

We saw your post on the ATHEN listserv and would like to contribute
information to the discussion about obtaining transcripts with a quick
turnaround.  We have collected the following resources that may be helpful
and have provided some context on how they are useful in a postsecondary
setting. Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate
to reach out to us for additional support.

A few of your colleagues have recommended outsourcing transcripts for a
quick turnaround.  As a federally funded program, we do not endorse or
recommend specific vendors or services, but we can provide some additional
guidance and resources to assist your circumstance.  First off, it may be
important to note the difference between transcriptions and captions and
how they provide access for deaf students. When it comes to webinars, which
are typically video recordings, providing paper transcripts does not
provide equivalent access.  In NDC’s tipsheet, Why Captions Provide Equal
Access (link: nationaldeafcenter.org/captionaccess
<http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/captionaccess>) (1), it states “[with
transcripts] the viewer is asked to read along while watching the video.
However, it is impossible to read a transcript and watch a video at the
same time, so the viewer must choose whether to read the content or watch
the visuals.  The viewer also has no way of knowing which part of the
transcript goes with which part of the video” (p. 1). While transcripts
(with appropriate audio cues, punctuation and capitalization) may be
appropriate for auditory-only podcasts, it is important to add captions to
webinars.  Some strategies and considerations for obtaining captions for
webinars can be found in the Creating Offline Captions tipsheet (link:
nationaldeafcenter.org/offlinecaptions
<http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/offlinecaptions>) (2), some tips include:

   -

   Smaller or independent production companies may not have thought to
   include captions.  However, they may add captions upon request.
   -

   YouTube videos are most often not captioned, thus captions will need to
   be added.  (YouTube’s automatic captions are notoriously inaccurate and
   cannot be relied upon for access).
   -

   Time considerations are necessary as a captioning “rule of thumb” is
   that one minute of video is equal to five to ten minutes of work (ref:
   3playmedia.com/2018/12/20/long-take-manually-caption-videos/
   <https://www.3playmedia.com/2018/12/20/long-take-manually-caption-videos/>
   )


If you plan to outsource captioning, there are many considerations for the
quality of captions provided such as readability, contrast, proper
capitalization and punctuation.  If you plan to use speech-to-text
(transcription) services, some considerations can be found in the Hiring
Qualified Speech-to-Text Providers tipsheet (link:
nationaldeafcenter.org/hiringstt
<http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/hiringstt>) (3); these include ensuring
that a service provider is qualified with appropriate certification and
oversight to ensure the produced works are complete, accurate and
demonstrate equivalence of content.  For more information, review the
tipsheets referenced above. Additionally, though we do not make
endorsements, we have found a comprehensive list of captioning providers
through the Described and Captioned Media Program found here:
dcmp.org/learn/10-captioning-service-vendors (4).

In any event, there was a recent document (link: tinyurl.com/uscofairuse2018)
(5) published by the U.S. Copyright Office on Fair Use.  The ruling affirms
the right for schools to bypass media materials protections and caption
media for accessibility purposes without fear of copyright infringement.
It is important to note, however, in order to bypass media material
protections, the following stipulations must be taken into consideration:


   -

   The organization must be a K-12 educational institution, college or
   university and is responsible for providing access to students with
   disabilities under applicable accessibility laws (ADA, Section 504 or IDEA).
   -

   The school must make a reasonable effort to determine whether an
   existing accessible version can be obtained for a fair price or in a timely
   manner.
   -

   Media captioned by the school must be privately stored and only shared
   with necessary parties (students and educators) to prevent “unauthorized
   further dissemination of a work.”


Additionally, we have some food for thought as you search for transcription
and captioning access.  3PlayMedia’s 2017 State of Captioning report (link:
tinyurl.com/3PMstateofcaptions) (6) summarizes findings based on a survey
taken by over 1,400 individuals across a variety of industries.
Individuals at higher education institutions accounted for roughly 65% of
all respondents. Here is a summary of findings:

   -

   36% of organizations take a proactive stance to captioning and caption
   all their video content.
   -

   79% of organizations have a budget allocated specifically for captioning.
   -

   61% of organizations already have or are in the process of developing a
   centralized captioning process.
   -

   Captioning Budget: The average captioning budget in higher education
   institutions was $1-$10,000 but some reached as high as $50,000+. This will
   all depend on the needs of the university, policies on whether the
   university captions all video content and population of students with
   disabilities requesting captioning for media in the classroom. (p. 11)
   -

   Departments that were most frequently cited as responsible for
   captioning (across multiple industries) were Instructional
   Technology/Design, Disability Services or Compliance Office, and Video
   Production. (p. 13)
   -

   84% of organizations had 1 to 5 personnel involved with captioning
   across all industries.


As more and more institutions recognize the need for captions, consider how
captions embody the universal design philosophy.  As the National Center on
Accessible Educational Materials puts it “what is essential for some, is
almost always helpful for all.”  A section on their website titled, Why is
Accessible Video Important, (link: tinyurl.com/aemcaptions) (7) it states
that captions can help everyone when:

   -

   People are in noisy public environments such as airports, gyms, and
   restaurants.
   -

   A person wants to watch TV while someone else is sleeping or studying in
   the room.
   -

   A speaker in the video has a strong or difficult to understand accent.
   -

   A video includes specialized or unfamiliar vocabulary (legal, medical or
   scientific terms).
   -

   A sound system is not working, or the sound quality is poor.

Captions do allow equitable access for deaf students, but also reinforces
learning for all students as it provides multiple means of action and
expression, representation and engagement.  For more information on
universal design and videos, visit UDL on Campus (link:
udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_video) (8).

Finally, we have a Disability Services Professionals Toolkit (link:
nationaldeafcenter.org/dsptoolkit
<https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/dsptoolkit>) (9) to assist you with
planning and implementing accessible services for students in higher
education.  It includes information on communication with deaf individuals,
legal and policy tips, commonly used accommodations and guides/templates
for multiple scenarios.  Some relevant resources have already been
mentioned, but some others are the Interactive Process Tools (link:
nationaldeafcenter.org/iptools
<https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/resource/interactive-process-tools-checklist-and-sample-questions-deaf-students>),
Evaluation Tool for Serving Deaf Students (link:
nationaldeafcenter.org/dseval <https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/dseval>)
and Developing Contracts and Requesting Bids: Interpreters and
Speech-to-Text Providers (nationaldeafcenter.org/contracts
<https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/contracts>).

We hope the above information and resources are helpful as you request
accessible materials for webinars and podcasts and navigate accessible
environments for deaf individuals. Should you have additional questions or
needs, please do not hesitate to contact us. We also offer a listserv with
a community of professionals serving deaf individuals where you can post
your question and find standards and practices with other institutions.  If
interested, visit: nationaldeafcenter.org/signup
<http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/signup>. Shortly, you will receive a
survey asking for feedback on the interactions and support provided by the
NDC. Your feedback is appreciated and will be used to improve our services.
Have a great day!

References


   1.

   Why Captions Provide Equal Access: nationaldeafcenter.org/captionaccess
   <http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/captionaccess>
   2.

   Creating Offline Captions: nationaldeafcenter.org/offlinecaptions
   <http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/offlinecaptions>
   3.

   Hiring Qualified Speech-to-Text Providers:
   nationaldeafcenter.org/hiringstt
   <http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/hiringstt>
   4.

   Described and Captioned Media Program: Captioning Service Providers:
   dcmp.org/learn/10-captioning-service-vendors
   5.

   Speech-to-Text Services: An Introduction: nationaldeafcenter.org/introstt
   <http://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/introstt>
   6.

   Library of Congress, U.S. Copyright Office: Exemption to Prohibition on
   Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control
   Technologies: tinyurl.com/uscofairuse2018
   7.

   3PlayMedia: 2017 State of Captioning: tinyurl.com/3PMstateofcaptions
   8.

   National Center on Accessible Educational Materials: Why is Accessible
   Video Important?: tinyurl.com/aemcaptions
   9.

   UDL on Campus: Video: udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_video
   10.

   Disability Services Professionals Toolkit:
   nationaldeafcenter.org/dsptoolkit
   <https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/dsptoolkit>


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NDC is a technical assistance and dissemination center jointly funded by
the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)
#H326D160001.  Disclaimer:
the contents of this email do not necessarily represent the policies of the
federal government.


On Sat, Sep 21, 2019 at 2:45 PM Norwich, Lorraine S <lnorwich at bu.edu> wrote:


> Dear All,

>

> We have a deaf student who needs to get the transcript from a webinar or

> podcast very quickly.   We want to get it as quickly as possible and wanted

> to know what others do to get this done as soon as possible.  The  source

> is from webinars and podcasts media that come from third party websites and

> not from the university I work at.

>

> Any other ideas that we may not have through of

>

> Thanks for your help

>

> Thanks

>

> Lorraine

>

>

>

> Lorraine S. Norwich, BSME, MSIS

>

> Assistant Director of Disability & Access Services

>

> 25 Buick Street 3rd Floor, Boston MA 02215

>

> lnorwich at bu.edu (email)

>

> 617-353-3658 (vox)

>

> 617-353-9646 (fax)

>

> www.bu.edu/disability (website)

> _______________________________________________

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>

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