Captioning Resources
This guide provides a list of captioning resources and tools for your use. When referring to other web resources, the name of the website or source is presented first, then the URL.
- Regulations and Laws
- Standards and Related Resources
- Reviews and Third-Party Resources
- Captioning Vendors
- Captioning for Flash
- Web-Based Captioning tools
- DotSUB
- Subtitle-horse
- SubPlay's Create Your Own Captions
- CaptionTube
- Overstream
- Free Captioning Software
- Video Editors
- MAGpie (Media Access Generator)
- Subtitle Workshop
- World Caption
- Captioning Software for Purchase
- YouTube Captioning
- Other Technologies
Regulations and Laws
Requirements for web content accessibility, including captioning, is defined under several broad pieces of legislation. For organizations receiving federal monies, general accessibility requirements is governed by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which also serves as the precursor to the ADA. Section 508 is an amendment focused on electronic and information technology, so most website accessibility is defined by Section 508. Many state and local municipalities, including the State of Minnesota, have based their internet and telecommunications accessibility law on Section 508 language.
The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) used Rehabilitation Act language to define accessibility rights and requirements for all individuals.
Here are some useful resources regarding accessibility law:
- Section 508: http://section508.gov/ - Overview and guide to all things related to the federal Section 508 accessibility standards and guidelines.
- ADA: http://www.ada.gov - Look on the right column for links relevant for “Businesses and Non-Profit Service Providers” and “State and Local Governments.”
- Minnesota Technology Accessibility Law: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?id=131&doctype=chapter&year=2009&type=0
- MN Candidate Campaign Ad Captioning Law: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=10A.38
Standards and Resources
In addition to regulations and laws, several standards-setting bodies have worked to define the basic elements of website accessibility, including captioning.
- http://www.w3.org - Home page of international web design standards body
- http://www.mit.w3.org/WAI - W3's web accessibility initiative
- http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/ - checklist and reference guide to website accessibility
- http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/ - Nice summary of resources and reference materials on website accessibility.
- http://www.dcmp.org/captioningkey/ - DCMP's guide to captioning style and rules. Note specifically the page on text: http://www.dcmp.org/captioningkey/text.html
Reviews and Third-Party Resources
Searching the web will result in numerous reviews, “how-to” guides and opinions on issues related to captioning and accessibility. This page lists several reliable and relatively unbiased first resources when starting a search.
- The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a non-profit subsidiary of Boston's WGBH. Much of their research uses government funding. Besides creating the captioning tool MAGpie, NCAM also publishes access to other resources. Here is a list: http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines
- WebAIM has a nice overview of captioning technologies and resources: http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/
- The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), funded by the US Department of Education, provides free accessible media to schools and inliiduals to support access to educational materials. They produce a significant amount of captioned media through hiring professional captioning agencies. They also provide a good overview on “Caption It Yourself” (CIY) issues and resources: http://www.dcmp.org/ciy/
- Adobe, the makers of Flash, also provide a list of suggested tools: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/flash/captioning_tools.html
- The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) is a good resource on current legislative activities for accessibility. In addition, their lists of affiliates include many captioning companies, so this can be a good starting point when looking for captioning agencies. http://www.coataccess.org
- The University of Washington has a nice listing of resources. In particular here is a description of the various types of closed caption files: http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?1160
Captioning Vendors
This course makes no recommendations for vendors. Here are some links to other sites where you can find out more information about captioning service providers:
- National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) – a good start when looking for realtime captioning reporters: http://ncraonline.org/
- COAT – many captioning service providers are affiliates of this accessibility advocacy organization: http://www.coataccess.org/node/2
- DCMP's link to the list of US Department of Education's “Approved captioning service vendors” who have passed a DCMP evaluation (primarily post-production or offline captioners, although some also provide realtime services): http://www.dcmp.org/About/Vendors/Captioning.aspx
- List of "YouTube-ready" vendors. All vendors have to follow certain guidelines. Check out the YouTube channel for more information on these vendors.
You should also ask colleagues for recommendations and feedback. Captioning is becoming more common, so it's likely someone you know has worked with a captioning services provider.
Captioning for Flash
Flash is one of the most popular formats for streamed web video. Here are some useful links on captioning for Flash:
- A nice presentation on how to use Flash's accessibility features, with slides and transcript: http://www.msfw.com/accessibility/presentations/flash2009/slides.html
- Adobe's captioning page: http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/flash/captions.html
- Magazine reviewer's presentation on Flash's captioning tools (this is in CS3 – the latest version is now CS4): http://layersmagazine.com/closed-captioned-video-in-flash.html
- NCAM's CcforFlash – overview and demo: http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines/ccforflash
Web-Based Captioning Tools
The course listed several web-based captioning tools. Following is a brief review of each tool. Keep in mind that there are other tools out there. For example, you may want to check out the following resources:
- http://www.dcmp.org/ciy/ (DCMP's “Caption It Yourself” page)
- http://terrillthompson.com/2009/08/free-tools-for-captioning-youtube.html (University of Washington's review on captioning tools)
- http://www.youtube.com/t/captions_about (YouTube's general page on their captioning support)
This Resource Guide provides a short overview of the following tools:
- Subtitle-horse
- DotSUB
- SubPLY
- CaptionTube
- Overstream
DotSUB
DotSUB's focus is supporting multi-language subtitles, particularly for videos that may have an international audience. You must use their URL to view your video's subtitles.
You can upload a private video to their website for processing. The transcription tools are well designed and easy to use. The quality of captions can be as high as you care to make them. DotSUB provides good support with instructions and video tutorials – just click “Help.”
Website: http://dotsub.com
Subtitle-horse
Subtitle-horse enables you to export a caption file for use on your website. Currently it supports quite a few formats, including the timed text format used by Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight players and srt for YouTube.
The editor displays the captions on your video as you work, so you can see changes on the fly. You can fine-tune timing to account for slide transitions. The transcription tools are relatively easy to learn and use.
Website: http://subtitle-horse.org
SubPly's Create Your Own Captions
Part of the Plymedia family of products and services, “Create Your Own Captions” is their free tool that uses a modified version of Subtitle-horse technology. It is set up to offer the caption creator revenue opportunities through a “partner” framework.
You can download the software for offline access and (if desired) set up an advertising framework whereby advertisers can target a particular audience that may be interested in captioned or subtitled versions of your videos.
Plymedia also offers (in beta format at this time) a free automatic transcript service that you can use to generate a srt captions or use the text to input into a different captioning format.
Website: http://www.subply.com/en/Products/CreateYourOwn.htm
CaptionTube
CaptionTube enables you to create captions for YouTube videos. In addition to uploading your own videos you can enter the video's URL and then have the program email the resulting captions to the video's owner for insertion.
The editing tools well laid out and include a variety of interesting features such as enabling you to check the rate of captions by calculating the words per minute.
Several video tutorials provide an overview of the tools and processes.
Unlike some other tools, the editor does not show you the captions on the video as you edit. Instead, depending on the interface you choose, the captions are on a timeline or in a box underneath the video.
Website: http://captiontube.appspot.com/
Overstream
Overstream is conceptually similar to DotSUB in that you use their URL to point to captions overlaid on your video. You can also download the captions as an srt file which is the YouTube file format.
The website provides a nice tutorial that helps you along the process.
Website: http://www.overstream.net/
Free Captioning Software
The most well-known free captioning tools that you can do on your computer are:
- Video editors (not recommended)
- MAGpie
- Subtitle-Workshop
- World Caption
The tools reviewed in this course are only a sampling of the available offerings, Use the links in the Resources section to help you find additional programs and other resources such as reviews.
Video Editors
If you already have a non-linear editor such as Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, or Final Cut Pro, you could use it to create “lower third” graphics as captions. Lower thirds are commonly used to create titles, and so some enterprising editors have extended its use toward creating open captions, for viewing by all users. While appealing in its simplicity, this approach is not recommended for several reasons:
- As a graphic, lower thirds cannot be read by screen readers.
- As a general purpose tool, it can take longer to create captions than it would using a specialized tool.
MAGpie (Media Access Generator)
The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) a non-profit subsidiary of the Boston's WGBH created MAGpie as a free tool to generate caption files for nearly any player on the market, from QuickTime to the Blackberry. The latest version no longer works on the Mac (an Apple issue). MAGpie in addition to NCAM's website. The program is well documented and has a large base of users that you can tap for answers to questions. In addition, NCAM works with other agencies to support webinars and other “how-to” sessions.
Website: http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines/magpie
Subtitle Workshop
For a free program, Subtitle Workshop is a sophisticated program, supporting a wide array of file formats. It runs only on Windows PCs. As with any relatively sophisticated program, there is a learning curve. The developer does not provide any tutorial or “how-to” outside of an FAQ. However they support a robust user forum.
Website: http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw&lang=1
World Caption
Free program specifically creating captions for QuickTime movies (.mov files) on a Mac. If your files are in other formats such as Windows Media (.wmv; .avi), MPEG (.mpg) or RealMedia (.rm), you will have to first convert the file.
This can be a useful program in an academic or university setting that only uses QuickTime programs.
Website: http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=7096
Captioning Software for Purchase
If customer support for installation, maintenance, upgrades, and operation, particularly in enterprise settings, is a critical factor, it may be worth buying a vendor-supported software system. In addition, you may decide you prefer a certain product's features, interface, and usability.
The tools listed here are only a sampling of the available offerings. Use the links elsewhere in the Resources section to help you find additional programs and other resources such as reviews.
- Captionate: http://www.buraks.com/captionate/ (For Flash players only)
- CaptionMaker: http://www.cpcweb.com/webplus/ (CPC's software for Windows)
- MacCaption: http://www.cpcweb.com/webplus/ (CPC's software for Mac)
- MovCaptioner: http://www.synchrimedia.com/ (Mac only)
- Swift. http://www.softelgroup.com/ (Windows-based family of enterprise system tools to manage entire workflow including captioning)
YouTube Captioning
YouTube, as noted in Module 3, provides a range of tools for their users. Regarding their automated transcription services, bear in mind that it should only serve as a starting point or stopgap. Even the cleanest audio will have numerous mistakes, and most video audio will have ambient noise, accents, and other elements that will complicate the transcription.
The Conference of Interpreter Trainers Newsletter contains an excellent article on how to speed up the captioning process through YouTube. Check out the following detailed instructions in how to create quality captions on your own: http://cit-asl.org/demo/DigitalImmigrant.html.
The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) provides a list of "YouTube-ready" vendors. All vendors have to follow certain guidelines. Check out the YouTube channel for more information on these vendors.
YouTube provides a few resources as starting points to use their services:
- http://www.youtube.com/t/captions_about
- http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=100077
Other Technologies
Encoding services. Whether you're using a CART service or integrating live captions into a video, you need to encode the caption data stream. Most realtime captioners either have their own encoding system or contract with a service. Two such services are:
- Streamtext: http://www.streamtext.net/
- Speche: http://speche.com/
Encoders. If you want to set up your own realtime captioning system, then you will have to buy an encoder. Some providers include:
- EEG: http://www.eegent.com
- Evertz: http://www.evertz.com