Captioning Basics

Beth Case

Program Manager for Digital, Emerging, and Assistive Technologies

University of Louisville

beth.case@louisville.edu

Assumptions

You know what captioning is.

You know why it needs to be done.

Three step process

1. Create verbatim transcript

2. Create line breaks

3. Synchronize captions with the video

Step 1: Create verbatim transcript

Transcript standards:

• Verbatim• Include speaker identification• Use proper spelling, capitalization and

punctuation• Include essential sound effects

Tools to help with transcripts

• Express Scribe (http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/)

• Transcribe (http://transcribe.wreally.com)

• Foot pedals

What about speech recognition software?

According to research:

• Speech Recognition results are inaccurate, unreliable, and inconsistent – with error rates often exceeding 20%.

• 80 – 90% accuracy is simply inadequate for most applications.

• Accuracy below 97% is insufficient when comprehension is crucial.

• Transcripts with high error rates do not satisfy compliance with legal mandates.

• It costs more to edit speech recognition scripts than it does to use a professional transcriber to start with.

Step 2: Create line breaks

• Refer to the Captioning Key for standards (https://www.dcmp.org/captioningkey/)

• Two lines per caption is preferred• Lines should not exceed 32 characters• Create grammatically correct line breaks

– New sentence starts new caption.– Start a new line after a comma.– Keep grammatical phrases together.

Examples

Rule Inappropriate Appropriate

Do not separate modifiers from the word it modifies.

Mark pushed his blacktruck.

Mark pushedhis black truck.

Do not break propositional phrases.

Mary scampered underthe table.

Mary scamperedunder the table.

Do not separate auxiliary (helping) verbs from the verb it modifies.

Mom said I could have gone to the movies.

Mom said I could have gone to the movies.

Do not break a line after a conjunction.

In seconds she arrived, andhe ordered a drink.

In seconds she arrived,and he ordered a drink.

Save your transcript in a plain text file.

Step 3: Synchronize captions with the video

Synchronization standards:• As close as possible to matching the audio.• Captions should be displayed for at least 2

seconds.• If there are long periods of silence, add a

caption that says “no audio” or “silence”.

Using YouTube to caption videos

You must “own” the video.

Do not use YouTube’s auto-transcription. On average, it is 65% accurate.

.

Click on the “CC” under the video.

Choose “Add new subtitles or CC” then choose the language the video is in.

Choose “Upload a file” and then choose “Transcript” and upload your file.

Make sure the transcript is correct, then choose “Set timings”

Play the video to make sure the timing is correct. You can edit the text and the timing to make it perfect!

Once you’re happy, click “Publish”

What if I don’t own the video?

Try to contact the owner and ask if they will caption the video.

Ask the owner if they will publish the captions if you create them.

Use Amara.org as a work-around. Students will have to go to Amara.org to view the videos instead of YouTube.

Questions

Contact Information

Beth Case

Beth.case@Louisville.edu

502-852-7689