Re: [UACCESS-L] FW: WSJ article: Deaf Web Users Fear Being Left Behind As TV Shows Stream Onto the Internet

[Aaron Steinfeld <steinfeld@cmu.edu>]

See also:

iCaption? November 2, 2005
http://www.i711.com/my711.php?tab=2&article=37

iCaption, Part II  October 4, 2006
http://www.i711.com/my711.php?tab=2&article=115

Disclosure: I'm married to the author, Lisa A. Goldstein.

Aaron

On Oct 25, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Larry Goldberg wrote:

> Good and relevant article from the WSJ.
>
> - Larry
>
> Larry Goldberg, Director
> Media Access Group at WGBH
> 125 Western Ave.
> Boston, MA 02134
>
> voice: 617-300-3722
> fax: 617-300-1035
> TTY: 617-300-2489
>
> Larry_Goldberg@wgbh.org
> access.wgbh.org
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
>
> Deaf Web Users Fear Being Left Behind
> As TV Shows Stream Onto the Internet
> By ANDREW LAVALLEE
> October 25, 2006
>
> The Internet has been a boon to deaf computer users, giving them easy
> access to a wide variety of information and breaking down  
> communication
> barriers. But many of those users feel left behind by one of the
> Internet's fastest-growing segments: online video.
>
> Though television networks and movie studios are rapidly expanding  
> into
> Internet distribution, few online videos offer the closed captioning
> that companies are required by law to offer to TV viewers. The major
> networks provide full-length episodes of some of their most popular
> shows on the Web, including hits like "Lost" and "Survivor," but none
> of them include captions. Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes store sells
> downloads of more than 200 TV shows, but doesn't offer versions with
> captions, and the company's popular iPod player doesn't support them.
>
> The absence of online captions has emerged as a hot topic in the deaf
> community. The media providers say they are held back by technological
> hurdles, and point out that online distribution of TV content is still
> in its infancy. But advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing say the
> lack of captions is a slight, since most programs have already been
> transcribed to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules.
> They are pushing to update government regulations to cover the
> Internet.
>
> "It's like history repeating itself from TV to Internet," said Jim
> House, a spokesman for Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of
> Hearing Inc., a Silver Spring, Md., deaf advocacy group. Groups  
> lobbied
> networks to caption shows starting in the 1980s, he said. Regulations
> put in place in the 1990s by the FCC and Congress required TV
> manufacturers to make sets compatible with closed-captioning signals,
> and set a timetable for networks to include captions with their
> broadcasts. While captions are now common on U.S. broadcasts, it  
> wasn't
> until January of this year that they became mandatory for all
> English-language programs produced since 1998.
>
> "I'm hoping we do not have to wait another 25 years" to bring
> captioning to Internet video, Mr. House said.
>
> The FCC rules that require TV shows to include captions don't apply to
> online programs (one exception requires federal agencies to caption
> speeches and other videos they provide online). Some groups, including
> the National Association for the Deaf, are lobbying lawmakers to  
> expand
> the captioning requirements in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to
> include the Internet.
>
> According to the National Institutes of Health, between 500,000 and
> 750,000 people in the U.S. are "profoundly" deaf, and 32.5 million
> American adults have some degree of hearing loss. The numbers are
> expected to increase as the population grows older.
>
> "We shouldn't have to be legislating this anymore," said Rosaline
> Crawford, an attorney with the National Association for the Deaf, a
> nonprofit advocacy group based in Maryland. "If you've got captions on
> your program that's broadcast on TV, it can't be rocket science to  
> take
> those captions and put them on the Internet."
>
> There are technology constraints to online captioning that don't exist
> in TV broadcasts. For TV broadcasts, producers generally use outside
> companies to create captions for programs, which are then transmitted
> using a standard format that can be read by TV sets.
>
> But on the Web, video is served up using a variety of popular software
> players, including Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player, Apple's
> Quicktime, RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer and Adobe Systems Inc.'s
> Flash Player. All of the players are capable of including captions  
> with
> video, but each has a different -- and incompatible -- way of handling
> them. "It's fabulously complicated to translate TV captions into  
> online
> formats," said Joe Clark, an accessibility consultant who has
> extensively studied closed captioning, and writes about it on his Web
> site. What's more, digital videos are often viewed in small windows on
> a computer or on devices like the iPod that have relatively tiny
> screens, where captions could be difficult to read.
>
> Still, Mr. Clark is critical of slow progress networks are making with
> online captioning. One problem, he said, is that large media companies
> often have different divisions handling broadcast and online
> distribution, so captions can get lost in the shuffle. He said he
> believes TV networks are underestimating demand for online captions.
>
> Representatives at ABC and NBC said the networks are looking into
> online captioning, but declined to provide details. Fox and CBS said
> they have no plans to caption the Web versions of their entertainment
> programs. But CBSNews.com, which serves up a live, online version of
> "CBS Evenings News with Katie Couric," is in talks with a company to
> provide online captioning, said Michael Sims, director of news and
> operations for the site. "We have been working to determine what the
> best standard to do this is," he said. "We're in the meeting stage."
>
> An Apple spokesman said the company's iTunes store and iPod media
> players don't support closed-captioning, but said the next version of
> the company's Macintosh operating system will make it easier for its
> QuickTime video software to integrate closed-captioning text.
>
> "The Internet has traditionally been a place where I could, as a deaf
> person, go and get equal access to information," said Jared Evans, a
> 32-year-old software developer in San Diego. "The vast majority of
> content on the Internet has been text and images which you don't need
> hearing abilities in order to understand the content."
>
> Mr. Evans said the boom in online video has been "a step backward" for
> deaf users: While material is easier to access, the lack of captioning
> makes it less useful than traditional TV broadcasts. "These same
> companies already have decades of experience in adding captions to
> content on TV, but are opting to not do the same with their online
> content."
>
> Joseph Santini, a 28-year-old social worker in New York who is deaf,
> was excited when Apple released a version of its iPod player  
> capable of
> playing videos. "The only time I have for watching TV, like many  
> others
> these days, is on the subway," said Mr. Santini. But he was
> disappointed to learn that the TV shows for sale on iTunes didn't  
> carry
> captions. "Entertainment aside, what about my future employment
> prospects? How long before it becomes standard to get all news,
> information about the city, on video-capable devices? I see this
> coming, I want to be part of the future."
>
> A few companies have taken some steps to offer captions for online
> video. In July, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL began offering captions for  
> some
> CNN newscasts. Working with captioners at WGBH, a Boston public
> broadcasting station, AOL serves up about 20 captioned stories a day,
> said Tom Wlodkowski, AOL's director of accessibility. CNN doesn't  
> offer
> captioning for clips on CNN.com.
>
> Google Video in September began letting users submit captions with
> their videos. The captions can be toggled on and off by viewers by
> hitting a "CC" button while the video is playing in Google's custom
> software. Although the site's selection of captioned videos is small,
> Google Inc. now asks major content providers to include captions
> whenever possible, said Ken Harrenstien, a deaf software engineer at
> Google who helped develop the feature. "It's not so much that it's a
> technical issue," he said. "More a process of consciousness-raising."
>
> Write to Andrew LaVallee at andrew.lavallee@wsj.com
>
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>
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