For many years, LiveTV has provided connectivity systems and entertainment options aboard aircraft for many different airlines.  The availability of closed captions with its service is significant because LiveTV believes it “is a major step forward in delivering the excitement of inflight entertainment to those passengers with hearing disabilities.”

Continental Airlines will be the first airline to offer this new closed captioning feature.  Passengers onboard the LiveTV-equipped airplanes will be able to individually control the captioning option on over 100 available DirecTV satellite channels.  LiveTV and Continental Airlines should be applauded for taking this great step towards greater accessibility.  Hopefully, additional airlines will begin to take advantage of this service as well.

Having closed captioned content available for passengers aboard an airplane is another great example of how technology is greatly improving accessibility.  Not only can video content be viewed by more people and in more places than ever before, but people with hearing disabilities are not excluded and can enjoy the same entertainment options as everyone else.

Closed captioning has moved from the standard of television to being available with video content online, on video screens and scoreboards at live events, and now in the middle of a flight.  Are there any other areas where you think technology will help improve the availability of accessible media?

It seems that television production is always finished at the very last minute.  No matter how many times goodhearted producers attempt to get ahead of schedule, something unexpected happens and the race against the clock begins.  Almost everyone producing TV content has a story about racing to the FedEx dropbox before the final pickup of the day.  Hopefully these tips will help you avoid making your own dropbox story this year.

During the holidays, additional factors come into play that can leave even the most prepared production team scrambling.  How do we know?  We live it.  During every holiday season, requests for “rush” closed captioning projects increase dramatically.  Although we are happy to help our customers in a pinch, we thought we might serve them better by helping them before panic sets in.  So here’s our list of five tips to help you plan.

• 1- Know Your Station’s Traffic Deadlines. The kind folks who receive, log, ingest and error check your program prior to air usually have days off during the holiday season.  But because the broadcasting of television programming gets no break during the holiday, the traffic department has to prepare all the programs in advance.  This means that they need your show sooner than usual.  A simple phone call or email to the station will help you determine how soon your program needs to arrive.  Be proactive – don’t wait for them to contact you. By asking questions in advance, you can prevent that surprise call that your tape is due tomorrow.
• 2- Make Sure Your Entire Team Is on Board. Producing television usually involves the effort of many people.  In order to reduce stress, make sure you set realistic goals and deadlines for production and over-communicate those deadlines to your team.  Assuring the entire team understands the “big picture” and is on board with the vision will help reduce last minute pressure.
• 3- Don’t Rush. Whenever there is a tight deadline, it is easy to fall into the trap of rushing through it.  Too many times, however, this mistake will cost more time and money in the long run.  Take the necessary time to check your program content, audio / video levels, audio phase, closed captioning, time-code, slates, etc.  A mistake in any of these areas could result in mistakes on the air or rejection from the station, which may require either rushing a new tape or missing your airplay.
• 4- Expect Shipping Delays. UPS and FedEx experience peak demand during the holidays.  This year, UPS alone expects more than 25 million shipments a day, through Christmas.  Although the increase is anticipated, the large number of packages being shipped around the country means higher chances that your package may not be delivered on time.  FedEx and UPS suspend their “on time” guarantees during the holidays, so don’t expect the same delivery time in December that you receive in June.  If you normally use ground service, ship your package a day earlier or plan on upgrading to an “air” service.  If you already use a Next Day service, remember most morning delivery timeframes are no longer guaranteed, so make sure afternoon is acceptable with your station.  For FedEx Holiday Schedule, click here.  For UPS Holiday Schedule, click here.
• 5- Confirm With The Station. Lastly, it’s always a good idea to confirm with the station that your program has been received and it is acceptable for broadcast.  Because things are very busy before the holidays, waiting for the station to contact you about a problem may mean that you won’t have ample time to create a fix.

This holiday season is a great time to celebrate with friends, family and co-workers.  A little preparation ahead of time can prevent unneeded stress and late nights at the office.  We hope you put these tips to use and have a safe and fun holiday.

Merry Christmas!

In 1996, Congress created closed captioning requirements for television content.  Between that point and 2005, very few exemptions were given out by the FCC.  In 2006, an order provided a blanket exemption for churches based on the hardship and financial burden of providing closed captions.  As a result, hundreds of exemptions were handed out that year.

The recent reversal from the FCC came after five years of pressure from organizations and advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing communities.  Since the actual cases of the hundreds of exempt churches were never individually considered, advocates claimed that many of the exemptions may have been unwarranted.

The FCC’s recent overturn now means that many of the churches may face a decision of either paying for closed captioning service or potentially going off the air.  As previously discussed here on this blog, there are many positive benefits that result from churches providing closed captions for their television programming. In short, people that are deaf or hard of hearing deserve the same access to television content as everyone else.  Religious programming is no exception.  In fact, many shut ins and elderly people depend on religious programming for teaching and encouragement because they cannot travel to and from church regularly.  Since many people in this group also suffer from hearing problems, closed captioning is of incalculable value to them.

Providing closed captions can certainly be a financial obstacle for many faith-based organizations, but the cost pales in comparison to the cost of air time and other production expenses.  If a ministry chooses to invest in television as a means of spreading its message, it only makes sense that every effort be made to effectively deliver the message to everyone that wants to watch.  After all, if a message is worth being on the air, isn’t the audience worth the extra effort of complete accessibility?

Beyond mandates from the FCC or requirement from television stations, closed captioning matters.  Millions of people depend on it every single day.  The churches at the core of this issue may understandably have difficulty deciding what to do, but it is certainly important to remember that the return on this investment is priceless.

VDS specifically includes audible narration about significant visual elements of video content.  By including the description and strategic pauses in between dialogue, people that are visually impaired are able to gain a greater understanding of what is occurring on screen.

The reinstated rules are directed, for the most part, at large-market affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox as well as major cables channels including the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, TBS, TNT and USA.  The mandate placed on these stations and affiliates is to provide a minimum of 50 hours of VBS content per quarter of the calendar year.

The possibility of greater and greater amounts of television programming including VBS is certainly an exciting progression for accessibility.  Much like the significance of closed captioning in extending the benefits of the television experience to people that are hard of hearing, VDS marks an important stepping stone in enhancing the experience for the visually impaired community.  In fact, current estimates state that 11 million blind or visually impaired consumers will be positively affected by these video description rules.

According to the reinstated rules, full VDS compliance is required for the listed stations and affiliates by July 1, 2012.  For more information regarding the technical process and other aspects of VDS, read this full-length article from TV Technology.

In short, the FCC must release advanced rules for Internet captioning by January 2012.  All live and near-live programming must have online captions by this same deadline.  A 12 month deadline was also given for edited programming to have captions online by July 2012.

The goal of these deadlines is to ensure that all users can enjoy and benefit from television content played on the Internet.  In fact, the report released this past July states that the “fundamental performance objective is that regardless of how the captioned video is transmitted and decoded, the consumer must be given an experience that is equal to, if not better than, the experience provided as the content was originally aired on television.”

To strive towards this objective, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on September 19, 2011.  Several rules are suggested to help implement the 21^st CVAA and these suggestions are currently open to public comment.  Some of the proposed rules include that video programmers must provide the necessary caption files to the video distributor; the programmer and distributor must ensure that captions will be available to the end viewer; and the quality of captioning on video viewed on the Internet must be no less than the quality of captions available when viewing the same video content on a television set.

As the Internet continues to significantly change how people view media, the new rules for Internet captions will play a tremendous role in providing equal access to everyone.  For decades, the FCC has enforced regulations that provide access for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to content via closed captions on the television set.  Thankfully, the FCC’s deadlines and proposed rules are good start to establishing the same access that has been provided on television sets to be available on content viewed on the Internet.

Although they are outdated, the rules still stand.

The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) filed a petition with the FCC in January 2011, urging the universal captioning of TV. They are pressuring the FCC to rescind several captioning exemptions that no longer make sense, including those for:

• late night programming airing between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
• commercial and political advertising
• locally produced non-news programming
• interstitials, promotional announcements and public service announcements
• channels with annual revenues of less than $3 million

It’s easier and less expensive to produce captions now, and petitioners assert that some of the rules should be eliminated altogether, or at least amended, as in the $3 million revenue exemption.

COAT affiliates are also asking that the electronic newsroom technique not count toward compliance requirements. With ENT, teleprompter scripts are used to create the captions. That means that all scripted words show up in the captions, but live shots, breaking news, weather reports and asides made by the newscasters would not be available to those depending on captions.

Petitioners are also asking the FCC to overturn the 2006 Anglers Exemption Order, which granted exemptions to non-profit organizations that did not receive compensation for their programming from the channels where they were aired – in this instance, religious programming. The order specified that non-profits were exempt if not getting the exemption meant programming might be substantially curtailed. The petitioners say hundreds of exemptions were granted this way, but without really following the letter of the law.  [view the petition by clicking here]

With the passage of the 21st Century Communication Act, it looked like captions would be everywhere, all the time. But the legislation didn’t require changes to broadcast TV, instead focusing on accessibility as it relates to internet programming and devices that receive programming.

Because of rules implemented in 2010, citizens can file complaints about missing or incomplete captions directly with the FCC.

FCC Online Complaint Form

Contact them at:

fccinfo@fcc.gov (e-mail)
(866) 418-0232 (fax)
(888) 225-5322 (phone)
(888) 835-5322 (TTY)

or by mail at:

Federal Communication Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Unfortunately, in times past, this American tradition hasn’t been completely accessible to all Americans.  The 36 million people in the United States who are deaf and hard of hearing have missed-out in at least part of this experience.  This was caused because although the broadcast of the game is required by law to carry closed-captioning, the 30 and 60 second commercials and promotions do not have such a requirment.

In recent years, many advertisers made the choice to voluntarily close-caption their commercials.  Most likely the deciding factor to do this was so that they could get the “most bang for their buck.”  After all, if you’re paying three million dollars for 30 seconds of airtime, you need to reach as many viewers as possible.  And that’s good thinking on their part.  While there are 36 million Americans who rely on closed-captioning, there are also countless others packed into a noisy bar or restaurant watching the game too.  So the best way for those advertisers to effectively get their message across is to make sure it’s accessible to as many viewers as possible.

With the help of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Football League (NFL), over the past few years more and more of the televised Super Bowl broadcast has been captioned.  In fact, last year, we heard reports that around 70% of the broadcast was presented with closed-captioning.  We even blogged about it! [read more]

So what can we expect this year?  The NAD has proudly announced that Super Bowl XLV will be 100% captioned – including the game, national commercials, and network promotions [read more].  Thanks to the efforts of the NAD and the NFL along with FOX Broadcasting Company, for the first time ever, the entire Super Bowl experience will be captioned from start to finish.

It is exciting to see that years of awareness education, public outcry and advocacy groups like the NAD have led to this important milestone.  Perhaps this example by the Super Bowl advertisers will lead the way to more commercials on television also being made accessible to deaf and hard of hearing consumers.

People who live with challenges appreciate the ADA every day, but this anniversary was special, because it also marked the passage of another important piece of legislation.

On July 26, 2010, the U. S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3101, commonly dubbed the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Legislators recognized the need for further changes in the communications industry, with a landslide vote of 348 to 23.

Although this bill still has many crucial steps to make before it is signed into law, the overwhelming vote for H.R. 3101 shows that our government leaders recognize the need to update accessibility laws to accommodate citizens living in the 21st century.

Where the ADA provided physical necessities like ramps on sidewalks and into buildings, and easier access to transportation, H.R. 3101 puts people with individuals in touch with all of the new technology that has become so essential in American life. With this new legislation, materials on the internet and in video will become much more accessible to those who have hearing loss.

H.R. 3101 was authored, introduced and championed by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The bill, if passed, would require television programs that are captioned for broadcast to be captioned when viewed over the internet, as well. The resolution would also lead to hearing-aid compatibility over internet-based telephone, improved relay services and funding, access to internet-based services and equipment, and requirements that would increase video description services for television broadcast.

The resolution has received bi-partisan support in the House, and has now gone to the U. S. Senate for a vote. The legislation has received ample support so far, but that doesn’t mean that it will pass with no opposition, or that its success is necessarily guaranteed. It is essential for advocates of H.R. 3101 to contact their legislators and voice their support of equal access for all.

You can make your opinion known by writing, calling, faxing, or emailing your two U. S. Senators. Contact information for all senators, including phone, e-mail and snail mail addresses, can be found at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Tell your U. S. Senators to vote for H.R. 3101 – the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, and help make technology more accessible to all.

After doing my own personal survey, I have realized that most people don’t have a good understanding of the basic types of captions. Sure, everyone is familiar with them at some level, but many people don’t understand the different types and uses of captions, and why captions are set up the way they are.

So if you’ve ever wondered why captions are done a certain way, or if you just want to show off your superior captioning knowledge at your next company picnic, keep on reading.

Subtitles

To set the record straight, subtitles are not captions.  However, I’ve included them here because it is important to understand what makes them different from captions.

Closed captions were developed for the deaf and hard-of-hearing audience to be able to read along with the TV program they are watching.  The technology allows captions to be “encoded” into the video signal and transmitted over the air (or played from tape) to the viewer’s home.  A “decoder” chip installed in the viewer’s TV set (or set-top box) allows the captions to be turned on or off.  Usually, the text has white letters on a black background and can be placed in many different areas of the screen.  Closed captioning technology has been around for many years and is now required on almost all broadcast TV programs.

Subtitles are a little different.  They were developed to allow the viewer to read text translated from a foreign language.  They could be presented in a wide array of font and color combinations and almost never have a black background.  The text is not encoded into the video signal, so there is no way to turn them on or off using a TV set decoder. The introduction of DVD changed that slightly. Subtitles used in DVD or Blu-ray can be turned on or off from the DVD menu. In addition, DVD and Blu-ray usually offer the viewer the choice of watching subtitles in one of multiple languages.

Captioning is a different thing altogether, and there are two captioning methods widely in use today.

Roll-up Captioning

Just like this term implies, the captions roll up the screen line by line.  Usually two or three lines of text are displayed on the screen at a time, either at the top or bottom of the screen.  Because this is the most basic form of captions, a simple double chevron is often used to indicate speaker changes (>>) and only minimal sound effect descriptions are included.

This type of captioning is used for all live event broadcasts and some post-production broadcasts that have few speaker changes. Roll-up captions are a very popular style for broadcast because this style is more economical and requires less time to produce and format.  The downside to roll-up captions is that they are often harder to follow. As the captions roll by, it may become difficult to comprehend details such as speaker changes and sound effects when they occur in quick succession.

Pop-on Captioning

This is the most descriptive form of captions.  The text “pops” on and off the screen in sync with the audio.  Each caption usually consists of two or three lines of text and is carefully placed on the screen to avoid covering graphics and faces while also identifying the speaker.  Sound effect description is also included in the pop-on style.

Pop-on captions are the easiest to read and comprehend, but the process of creating them is much more detailed, time intensive, and more of a financial burden for small broadcasters.

No matter which method is used, captioning itself proves to be a useful tool, and one viewers will appreciate, whatever their reasons for using the captioning.

**Note: The statements made about closed captions refer to CEA-608 Line 21 captioning.  CEA-708 captions that are created for ATSC digital streams have a wide range of additional features that we have not attempted to explore in this article.

The Federal Communications Commission has made it easier for the public to report captioning problems – problems that broadcasters might otherwise not know are happening.

People who use closed captioning, especially those with a hearing loss, depend on captions to get the information they need and the entertainment they want. Television is much more accessible than it used to be, but problems still exist. Garbled captions, misplaced captions that cover names or other important information, or captions that are missing altogether – all are concerns for the hard-of-hearing community.

Users report that song lyrics are sometimes missing, replaced with a single musical note. Sometimes captions don’t match what is actually being said, and the content may be drastically shortened instead of being written out verbatim. Punctuation is another problem that can go hand in hand with this.

For instance, a hypothetical government official apologizes for embezzling money, and announces he has decided to put himself into exile in France. The caption: I’m sorry I decided to move to France. In this example, the meaning changes significantly.

Other problems include captions that are misspelled, changing the meaning entirely. Online (live) captioners have to keep up with lighting-fast speakers, sometimes several of them, so they use a shorthand machine like a court stenographer. The shorthand symbols are decoded by another machine, and words that aren’t recognized are turned into the closest phonetic equivalent.

The famously misheard Jimi Hendrix lyrics come to mind: “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” Yeah, it was the sky, not a guy, and again communication breaks down.

Program producers and viewers want these problems solved, but those who broadcast the shows often don’t know that a problem exists.

The FCC has developed a new system to help bring captioning problems to light. Under the new rules, viewers who have a complaint can contact the station where the problem was seen, or contact the FCC, which will forward the report to the broadcaster, cable company or satellite provider.

Simple problems can be fixed within minutes, if consumers call or e-mail right away. Some people may decide to contact broadcasters later, but the new rules state that complaints must be made within 60 days of the captioning problem. Then the program producer has 30 days to respond to the complaint.

How To Contact The FCC:

Online
File your complaint using the FCC Complaint Form.

Email
File your complaint by email to fccinfo@fcc.gov

Fax
1-866-418-0232

Letter
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

Phone
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice
1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY.
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (ET)