Captioning

Documents and information on captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Read about why I’m interested in captioning.

Other pages available

Regulatory issues – CBC – Weblog postings (at fawny.org)

New additions by date

2007
October 8: Notes from presentation entitled “Why I Hate Online Captioning”
July 17: SwiftWatch™: Keeping tabs on the most expensive captioning software in the world (and its many bugs)
2006
October 1: Comments on Josélia Neves’s captioning thesis: Neves, a Portuguese researcher working in England, wrote a thesis on captioning, especially Portuguese captioning, and the thesis has a few problems; CBC News Online: Reuse of TV captions onto the Web: The original proposal for an old project to reuse TV captions on the Web. We actually made it happen for a couple of years
June 5: Response to CMP Captioning Key: A critique of the lavishly-funded Captioned Media Program’s captioning “style” guide
May 5: Response posted (a mere 12,900 words) in ongoing nonsense about CBC captioning
February 24: Why don’t deaf people care about captioning quality? Four hypotheses (all ignored by deaf organizations I queried)
2005
November 15: New study shows CBC failing deaf TV viewers: CBC Television and Newsworld are falling short of their 100%-captioning requirement, a three-year study shows
July 31: Response to Canadian Association of the Deaf study on HDTV captioning, the worst captioning report I’ve ever read
July 29: Response to report on captioning on French CBC channels: Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier filed a complaint concerning captioning on Radio-Canada and Réseau de l’information. Radio-Canada filed a report on the topic, and I respond
2004
September 3: Best practices in online captioning: 21 chapters on captioning for Web video. Research carried out in conjunction with TILE
2003
November 5: Caption Quality Initiative: With the permission of Jeff Hutchins, I’m hosting transcripts and documentation from the Caption Quality Initiative, a consumer/industry group that was especially active in 2002
August 20: An early article, “Typography and TV Captioning,” is now online, in a raft of formats and with sequels and whatnot.
May 6: Intervention in “Application for Exemption Under Section 55 of the Disability Discrimination Act,” something else the Australians are doing wrong

Articles

Notes from presentation entitled “Why I Hate Online Captioning”
Reading the tube: Typographic atrocities remain in full force in captioning and subtitling
Captioned music videos: Gateway to relevant articles
And one mustn’t forget my story in the Economist on NCI’s venture into the U.K.
A spiritually-related article: “Slogans High and Low,” exploring how Barbara Kruger– and Jenny Holzer–style slogans are influencing popular culture, including music videos

→ See also: A full bibliography of stories I’ve written on captioning, audio description, and similar media-access topics

Research

Response to CMP Captioning Key: A critique of the lavishly-funded Captioned Media Program’s captioning “style” guide
Issues in Captions, Inc. Style: A slightly-edited version of a solicited critique of Captions, Inc. captioning style. PDF only, 82 K
Typographic requirements for captioning for HDTV: An ancient presentation made at the Deaf Way conference way back in 1989 (!)
Australian captioning colours: Simulating colour-coded captions. What works and what doesn’t?
The hearing majority of caption viewers: Hearing people outnumber deaf as caption viewers by a factor of several hundred
Comments on U.K. “guidelines” on “subtitling”

→ See also: Research roundup (now a tad out of date)

Submissions to regulatory bodies

There’s a whole page devoted to this topic.