1. Closed Captioning and Access
Oh Say, can you see?
Closed Captioning and Access

2. Closed Captioning Laws
Section 508 (1998)
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
TV Decoder Act of 1990
FCC

3. Rachel Kolb (New Mexico & St
Rachel Kolb (New Mexico & St. John’s 2013) is currently completing the MSc in Higher Education at the University of Oxford, having previously completed the MSt in English Literature (1900 – Present). She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. During her time at Stanford, Rachel served as Co-President of the Stanford Equestrian Team, a peer tutor at the Hume Writing Center, and a weekly columnist for the Stanford Daily. Next year, Rachel will be starting her PhD in English Literature at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

4. FCC closed captioning rules
FCC rules for TV closed captioning ensure that viewers who are deaf and hard of hearing have full access to programming, address captioning quality and provide guidance to video programming distributors and programmers. The rules apply to all television programming with captions, requiring that captions be:
Accurate: Captions must match the spoken words in the dialogue and convey background noises and other sounds to the fullest extent possible.
Synchronous: Captions must coincide with their corresponding spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible and must be displayed on the screen at a speed that can be read by viewers.
Complete: Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program to the fullest extent possible.
Properly placed: Captions should not block other important visual content on the screen, overlap one another or run off the edge of the video screen.
*These rules should also be applied to your created/borrowed video content in classrooms and online.

5. Exempt programming
Currently there are two categories of exemptions from the closed captioning rules, self-implementing and economically burdensome:
Self-implementing exemptions include public service announcements shorter than 10 minutes and not paid for with federal dollars, programming shown from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and programming primarily textual. There is also an exemption for locally produced non-news programming with no repeat value. See a complete list of self-implementing exemptions.
The FCC has established procedures for petitioning for an exemption from the closed captioning rules when compliance would be economically burdensome. Find out about the economically burdensome exemption.
Even if a program or a provider is exempt under the Commission's rules, it may still have obligations under other federal laws to make its video programming accessible to individuals with disabilities.

6. Checklist:

8. TWo Basic Types of Captions
Open Captions-always are in view and cannot be turned off
Closed Captions-can be turned on and off by the viewer

9. Captioning Basics
Synchronized - the text content should appear at approximately the same time that audio would be available
Equivalent - content provided in captions should be equivalent to that of the spoken word
Accessible - caption content should be readily accessible and available to those who need it

10. YouTube
Instructions in step-by-step form:

11. Canvas
Instructions in step-by-step form:

12. Google Drive Video
Instructions in step-by-step form:

13. Facebook Instructions in step-by-step form:

14. Adobe Premier Instructions in step-by-step form:

15. iMovie
Instructions in step-by-step form:

16. Amara

17. Camtasia Step-by-step (written with images):
Video (manual captions):
manually.html

18. CaptionAccess (Fee-for-service)
$3/min of video or audio
Basically, if you have 5, 60-minute videos you are looking at $900 for captioning! This would be the complete captioning process, not just a transcript.

19. Sources and Resources

20. Cody Mathis cmathis1@sienaheights.edu 517-264-7683
Accessibility.sienaheights.edu