Concepts & Techniques for Accessible, Closed Captioned Web-Based Video
10th Annual Accessing Higher Ground:
Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference

Boulder, Colorado
November 7, 2007

http://disability.law.uiowa.edu/lhpdc/publications/kleinpubs.html
Captioning Definitions
•	Closed captions
•	Open captions
•	Subtitles
•	Transcription
•	Audio Description
Closed Captions
•	Captions can be turned on / off by user
•	Separate “track” in video
•	Can be outside video area
•	TV and Web different
Open Captions
•	Captions always present
•	Embedded in video
•	Located inside video area

Subtitles
•	In UK, used synonymously for closed or open captioning
•	In U.S. refers to language translation
•	Can behave like either closed or open captioning
Other Definitions
•	Transcription
•	Text rendering of the audible portion of an event
•	Can be used to create captions
•	Audio Description
•	Spoken description of the salient visual parts of a video
•	Used to communicate meaning

Process - Precaptioning Steps
•	Transcribe from audio
•	Speaker identification
•	Nonverbal elements: [Laughter], [Inaudible]
•	Transcript saved in text format
•	Plain .txt for caption file
•	Turn off smart quotes, other autocorrect options (Word)
•	Smart quotes “ ”  ‘ ’ 
•	Curly apostrophes ‘
•	Em dash — 
•	En dash –
Process - Precaptioning Steps
•	Text is broken up into “caption-sized chunks” 
•	Captioned Media Program guidelines (TV)
•	Caption timing software (MAGpie , HiCaption) or text editor
•	Import prepared transcript
•	Attach time codes to text
•	Export
•	QuickTime SMIL
•	DFXP (Flash)
•	SAMI (Windows Media Player)
Captioning with MAGpie  
Prepare for Activity 1
•	Find folder “ahg2007CD” on your desktop
•	Open folder
•	Drag folder “activities” to the desktop
•	Open “activities” folder
•	Open “magpie” folder

Captioning with MAGpie  
Activity 1
•	Handout: Activity 1: Captioning with MAGpie

•	Objectives: 
•	Convert a transcript to timed captions
•	Export captions to QuickTime file
Caption File Contents
•	Caption text
•	Time codes for synchronization with video
•	Text formatting
•	Font and font size
•	Carriage returns
•	Bolding, colors, etc.
•	Speakers
•	Language support
Caption File – QuickTime
•	Open your QuickTime caption file (ahg2007_captions.txt)
•	Note use of curly brackets
•	Heading
•	{QuickTime Text}
•	Timescale
•	Font/font size
•	Background and text color
•	Justification
•	Time codes
•	QuickTime Standards HH:MM:SS.DD
•	Caption text
Break?
Take 10 minutes