Captioning Access on the Internet
October 2003
Editor: This workshop was presented at the 2003 TDI convention by
Linda Idoni, who is the director of the West Coast office of Media
Access Group (MAG) at WGBH. Their website is access.wgbh.org
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Linda reported that about 80% of the work her office does is for
broadcasting. They also do some DVD captioning, and expect that work to
increase. They currently do very little web captioning.
She pointed out that an estimated 36 million people have some form of
sensory loss, and 24 million of them have hearing loss. Text based
information is great for both groups (with screen readers for those with
vision loss); but now that we are getting more video on the Internet, we
need to make sure it's accessible. Adding captions, descriptions, and
subtitles will ensure access.
People with vision loss access Internet information using screen
readers, which are programs that convert text to audible speech. Access
is provided to those with vision loss by ensuring that all images have
alternative text descriptions, which the screen readers can use.
WGBH has developed a program called MAGpie, which allows authors to
add captions, subtitles, and description to the four popular video
formats. It is available for PC and Mac. You can learn more about MAGpie
and download it free at ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/MAGpie
Source code, examples, etc. are available at ncam.wgbh.org/richmedia.
That site also has information on general conventions and design
guidelines, including Math and Science Solutions; it's really a
wonderful guide to Internet captioning.
MAG continues to develop tools for web-based applications, CDs, etc.
They support Windows Media, QuickTime, Real Media, and Flash.
Rich media is defined as elements on a web page or in a separate
player that exhibit dynamic motion or responses to user interaction.
Examples include streaming video, animated interactive tools, animated
Flash, and image slideshows.
MAG is a non-profit organization. It established the Caption Center
in 1972, the world's first descriptive video service in 1990, and NCAM
in 1993. NCAM is a research, development, and advocacy entity.
On TV, captions are hidden and must be selected. On the web, captions
are in a separate file and can be selected or not.
When you create captions and descriptions with MAGpie, you create a
captions track and an audio description track. MAGpie assigns time codes
to each caption or description component to ensure that these tracks are
synched with the video.
MAG also produces Arthur, an accessible TV program for kids.
They have developed a new software tool called closed captioning
Internet Real Time (ccIRT), which extracts television captions from line
21 so they can be used to create Windows Media or Real Player
captioning. ccIRT is not yet publicly available.
Rich Media Resource Center contains examples of accessible rich
media, various tools, tutorials on captioning and audio descriptions,
and current news.
We encourage everyone to be a Web Access Advocate. Each of you can
alert webmasters of the need for captions and description, and tell them
where to get the tools.
Q: Do any of existing Internet videos have captions already on them?
A: Not many - our stuff is captioned, but a lot of stuff isn't. There
are some deadlines in effect, but they are sliding. IBM, Microsoft, and
some others do a pretty good job of captioning their videos.
Note that in all the multimedia players, the user must turn
captioning on; this is usually done in the "Preferences" menu.
Q: What is the difference between MAGpie and ccIRT?
A: You use MAGpie to actually create captions. ccIRT takes the
television captions and creates a captioning file for the streaming
version on the internet.
You must download MAGpie to be able to see captions in Flash. For the
other multimedia formats, you don't need MAGpie unless you want to
create captions.
