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.

Click the track you want to add captions in the Outline tab.  Go to the Inspector and click the Other tab.  Next, click the Choose button that is under the Closed Caption (Line 21) heading.  Find and select the appropriate .scc file for that specific track.  Once the .scc file is imported, the option for Filed 1 (Top) recorded will be selected.  This is the correct setting, so leave this option as-is. It is important to note that you will need a corresponding .scc file for each track on the DVD, so this process may need to be repeated depending on the complexity of the DVD project.

The DVD is now authored with captions and ready to burn.  Once the burning process is finished, be sure to check the DVD by watching it on a television set or monitor with a closed caption decoder.  Turn the closed captioning setting on and verify that the DVD plays with captions.   Occasionally, certain DVD players or cords will not transmit closed captioning data correctly to the monitor, so it may be necessary to check on additional DVD players.

Including captions in the DVD authoring process is a easy as these few steps and is also very rewarding as it provides access for additional people to view your project.  For help creating captions and getting a .scc file for your next DVD project, contact rhawthorne [at] captionlabs.com today.

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.

A great example of the importance of closed captions is evident in the athletic stadium experience.  In addition to the excitement generated by a big game or event, there are typically many media elements added to enhance the overall experience.  Whether it is musical performances, creative videos, highlight replays, or general public address announcements, stadium and arena officials work hard to make events more enjoyable for everyone in attendance.

Just as it is important to provide equal access to media that is available via television or the Internet, it is just as important for media to be accessible to everyone in attendance at a game or similar live event.

Fortunately, there is a growing trend in which stadiums have started to include live captions on the video screens of their scoreboards.  Over the past few years, there have been several lawsuits against professional sports teams and public universities due to a lack of accessibility at live events for people that are hard-of-hearing.  Under the framework of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many lawsuits were upheld and several stadiums are now required to provide captions on their scoreboards or JumboTrons.

Looking beyond legal battles and the actions that athletics teams and universities have been legally required to do, there is a very positive side aspect of the growing trend of live stadium captions.  Many stadiums and arenas now voluntarily provide captions for music and other elements that are played over the public address system.  While some organizations may simply be focusing on avoiding legal trouble, many stadiums are not legally required to provide captions at this time, which means they are providing captions for the primary purpose of access rather than out of obligation.

One can only hope that more and more stadiums and similar venues continue to provide captions not just as a result of a lawsuit, but for the sake of providing equal access to everyone in attendance.

As closed captions become more readily available beyond just the television set, what are some areas that you think could use improvement for greater access?

On June 15, a class-action suit was brought against Time Warner in Alameda, CA. The next day, the National Association of the Deaf filed a civil suit against Netflix in federal court in U.S. District Court in Springfield, MA.

Both suits show that hard-of-hearing individuals continue to fight for equal access to information that hearing people may take for granted.

The suit against Time Warner alleges discrimination against the more than 100,000 hearing impaired people who live in California. The suit says that CNN.com, a subsidiary of TW, is a major source for that content, with daily traffic in the tens of millions of visitors. According to the suit, more than 67 million people visited the site in a single day following the tsunami in Japan. But those with hearing loss missed the full picture, since CNN doesn’t caption its online content.

At any given time, CNN.com is host to hundreds of videos. Some of those appeared on the air fully captioned, but the captions don’t translate to the Internet. Captions can be costly, and analysts say CNN may have skirted the captioning requirements by providing written transcripts for many videos posted on CNN.com. But members of the deaf community say that’s not good enough. The suit alleges that the script often varies from the content of the video, and keeps hearing-impaired people in the dark.

Supporters of online captioning say that all people should have on–demand, 24-hour access to news and information.

Netflix is in the same boat, in trouble with the deaf community for not captioning enough of its streaming, “watch instantly” content. Many of the instant programs are captioned, but more are not. Netflix officials have said since 2009 that they’re trying to work out technical difficulties to get all programming captioned, but viewers are growing increasingly impatient. Supporters of the suit say if some programs can be captioned, they all can, and sooner is better than later.

Captioning advocates say leaving a big portion of the population out of the entertainment loop contributes to the stigma and isolation that already exists for people with a hearing loss.

It is sometimes a struggle to provide captions, but all content providers – whether multinational conglomerates or local mom-and-pop shops – need to weigh the pros and cons of captioning. They need to consider the cost to their reputations when they appear to disregard potential customers who are only asking for basic access.

We’re in the midst of an unstoppable trend toward 24-hour, on-demand, online programming, and providers will eventually have no choice but to get on the boat or miss it entirely. It would be in the best interest of all for content providers to dive into full captioning as quickly as they can. There’s a huge population out here just waiting to become loyal customers.

Not only is the availability of this standard significant because of its importance to producers, but SMPTE’s standard is also crucial to accessibility as video viewing habits continue to undergo drastic changes.  With approximately 240 million Americans using the Internet, it should come as no surprise that the number of Internet users watching video content online is growing exponentially.  Not only is Internet access becoming more and more widespread, but the quality and speed of Internet connections continue to improve for users throughout the country.  Current estimates state that almost 70% of online Americans watch video content via download or a streaming service.  In the next few years, this number will grow to over 75% of Internet users in the United States, which will result in nearly 200 million online viewers.

The dynamic of viewership has certainly shifted in recent years and it is necessary for producers of video content to adapt to this trend.  For this reason, the FCC is currently preparing to issue its final rules regarding online captioning to be included under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).  As many anticipate these new rules, the standard made available by SMPTE is a tremendous stepping stone in the process of making online video content readily accessible to people with disabilities.  The fact that SMPTE has made the standard available for free is certainly a tremendous benefit to both producers and viewers alike.

For more information on SMPTE’s standard for closed captioning of online content, click here.

Perhaps what is even more exciting, though, is the use of new technological advances in providing greater accessibility to those who need it the most. Over the course of many years, for example, closed captioning has become more and more readily available as a result of gradual improvements in technology.

More recently, there have been additional technological breakthroughs that have provided greater accessibility to people with disabilities. A good example of this can be found in a new service offered by Clear Captions, a company that is certified by the FCC to provide telephone captions for hard-of-hearing people.

Rather than missing important portions of telephone conversations, or even not being able to communicate on the phone at all, people that are hard-of-hearing can now use Clear Captions to see a complete transcript of what the person on the other line is saying to them.

This important new tool is available to anyone who has a phone and a computer with an Internet connection. The phone captioning service offered by Clear Captions is free for all qualified users and the software is available for use on a MAC, PC, and even an iPad or iPod. Users can even get their captions on the go with the free app available for the iPhone.

As exciting as these kinds of technological advances are, it is still important to note the limitations facing most new technologies while they are in developmental infancy. Specifically, the use of voice recognition software for automated captions has yet to demonstrate a consistent ability to provide accurate captions for video content.

This issue has been addressed previously in this blog, but it certainly bears repeating. Until voice recognition and automation show improvements in its accuracy, captioning of video content, especially in regards to televised or web-based video, should be left to a professional captioning company that can provide the accuracy and accessibility that all people deserve.

As for the phone captioning service provided by Clear Captions, time will tell how well the service performs. In the meantime, though, it is certainly an exciting new option to create accessibility for hard-of-hearing people. Technological advances will continue to progress at a rapid pace and, hopefully, will result in continual improvement in making various forms of media and communication more accessible to everyone.