Advanced Workflows for Closed Captioning
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The document provides an overview of advanced workflows for closed captioning, discussing integration types, accessibility laws, and case studies on notable lawsuits regarding closed captioning like those involving Netflix, Harvard, and MIT. It outlines George Mason University's transition to a hybrid captioning method, highlighting workflows, costs, efficiencies, and service requests from faculty. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of effective captioning standards and practices, as well as the use of APIs for automation in captioning tasks.
Advanced Workflows for Closed Captioning
- 1. 1 Advanced Workflows for Closed Captioning Kara Zirkle IT Accessibility Coordinator George Mason University www.3playmedia.com twitter: @3playmedia live tweet: #a11y Type questions in the window during the presentation Recording of presentation will be available for replay To view live captions, please click the link in the chat window Lily Bond 3Play Media Director of Marketing lily@3playmedia.com
- 2. OLC Workshops of Interest to You • Special discounts available for OLC Members! June 20 - 26, 2016 – Fundamentals: ADA & Web Accessibility http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/learn/workshops
- 3. Agenda Laws & Lawsuits Impacting Closed Captioning Requirements Workflow Type: Integrations George Mason University’s Workflow, Timeline, & Cost Workflow Type: DIY Captioning Workflow Type: Using APIs Q&A
- 4. Accessibility Laws: 508, 504 Rehabilitation Act: Sections 508, 504 ‣ Covers federal agencies and orgs with federal funding ‣ Assistive Technology Act
- 5. Accessibility Laws: ADA Rehabilitation Act: Sections 508, 504 ‣ Covers federal agencies and orgs with federal funding ‣ Assistive Technology Act ADA: Titles II, III ‣ Covers public and commercial entities ‣ Lawsuits: What is a “place of public accommodation”?
- 6. Accessibility Laws: CVAA Rehabilitation Act: Sections 508, 504 ‣ Covers federal agencies and orgs with federal funding ‣ Assistive Technology Act ADA: Titles II, III ‣ Covers public and commercial entities ‣ Lawsuits: What is a “place of public accommodation”? CVAA ‣ Covers Internet content that aired on TV ‣ Includes video clips ‣ Copyright owner bears responsibility
- 7. Closed Captioning Lawsuits: Netflix ‣ National Association of the Deaf (NAD), et al. v Netflix – What constitutes a place of public accommodation? – How did the NAD originally bring Netflix under the ADA? – Settlement & implications
- 8. Closed Captioning Lawsuits: Harvard/MIT ‣ National Association of the Deaf (NAD), et al. v Netflix ‣ NAD vs. Harvard & MIT – Current state of the case – Implications for higher education – Changing scope of the ADA
- 9. Integrations
- 10. Integrations: How Do They Work? First, link your accounts Video Platform Captioning Vendor 2. Captioning vendor will get started
- 11. Integrations: In-Depth Look 1. Link accounts 2. Option: upload media directly to your captioning account File is automatically sent to vendor 3. Transcription and captioning process is kicked off 4. Captions are automatically posted back to platform for viewing 2. Upload media into video platform (e.g., Mediasite or YouTube) Captions text editor available for use if needed by some vendors 5. Output files stored and available for download in any format from some vendors’ account systems
- 12. Timelines, Workflows and Costs Lessons Learned, Achievements Made and Workflows Advanced
- 13. Aug 2009 – Purchase of DocSoft (Faculty and Staff to use on their own) Jan 2011 – Submitted Captioning Proposal (ATI DIY, we do it, you send it) June 2011 - Proposal Approved (hired students and purchased technology) July – Sept 2011 Training and Launch of Pilot Project (Small group of Instructional Designers) Jan and Spring 2012 – Time to update and better our process from lessons learned. Full time Accessible Media Coordinator was hired. 2013 – Started using a Hybrid method of moving from DIY to more Vendor. (See costing slide) Spring 2014 – Kaltura implemented and a RFP (Request for Proposal) was sent out for captioning Spring 2015 – IFB (Invitation for Bid) all money comes from overhead funds from the University due to high costs and demand. Today – We have multiple contracts with captioning vendors to help with cost based upon turn around time costs, SME topics, etc.
- 14. Current Process Old Process EMAIL REQUEST SUBMISSION RECEIVED VIA ATI WEBSITE ACCMEDIA COORDINATOR PREPS FILE UPLOAD FINAL VIDEO AND SRT FILE TO YOUTUBE or KALTURA, THEN SEND LINK(S) OR PUSH VIDEO Outsource to 3rd party
- 15. FY12* FY13 FY14 FY15 FY 16 (so far) Total Minutes 3,453 7,309 16,419 19,261 14,766 Total Hours 57.55 121.82 278.4 321 241 Total Jobs 195 371 1034 1296 876 Hours (Outsourced) 18.63 68.97 222.55 275.95 241 Jobs (Outsourced) 24 177 901 1136 876 Avg. Cost/Min (Outsourced) $2.94 $2.73 $2.35 $1.88 $1.39 Hours (In-house)* 38.92 52.85 51.1 45.05 2.68 Jobs (In-house)* 171 194 133 160 70 Total Costs (In- house)* $13,723.45 $0 $0 $0 $0 Avg. Cost/Min (In- house)* $5.87 $0 $0 $0 $0 Cost Savings ($6,858.55)* $10,163.36 $13,420.31 $9,050.83 $7,180.02 *In FY12, all in-house work is attributed solely to grad students. That work is now shared amongst a number of Mason staff/faculty since FY13. Cost Comparisons by FY
- 16. What the overall numbers show… 147 337 1034 1296 877 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 (so far) Completed Acc Media Requests
- 17. Website and Videos • University Web Audit – Provided accessibility reviews, which were included in University’s web audit, number of documents were included but number of videos were impossible. – Reviewed Priority 1 and Priority 2 websites (over 110 websites) • P1: Academics, Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Health, Housing, Visitors, HR • P2: Individual College and School websites – Page scans 5 levels deep, up to 100 pages – Reports provided to Web Developer • University Web Overhaul – Phase 1 websites redesigned. – Raise in captioning requests for websites
- 18. What the breakdown shows part 1 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 Compliance DE Compliance Web Accommodation 23 17 14 133 12 226 813 40 181 990 24 256 664 62 150 Compliance Breakdown vs Accommodation FY 12 FY 13 FY 14 FY 15 FY 16 (so far)
- 19. What the breakdown shows part 2 30 48 205 7 177 9 0 0 100 47 4 76 331 162 4 361 1 170 1 2 1 67 96 20 36 375 68 96 76 9 136 7 5 1 27 50 156 25 187 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Video Breakdown per Academic Units FY 14 FY 15 FY 16 (so far)
- 20. Who’s Using the Service? • Over 180 faculty/staff members have made requests • Top 3 Schools/Colleges/Units making requests – Volgenau School of Engineering – SPGIA (School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs) – Due to Web Overhaul – College of Science • Reasons for Request – Compliance for DE Course – 74.9% (up 1.7%) – Compliance for F2F Course – 0% (down 1.1%) – Web Compliance – 7.5% (up 4.2%) – Due to web overhaul – Disability Accommodation – 17.8 % (down 4.6%)
- 21. Improved Access to Library Resources • How does this effect captioning? Library purchases media databases as well as provide media to be loaned out. Captioning and audio description still come in as requests. • Library established an Accessibility Coordinator/Instruction Designer position - Liaison between our office and library staff/resources • This has led to: - Improved hand-off when captioning library resources - Improved coordination with Copyright Office – Informal process for review of library technology purchases – For example, helping library Procurement to ensure responsibility of captioning isn’t solely on Mason if a media database is purchased.
- 22. What the breakdowns show part 3 546 1326 26 1640 EMAIL KALTURA LIBRARY (DATABAES) YOUTUBE Breakdown of Delivery of Media File Overall #s
- 23. Next Steps • Assess Workflow • Continue working with stakeholders (DE, Library) • Continue tracking media, finding new areas for tracking • All options on table! • Continue to improve campus buy-in • MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING! • Targeted marketing (Semi-annual mailings) • Faculty/Staff Trainings (monthly) • DE Course Reviews • Department Champions to help spread the word • Everything located in one place • Improve costs/timelines • RFP for captioning to was used to reduce per minute costs • Outsource ALL requests. Doing this allows more time for the Accessible Media Coordinator to work hands on with various faculty and departments to make the process easier which builds more overall business.
- 25. What Is “Good Enough” for Captioning? ‣ ADA, Section 508, Section 504, CVAA, and FCC all state: – An equivalent alternative must be provided video content ‣ How Accurate Is Accurate? –
- 26. For Example … ‣ What does 85% accuracy look like? – An 8-word sentence can be ≅27% accurate – A 10-word sentence can be ≅20% accurate – This example of a 9- word sentence is 22% accurate (2 words are correct).
- 27. Create a Transcript for Your Video This short video shows you how to get started in the 3Play Media account system. First, log in to account.3playmedia.com. In Settings, you can specify your Transcription Settings, Favorite Formats, and other preferences which will help to personalize and simplify the captioning, subtitling, and transcription process. In particular, make sure that you specify your preference for speaker identification. You can upload video or audio files from your computer, from links, via FTP, or directly from your video platform or lecture capture system. Click Upload to select a service, turnaround time, and file location. If you already have a transcript for your media file, you can use the automated transcript ... Note: transcription takes 5-6x real time
- 28. Create Your Own WebVTT or SRT File WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:05.970 align:middle line:84% This short video shows you how to get started 00:00:05.970 --> 00:00:08.574 align:middle line:84% in the 3PlayMedia account system. 00:00:08.574 --> 00:00:10.240 align:middle line:84% First, log in to account.3playmedia.com. 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,830 2 00:00:03,830 --> 00:00:05,970 This short video shows you how to get started 3 00:00:05,970 --> 00:00:08,574 in the 3PlayMedia account system. 4 00:00:08,574 --> 00:00:10,240 First, log in to account.3playmedia.com. WebVTT (.vtt) SRT (.srt)
- 29. Use YouTube for Captioning YouTube provides a great starting point for captioning! • Create transcript and set timings, then download SRT file for use in other video platforms • Upload video to YouTube and download SRT file of automatic captions to edit
- 30. Edit the YouTube Automatic Captions
- 31. FCC Standards for Caption Quality ‣ Caption accuracy – Must match spoken words to fullest extent possible and include non-verbal information – Allows some leniency for live captioning ‣ Caption synchronization – Must coincide with their spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible ‣ Program completeness – Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program ‣ Onscreen caption placement – Captions should not block other important visual content
- 32. Best Practices for Captioning Quality ‣ Spelling & Grammar ‣ Speaker Identification ‣ Sound Effects ‣ Punctuation – “(SHOUTING) Hi” vs. “Hi!” ‣ Verbatim ‣ Minimum Duration ‣ Caption Placement ‣ Silence ‣ # Characters per line ‣ Font ‣ Synchronization Transcription Standards Caption Frame Standards
- 33. Caption Formats SRT Example SCC Example 01:02:53:14 94ae 94ae 9420 9420 01:02:55:14 942c 942c 01:03:27:29 94ae 94ae 9420 9420
- 34. Using APIs
- 35. What Is an API? ‣ “Application Programing Interface” ‣ Graphical User Interface (human to computer) vs. Application Programming Interface (computer to computer) ‣ APIs allow two computers to interact with each other by passing data and commands
- 36. What’s So Great About APIs? ‣ Design workflows that suit your business needs ‣ Automate repetitive manual tasks (esp. at scale) ‣ These reduce: – Cost – Labor hours – Organizational and workflow complexity
- 37. What Can I Do with an API? ‣ Manage caption/translation/alignment jobs – View media resource information – Request captioning, translation, or alignment – Download finished captions and transcripts ‣ Add interactive transcripts to your video SubtitlesCaptions Transcripts Alignment Interactive Transcripts
- 38. API Example ‣ Penn State Art & Architecture’s workflow ‣ Reason: scale ‣ Benefits: automation, cost ‣ Workflow
- 39. Take Part in a Research Study on Closed Captioning in Higher Education ‣ Institutional Solutions for and Student Perceptions of Closed Caption and Transcript Use in Institutions of Higher Education – A collaborative research project funded by 3Play Media and the Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit ‣ Incentives – Five 10-hour captioning credits valued by 3Play Media at $1,500 will be raffled to institutional participants who elect to share their email address for the purpose of the raffle – Institutions will also receive anonymous aggregated data for their institution ‣ Two reports will be created for this project: one regarding data from the student survey and one regarding data from the institutional survey ‣ Principal Investigator: – Dr. Katie Linder, kathryn.linder@oregonstate.edu, 541-737-4629
- 40. 40 Presenters Kara Zirkle IT Accessibility Coordinator George Mason University Lily Bond 3Play Media Director of Marketing lily@3playmedia.com Q&A Upcoming Webinars: May 12: The Future of Closed Captioning in Higher Education May 26: The Anatomy of an IT Accessibility Coordinator June 2: Quick Start to Captioning You can register for these free webinars at: www.3playmedia.com/webinars/ Please type your questions into the window in your control panel. A recording of this webinar will be available for replay.
Editor's Notes
- #5: 1973 Section 504: anti-discrimination law that requires equal access for individuals with disabilities Section 508: introduced in 1998 to require federal communications and information technology to be accessible Closed captioning requirements are written directly into Section 508, and are often applied to Section 504 504 = federal & federally funded 508 = just federal, but any states receiving funding from the Assistive Technology Act are required to comply with Section 508, so often that law will extend to state-funded organizations like colleges and universities
- #6: 1990 5 sections Title II: public entities; Title III: commercial entities "Places of public accommodation" – what constitutes this? Tested against online businesses
- #7: 2010 Previously aired on television Clips
- #8: Netflix sued by National Association of the Deaf in 2012 for failing to provide closed captions for most of its "Watch Instantly" movies and television shows streamed on the Internet. First time that Title III of the ADA (place of public accommodation) had been applied to Internet only businesses (before, it had only been applied to physical structures like wheelchair ramps) Landmark lawsuit: Netflix argued that they don't qualify as a place of public accommodation in accordance with the ADA – but the plaintiffs' lawyers (some of whom were involved in the writing of the ADA in 1990) argued that the ADA was meant to grow to expand accommodations as the world changed Court ruled in favor of the National Association of the Deaf, saying that: "The legislative history of the ADA makes clear that Congress intended the ADA to adapt to changes in technology" "Excluding businesses that sell services through the Internet from the ADA would run afoul of the purposes of the ADA" Netflix settlement: Netflix agreed to caption 100% of its streaming content. This case set a profound precedent for companies streaming video content across industries, including entertainment, education, health care, and corporate training content (FedEx was sued for this recently – not providing closed captions on training videos).
- #9: Harvard and MIT were sued by the National Association of the Deaf for providing inaccessible video content that was either not captioned or was inaccurately/unintelligibly captioned The first time outside of the entertainment industry that accuracy has been considered in legal ramifications for closed captioning Crowdsourced and automatic captions can't guarantee that accuracy Argument: that educational online videos are a public accommodation regardless of whether or not the ADA originally applied to physical structures. Arlene said: "If you are a hearing person, you are welcomed into a world of lifelong learning through access to a community offering videos on virtually any topic imaginable, from climate change to world history or the arts. No captions is like no ramp for people in wheelchairs or signs stating ‘people with disabilities are not welcome.’” In June, the Department of Justice submitted a statement of interest supporting the Plaintiffs' position that Harvard and MIT's free online courses and lectures discriminate against deaf and hard of hearing individuals by failing to provide equal access in the form of captions. "The ADA applies to websites of public accommodations, and … the ADA regulations should be interpreted to keep pace with developing technologies." "The United States respectfully submits this Statement of Interest to correct Harvard's misapplication of the primary jurisdiction doctrine and its misunderstanding of the ADA and Section 504.3." Final argument was held in September; still waiting on a decision. Outcome will have huge implications for higher education. February 9 of 2016: Judge denied Harvard & MIT's motion to dismiss the lawsuit (barring objection from District Judge)
- #11: Integrations basics: Link accounts (usually requires API key) Tag video for captioning in platform Sent directly to captioning vendor Captions automatically post back to your videos when completed
- #12: Integrations more in depth: Go through map
- #14: 1. Box 1: 2009: Prior to 2009 – No Solution August 2009 – Purchased Docsoft:AV Unit ATI paid 1/3 upfront costs, Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities (KIHd) covered rest 50/50 split of annual maintenance costs w/ KIHd ATI Manage access to service Provide Docsoft:AV and :TE applications training to faculty and staff Market and promote KIHd Host Docsoft:AV unit on their server Set up website, http://docsoft.gmu.edu Box 2 Jan 2011: January 2011 – Submitted proposal to provide in-house captioning services Box 3 June 2011: – Proposal for FY12 was approved! Bulk went toward increased staffing (1 PT to FT, 2 grad students) Technology-related needs (laptops, Docsoft:AV/:TE licensing, etc.) Unexpected costs (Outsourcing captioning and AD) Box 4 July 2011: – Training and Setup (In-house)… Aug./Sept. 2011 – Launching the Pilot Project! Worked with 1 Instructional Designer Emphasis on Windows Media Files (WMV) Content came from: YouTube, GMU-TV station, iTunesU, DE courses, Mason “channels” (i.e., YouTube, Vimeo) 3-week turnaround time on jobs! Box 5 Jan and Spring 2012: End of Jan 2012 (Beginning of Spring semester) **Goal to make service available to more IDs/faculty…eventually entire university** How we fixed issues? Delivery method (Created 3 YouTube channels—initially so many because of copyright issues—Kaltura has alleviated some of these issues) Quality of captions (e.g., Media Access Group at WGBH Best Practices) Procedures to address video description requests & outsourcing (e.g., over 60 min, less than 3-wk) Lack of technical knowledge (Trial & Error) Marketing (DE Council, Faculty Orientation Workshops, CDE, ID, Library) Box 6 2013: FY 13 Highlights: Good YouTube was familiar 2.5x # of requests from FY12 Included in DE course reviews Reduced turnaround time to 7-10 days Bad A lot of manual hand-off Lack of predictability GA’s couldn’t handle most immediate requests Hire/Lose/Re-hire SWs Copyright issues (2 YouTube accounts) FY14 Highlights: Good Inclusion! University shift (Kaltura) Growing predictability 2.8x # of requests from FY13 RFP for captioning/transcription Improved workflows Reduced turnaround time to 4 business days Bad Copyright Issues (Added 3rd YouTube account) Outsourcing costs Box 7 Spring 2014 - ITU purchased and implemented Kaltura video management platform during Spr/Sum 2014…full implementation Fall 2014/Spr 2015 Solved a number of captioning issues Easy process for addressing last-minute requests Standardized video management process RFP for captioning/transcription vendors with Kaltura partnerships Streamlined workflows/timelines/costs Allowed for scalability Box 8 Spring 2015: An Invitation for Bid was put out. This allowed multiple vendors to put in a request for pricing of captioning, no negotiations were made due to the IFB, unlike that of the RFP. Box 9 Today: 2016 We have multiple contracts with captioning vendors to help with cost based upon turn around time costs, SME topics, etc.
- #15: 2011 Workflow: Accessible Media Pilot Workflow EMAIL REQUEST SUBMISSION RECEIVED VIA COMMONSPOT SENT TO GA FOR FILE PREP DOCSOFT.GMU.EDU DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT EDIT WITH DOCSOFT:TE UPLOAD VIDEO TO GMU STREAMING SERVER ATI WEB SERVER (Upload ASX and SMI files) Finally, Email link to ASX file for faculty/staff member (from Web Hosting Server) 2012 Workflow: Improved Accessible Media Workflow for Spring 2012 EMAIL REQUEST SUBMISSION RECEIVED VIA COMMONSPOT ACCMEDIA COORDINATOR PREPS FILE or Outsource to 3rd party (>60 minutes) Note: If you outsource, then skip to step #6. Upload content to DOCSOFT.GMU.EDU DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT from DOCSOFT.GMU.EDU EDIT WITH DOCSOFT:TE/MOVIECAPTIONER UPLOAD VIDEO AND SRT FILE TO YOUTUBE Improved Accessible Media Workflow for Spring 2014 Email request submission received from website. Sent to Accessible Media Coordinator for file prep (video/audio over 15 minutes or immediate need is sent out automatically) Upload content to ATI’s Captions Channel on YouTube or directly to vendor’s website through Kaltura API. Note: if you outsource, then skip to step #5. If uploaded to YouTube, video is editing directly on YouTube using built-in editing tools. Occasionally, videos are uploaded to http://docsoft.gmu.edu. If this is done, the SRT files is edited with Docsoft:TE or Moviecaptioner. After editing, final video and captions file are delivered via Kaltura or YouTube (i.e., link to captioned video is emailed to faculty member if it is on YouTube. If video is already hosted on Kaltura, then videos are pushed directly to faculty member’s course through Bb) Current 2016 Workflow: Email request submission received from website. Sent to Accessible Media Coordinator for file prep (video/audio over 15 minutes or immediate need is sent out automatically) Sometimes videos that may seem difficult due to background noise, accents, etc. may still be sent out if less than 15 minutes. Upload content to ATI’s Captions Channel on YouTube or directly to vendor’s website through Kaltura API. Note: if you outsource, then skip to step #5. If uploaded to YouTube, video is editing directly on YouTube using built-in editing tools. After editing, final video and captions file are delivered via Kaltura or YouTube (i.e., link to captioned video is emailed to faculty member if it is on YouTube. If video is already hosted on Kaltura, then videos are pushed directly to faculty member’s course through Bb)
- #18: ASRB, Online request process really opened the door…
- #21: Volgenau School of Engineering and College of Science are both large DE programs.
- #26: Chart shows what accuracy percentages look like when you put a lot of words together
- #27: 80% look like? Read out screen
- #28: Step 1: Create a transcript 5-6x real time Important to follow standards Non-speech elements
- #29: WebVTT & SRT are used in a lot of web-based media players YouTube, Brightcove, Wistia, HTML5, JW Player Time code, alignment, words in the frame (WebVTT) Frame #, time codes, words in the frame (SRT)
- #30: Can save a lot of time Create or upload transcript, then set timings > most complicated part of DIY captioning Or: edit YouTube automatic captions (already have timings)
- #31: You can edit them in the platform, too
- #32: Accuracy, synchronicity, program completeness, onscreen placement 2014 vertical caption placement
- #33: Transcription standards Should use proper spelling and grammar Should include speaker ID Should include relevant sound effects (keys jangling) Can use punctuation to make speaker’s intent clear Verbatim: important for things like scripted TV shows – the “um” is intentional there – can be left out in other types of content Caption Frame standards Minimum duration – 1 second Captions shouldn’t obscure other visual information Don’t allow last caption frame to hang on the screen through 15 seconds of silence Should not exceed 32 characters per line, nor more than 3 lines of text at a time Font should be non-serif (like Helvetica medium) Caption frames should be precisely time-synchronized to the audio.
- #34: List of common formats & where you need them SRT caption file example SCC file = hex frames, more difficult to understand and create from scratch
- #36: GUI vs API Computers interacting w/o user interface Integrations are built using APIs – their system connects with ours Can also be used for your own internal systems – plug into our API
- #37: custom designed workflows Scale automated tasks (uploading, downloading, posting, etc.) Efficiency of cost, hours, etc.
- #38: commands that allow you to manage captioning, translation, and alignment view info view progress download finished captions & transcripts add int trans system constantly checking for these commands
- #39: ELMS Media – host all their media assets for online courses Almost 2,000 videos Took Bryan Ollendyke and his team less than a week to develop and test the API integration Matter of scale: "saved us from probably hiring 2-3 other people to be a dedicated part of the media staff to pretty much just click the buttons." PROCESS: Upload video. Transcription status: needs transcription (send to 3play, received, completed, none) BACKEND: transcription workflow button Fields for needs captions, caption, transcript Bulk select or select one Switch to send to 3play media The servers have this thing called Cron – a job that runs on an interval Batch and ship off nightly Ask 3Play about everything that's already processing Send any files that say "send to 3play" Get caption and transcripts in specified files Check status Stores files locally Staff doesn't need to know HTML, understand captioning & transcription, etc. When done: automatically downloads caption & transcript file and posts back to video.