Closed Captioning: A Coordinated Statewide Initiative A presentation to the members of the Learning Resources Association of California Community College Northern Regional Meeting City College of San Francisco February 25, 2005 Joseph Moreau Dean of Academic Information Services, MiraCosta College

The Current Situation State & Federal law require media used in public education to be captioned CCC Libraries hold a significant number of uncaptioned titles CCC Libraries do not have the resources to caption all uncaptioned titles in their collections Resources available for captioning selective titles is limited Getting a title captioned takes a long time

The Current Situation Vendor catalogs/product packaging do not always accurately reflect captioning Producers/distributors are not required to caption media unless it is to be broadcast

The Result Students and faculty may not be served in an appropriate manner Media collection development is impaired Institutional responsiveness is often outside “reasonable accommodation” guidelines

There Has Got To Be A Better Way! Fall 2004 Library Deans & Directors meeting in Sacramento Discussed the idea of providing statewide coordination LRACCC Board volunteered to provide leadership Other discussions followed: CO staff, vendors, Foundation staff

The Proposal Disclaimer: This proposal is meant to provide a framework for a possible statewide initiative to coordinated closed captioning of media for the CCCs. Many of the parties critical to this proposal have been consulted, but others need to have input. All input to date has been extremely positive, but no party has officially agreed to implement this proposal.

The Proposal: Part 1 Streamline Captioning Approval Process Develop an approval request template Standardized language Blanket approval “On behalf of MiraCosta College and the California Community College System, we hereby request permission to caption Beavis and Butthead Do America.”

The Proposal: Part II Develop CCC Captioned Media Clearinghouse Database RapidText National Captioning Institute CCC CMCD (FCCC to host) California Community Colleges

The Proposal: Part 2 Titles searchable by: ISBN Title Producer/Distributor Records would also contain: Availability of captioned version from vendor Copy of captioning permission letter and approval correspondence

The Proposal: Part 2 Vendors would provide captioning of already captioned videos at reduce rate - $1.50/minute or $90/hour – the “precaptioned” rate Colleges could express interest in have uncaptioned titles captioned – the “waiting list” Library/Media & DSPS contacts would be notified regularly of waiting list titles Colleges could add their name to the waiting list for a particular title If three or more colleges express an interest in captioning a title, vendors would offer captioning at the precaptioned rate

The Proposal: Part 3 Centralization of Captioning Funds Each college/district would receive an allocation for captioning, but…… Captioning funds would no longer be distributed to college/districts As colleges/districts request captioning services, vendors will bill the state directly on behalf of the requesting college/district

Desired Outcomes Reduce redundancy Requesting permission Captioning titles already captioned Reduce cost Lowering cost of titles already captioned Lowering cost of titles when captioning is needed by multiple institutions Purchasing replacement copies of captioned media when available from original vendor

Desired Outcomes Reducing turn-around time on captioning requests Avoid local purchasing processes Already captioned titles may be provided within reasonable accommodation guidelines Improving service and support to students and faculty

Possible Timeline February/March 2005 LRACCC regional meetings March 2005 Develop final proposal with vendors and other parties April/May 2005 Get approval of proposal May/June 2005 Develop and launch CCC CMCD July 2005 Implement centralization of funding

Questions/Comments? Discussion