Accessible Media

Using Video and Audio to meet the needs of a diverse populations

Presented by Kaela Parks

Contents of this Presentation

This resource shares information related to:– Definitions and Benefits– Process Overviews• Producing Transcripts• Creating Timing Codes

– Specific Options• YouTube with Subtitle Workshop or Jubler• Captivate and Camtasia

Definitions of Key Terms• Transcript –a text rendering of an audio or video file

• Subtitle/Caption File – usually a file containing the transcript text as well as time codes (eg sub, srt, etc)

• Closed vs Open Captioning – Closed captions are hidden or visible depending on user preference while open captions are always visible

• Subtitling vs Captioning – Subtitles may contain the spoken words translated from the original language while captioning is not only text but also other sounds

Defining Best Practices

• Transcripts for Audio – information that is presented as audio only, such as podcasts, should have a transcript for those who can’t hear but do not need timing codes for synchronous display

• Subtitles or Captions for Video – whether captured by video camera or from the screen they should be synchronized so the text rendition of audio content is displayed in chunks timed to match the visual content

Benefits of Accessible Media

Who benefits from Captioning?• People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing• People who do not have speakers • People in a noisy environments• People who learn better visually• People whose first language is not English• Search engines looking for key words

Process Overviews

• Starting with audio or video and creating transcripts and timing codes as needed

• Starting with a presentation that includes notes then creating audio and captions automatically

• Converting legacy content by requesting a consultation or technical assistance if possible.

Producing Transcripts

If a transcript is not available and has to be produced there are choices to make. The process takes time and effort because there is no automatic process that can provide reliable results at this point.

– Outsource or use available technical assistance– Do it yourself

• Express Scribe provides nice playback control• Voice Recognition allows for “revoicing”

Producing subtitle files

While a transcript is sufficient for an audio recording such as a podcast, for video, the text must be synchronized. There are a lot of programs to choose from that all do basically the same thing in slightly different ways. Some good choices include:

– Subtitle Workshop– Jubler

CAPTIONING WITH YOUTUBE

• YouTube has added a feature that allows users to upload either a transcript or a subtitle file that has both the text and time codes.

• For best results, upload a subtitle file. One way to create the subtitle file is to use the free subtitle workshop program.

Subtitle WorkshopThe free Subtitle Workshop program is a great basic tool.

There are a wide range of keystroke commands and options to choose from.

Many file types are supported for both video import and subtitle filetypes, for example subrip (. srt) which works well for YouTube.

The program is available from http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw

Jubler Subtitle Editor

The free Jubler program offers a lot of great options.

There are many keystroke commands available and it is possible to work in different ways.

The program is available from www.jubler.org

Using Captivate to Create Instructional Movies from PowerPoint

– All speaker notes will automatically come through as text that can be:• Spoken out loud by a computer synthesized voice of choice and/or• Turned into captions with the timing set automatically.

– Content authors can make changes in the original PowerPoint and have those changes updated in the Captivate movie.

Video tutorials on http://moodle.uaa.alaska.edu

Using Captivate Manually

• Consider using desktop recordings, interactive simulations, quizzes, and more

• Add voice/captions– Captions can be added for individual slides– Captions can be entered by typing, pasting, or

through voice recognition – Sliding bars adjust the timing for each caption

Using Captivate to Create Customized Instructional Movies

• Customizable skins • Presentations as well

as quizzes and more

• Automatic or manual voicing and captioning

• Projects can be exported or published in a variety of formats including swf or pdf

Using Camtasia

• Camtasia is often used for screen casting (recording the desktop).

• In Camtasia to caption you:– Paste in the transcript.– It is broken into three line chunks.– You pick the start times for each.– The font size can be modifed and you can select to

the have text presented as overlay or presented beneath.

Video tutorials embedded on the UAA Accessibility Site

Contact Information

Kaela Parks Director of Disability Support ServicesUniversity of Alaska Anchoragewww.uaa.alaska.edu/dss

Email aydss@uaa.alaska.edu Phone 907-786-4535Fax 907-786-4531