Techniques for Creating Accessible, Closed Captioned Web-Based Video
California State University - Northridge
21st Annual International Technology and 
Persons with Disabilities Conference

Los Angeles, California
March 22, 2006

http://disability.law.uiowa.edu/lhpdc/publications/kleinpubs.html
Embedded Closed Captioning QuickTime Text Track
•	QuickTime Pro required
•	Embedded in video file itself
•	Video & captions self-contained
•	Hard to modify
•	Captions can’t be eliminated without separate video or script
•	Easier to Deploy (1 file)
•	May start faster in browser
Embedded Closed Captioning QuickTime Text Track
•	Demo of embedding text track into QuickTime
•	Also see WebAIM:
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/captions/quicktime/5.php

QuickTime Captioned Video
•	SMIL file option
•	Requires 3 files
•	Relatively easy to modify captions and video
•	Video and caption files can be reused
•	Captions separate, so can be eliminated
•	Harder to deploy

Embedded Captioned Video – Multiple Files
QuickTime Captioning & Deployment 
•	Video 
•	.mov file and others
•	Caption file 
•	.txt 
•	QuickTime caption file
•	SMIL 
•	.smi or .mov
•	Integrates video and caption files
•	HTML
•	Integrates video, captions, player, text, other files

Final Assembly (QuickTime)
•	The video - videoname.mov
•	The caption file - videoname_captions.txt
•	The SMIL file - videoname_smil.mov
•	Avoid .smi file extension
•	.mov extension elicits QT playback
•	Captions display automatically as part of SMIL standard

SMIL File Characteristics
•	Use XML standards
•	Tags case sensitive
•	All elements closed
•	<tag>xxx</tag> (open and close tags)
•	<tag /> (no explicit close tag; use the slash)
•	“SMILText” identifier not standard
SMIL File Layout

SMILtext<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<smil>
  <head>
      <layout>
          <!-- layout tags specify display settings -->
      </layout>
  </head>
  <body>
     <!-- body tags specify content and content parameters -->
  </body>
</smil>
SMIL File
•	“SMILText” tag, encoding, QuickTime association
•	Header
•	Metadata (video name, copyright info)
•	Player layout (“region” sizes, background / text colors)
•	Container IDs for linking parts
•	Body
•	Video duration
•	Start (and end) times
•	File locations 
•	Links to regions
SMIL and the Player Layout
SMIL File Activity
•	Handout: QuickTime SMIL Activity - Assemble files

•	Objective: Modify MAGpie files to assemble a captioned QuickTime video.