Greetings.
My name is Brian Quass from Basye, Virginia. I have been closed captioning television, video, etc., for the last 25 years. In April of this year, I went freelance to form www.CaptionsForTheWeb.com, a website and company whose goal is to promote quality closed captioning of online videos.
I decided to create this company after discovering that almost no nonprofit organizations provide readable captions for their online videos. Instead, they rely on Google auto-generated captions, under the mistaken belief that they are "good enough." The fact is, however, that such captions are riddled with errors (sometimes obscene errors, in fact -- like the "F" word in a recent ASPCA video about pitbulls), and they're not even close to being ready for prime-time.
Although I'm neither deaf nor hard-of-hearing myself, I'm beginning to get a severe case of secondhand anger at the nonchalant attitude that these big nonprofits are taking toward the needs of the deaf community. Many of these same organizations bombard my mother every day by mail in an attempt to make her hand over money to their cause, yet they simply will not hear of spending one dime more than is necessary to bring the deaf on board when it comes to video content.
At least that's the response that I've received so far after my first month of attempting to market my services to them.
Case in point:
The Public Relations manager of the Art Institute of Chicago told me today that they don't have "a current need" for my services. Well, I'll let you decide if that's so after you read a few of the captions that, even as we speak, are confronting any viewer who dares to click on the "cc" icon on their YouTube page:
CAPTION:
the war does come from child abuse
AUDIO:
the award does come with some challenges
CAPTION:
the Pitman in Midtown happy sun background is derived from clutching your name
AUDIO:
The pigment in "Madame Leon Clapisson" is derived from cochineal lake
CAPTION:
sa passion pour les chats
AUDIO:
So first of all they show
--Google software apparently determined that the English-speaking interviewee was speaking French (wrong) and that he was talking about cats (wrong again).
If the Art Institute of Chicago doesn't have a current need for my services now, they must be extremely error tolerant. Either that or I just happened to notice these major and widespread captioning errors on the very day that the organization had resolved to correct them, which seems quite an interesting coincidence.
But if anyone else still believes that Google's auto-generated captions are, indeed, "good enough," I invite them to visit my new website called Otto Cap Shuns at www.ottocapshuns.com, where I'm collecting some of the funniest and oddest of them.
If you agree with me that the nonprofits who are using these auto-captions need to change their ways, then feel free to write them to complain on your own behalf.
Thank you!
And nice to be here, by the way!
Sincerely,
Brian Quass
freelance captioner and founder of
www.captionsfortheweb.com
PS You might even want to remind those nonprofits that there's at least one person out here (although I won't mention any names) with 25 years of captioning experience who is ready to solve their video accessibility problems for an affordable price!
PPS The following is a list of just a few of the nonprofits who are currently using unvetted Google auto-captions, notwithstanding the hilarious, insane, and/or offensive captions that are resulting from that usage.
--4-H
--American Red Cross
--Asia Society
--ASPCA
--Boys & Girls Clubs of America
--Care
--Disabled American Veterans
--Feeding America
--First Nations Development Institute
--Goodwill
--Greenpeace
--Habitat for Humanity
--Joel Osteen on YouTube
--Lions Club International
--Los Angeles Philharmonic
--National Public Radio
--National Resources Defense Council
--Shriners Hospitals for Children
--Sierra Club
--Teach for America
--The Art Institute of Chicago
--The Kennedy Center
--The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
--The Nature Conservancy
--The Red Cross
--The Sierra Club
--United Way
--World Wildlife Fund
And then there are the nonprofits who use no captions at all:
*Scientific American told me today that they have only a little material that needs captioning and therefore they don't need my services. Which absolutely boggled my mind: If there's so little material, then why the heck aren't you captioning it!!!
My name is Brian Quass from Basye, Virginia. I have been closed captioning television, video, etc., for the last 25 years. In April of this year, I went freelance to form www.CaptionsForTheWeb.com, a website and company whose goal is to promote quality closed captioning of online videos.
I decided to create this company after discovering that almost no nonprofit organizations provide readable captions for their online videos. Instead, they rely on Google auto-generated captions, under the mistaken belief that they are "good enough." The fact is, however, that such captions are riddled with errors (sometimes obscene errors, in fact -- like the "F" word in a recent ASPCA video about pitbulls), and they're not even close to being ready for prime-time.
Although I'm neither deaf nor hard-of-hearing myself, I'm beginning to get a severe case of secondhand anger at the nonchalant attitude that these big nonprofits are taking toward the needs of the deaf community. Many of these same organizations bombard my mother every day by mail in an attempt to make her hand over money to their cause, yet they simply will not hear of spending one dime more than is necessary to bring the deaf on board when it comes to video content.
At least that's the response that I've received so far after my first month of attempting to market my services to them.
Case in point:
The Public Relations manager of the Art Institute of Chicago told me today that they don't have "a current need" for my services. Well, I'll let you decide if that's so after you read a few of the captions that, even as we speak, are confronting any viewer who dares to click on the "cc" icon on their YouTube page:
CAPTION:
the war does come from child abuse
AUDIO:
the award does come with some challenges
CAPTION:
the Pitman in Midtown happy sun background is derived from clutching your name
AUDIO:
The pigment in "Madame Leon Clapisson" is derived from cochineal lake
CAPTION:
sa passion pour les chats
AUDIO:
So first of all they show
--Google software apparently determined that the English-speaking interviewee was speaking French (wrong) and that he was talking about cats (wrong again).
If the Art Institute of Chicago doesn't have a current need for my services now, they must be extremely error tolerant. Either that or I just happened to notice these major and widespread captioning errors on the very day that the organization had resolved to correct them, which seems quite an interesting coincidence.
But if anyone else still believes that Google's auto-generated captions are, indeed, "good enough," I invite them to visit my new website called Otto Cap Shuns at www.ottocapshuns.com, where I'm collecting some of the funniest and oddest of them.
If you agree with me that the nonprofits who are using these auto-captions need to change their ways, then feel free to write them to complain on your own behalf.
Thank you!
And nice to be here, by the way!
Sincerely,
Brian Quass
freelance captioner and founder of
www.captionsfortheweb.com
PS You might even want to remind those nonprofits that there's at least one person out here (although I won't mention any names) with 25 years of captioning experience who is ready to solve their video accessibility problems for an affordable price!
PPS The following is a list of just a few of the nonprofits who are currently using unvetted Google auto-captions, notwithstanding the hilarious, insane, and/or offensive captions that are resulting from that usage.
--4-H
--American Red Cross
--Asia Society
--ASPCA
--Boys & Girls Clubs of America
--Care
--Disabled American Veterans
--Feeding America
--First Nations Development Institute
--Goodwill
--Greenpeace
--Habitat for Humanity
--Joel Osteen on YouTube
--Lions Club International
--Los Angeles Philharmonic
--National Public Radio
--National Resources Defense Council
--Shriners Hospitals for Children
--Sierra Club
--Teach for America
--The Art Institute of Chicago
--The Kennedy Center
--The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
--The Nature Conservancy
--The Red Cross
--The Sierra Club
--United Way
--World Wildlife Fund
And then there are the nonprofits who use no captions at all:
- The Boy Scouts of America
- Compassion in Jesus' Name
- Doctors Without Borders
- Rotary International
- Samaritan's Purse
- Scientific American*
- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
*Scientific American told me today that they have only a little material that needs captioning and therefore they don't need my services. Which absolutely boggled my mind: If there's so little material, then why the heck aren't you captioning it!!!
