VLogs with(out) captions

Should VLogs have captions?


  • Total voters
    33
Taric,

How do I access collated text transcripts with a screen reader/Braille display and how do I know if a Vlog contains them?
 
Richard, you have no idea.

At least 90% of the deaf society is illiterate so I'm not expecting deafies putting captions on their vlogs in the near future. And its exacerbated by the deaf community's hostility towards written English.

Richard
Richard, you obviously have no idea what resources Deaf people have available, these days. Deaf people use VRS to leave themselves a voicemail. When they reach their voicemail, they can sign whatever they want, and the interpreter will voice it. When they're done, they can hang up and use IP-Relay to retrieve their voicemail, and the operator will type everything the interpreter voiced, in English. The Deaf person can then copy and paste the written English, into the captioning program and time it to the signs. Deaf people do not have to have good English writing skills, in order to caption their VLogs.
 
Collated text transcript

How do I access collated text transcripts with a screen reader/Braille display and how do I know if a Vlog contains them?
If text is betweent the embed tags, of a video, your screen reader and/or dynamic braille display will display the text, instead of content between the tags. If the video has open captions, such as subtitles that are hardcoded or "burnt in" to the video, then your screen reader and/or dynamic braille display will not show them, because that is part of the video. If the video has closed captions, like Google Video, your screen reader and/or dynamic braille display will display it, because it is text.

All of my videos have a text transcript, for their description. In addition, on my LiveJournal and MySpace, I have redundant text, below the video. This is for two reasons. It allows greater accessibility for people who use screen readers and/or dynamic braille displays, and it also allows access for people who prefer to read, rather than watch the video.
 
Richard, you obviously have no idea what resources Deaf people have available, these days. Deaf people use VRS to leave themselves a voicemail. When they reach their voicemail, they can sign whatever they want, and the interpreter will voice it. When they're done, they can hang up and use IP-Relay to retrieve their voicemail, and the operator will type everything the interpreter voiced, in English. The Deaf person can then copy and paste the written English, into the captioning program and time it to the signs. Deaf people do not have to have good English writing skills, in order to caption their VLogs.

Yes I do have an idea. I now chair the the Connecticut based Modern Deaf Communication non-profit that is dedicated to teaching deaf people to improve their lives using English as communication.

Can someone try guessing the percentile of bloggers in the deaf community?

Richard
 
Not the point

Yes I do have an idea. I now chair the the Connecticut based Modern Deaf Communication non-profit that is dedicated to teaching deaf people to improve their lives using English as communication.

Can someone try guessing the percentile of bloggers in the deaf community?

Richard
Richard, that is not the point. Deaf bloggers do not have to be English "literate" to put "captions on their vlogs in the near future". They can use the resources available to them, such as VRS and IP-Relay, to do it themselves.
 
Can someone try guessing the percentile of bloggers in the deaf community?
You might want to start your campaign at home. This sentence doesn't make sense. I know what you're trying to say, but it isn't proper English. Consider fixing your own grammar before picking on that of others.
 
You might want to start your campaign at home. This sentence doesn't make sense. I know what you're trying to say, but it isn't proper English. Consider fixing your own grammar before picking on that of others.

Quasi ad homenums dont work either.

Richard
 
Who said anything about quasi? Thanks for proving my point again, though.

Actually I'd argue you made no attack on Richard's character whatsoever, merely made the excellent point that it is hypocritical to bash others for their lack of language skill while exhibiting a palpable lack of it oneself.
 
VLog Caption Flame War

Ok, so that this doesn't turn into a flame war, can we please get back to the topic?: VLogs with(out) captions.
 
The problem I see with this, Taric.. is that if deaf vloggers should caption their videos, so should hearing.. we're all equal.. let's have the hearing caption their Vlogs TOO!!!!

So, NO, we don't have to caption our Vlogs, if they won't caption theirs!
 
There are many benefits to providing closed captions for your videos.

That is no excuse. All of my videos are ASL with English audio and captions English and Spanish. I speak four languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, and ASL. If I want to caption my videos in French, and I don't speak French, then I must consult someone who is blingual in French and one of the languages I speak. (BTW, I would like to caption my videos in French.)

So, since she doesn't speak English well, she should contact an interpreter to intepret ASL to English. She can easily do this by calling VRS and asking the interpreter to leave a voicemail. Once she leaves the voicemail, she can check it with IP-Relay and the operator will type everything the interpreter said. After that, all she needs to do is time the words to the correct signs, and that's easy with the correct software.

The problem I see with this, Taric.. is that if deaf vloggers should caption their videos, so should hearing.. we're all equal.. let's have the hearing caption their Vlogs TOO!!!!

So, NO, we don't have to caption our Vlogs, if they won't caption theirs!
Yes, you do have to caption your VLogs! If you refuse to caption, when why should people who are Hearing caption? You must be the change you wish to see in the world!! You must raise the bar and pose the challenge to people who are Hearing. My parents raised me Hearing, but they encouraged me to study neither Spanish nor ASL, and look at me now! Plus, many people who are Hearing do caption their videos. Take a look.
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Also, there are many benefits to providing closed captions for your videos. I will post an ASL video with audio and captions of the benefits soon.
 
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You're just naive.

Ella Mae is a well-known and well-respected Deaf woman. She knows what she is talking about.

On the other hand about captioning, what do you know about the recent issue where FCC was about to permit no captioning for hundreds of TV programs?

Why should we bother trying to be the example when hearing people don't give a damn? If they see our ASL vlogs that aren't captioned, the hearing people will feel the frustration that we Deaf people felt for a very long time. They will understand and appreciate the experience much better than to watch something already captioned FOR the hearing people. They take everything for granted, so why should we comply with their expectations???

Again, it goes back the the main issue: money and timing. Not everyone have the luxury of having both available at all times when making vlogs AND captioning them.
 
There is also another website that will take ASL vlog and type out the transcripts for the "Blind, DeafBlind, or Dyslexic" people. I don't remember the site's URL though.

My main reason for captions is to make VLogs accessible to people with disabilities. For example, a Blind, DeafBlind, or Dyslexic person may find it difficult or impossible understand a VLog with open captions, or no captions at all. Open captions do not help, because the information is in the video, and a screen reader or dynamic braille display cannot read video, but UAs (User Agents), such as screen readers or dynamic braille displays, can read text. What situation could you think of, where closed captions are not possible? Closed captions are available for TV, WMP (Windows Media Player), QT (Quicktime), RM (Realmedia), DVD, and a variety of other formats.
 
Ella Mae is a well-known and well-respected Deaf woman. She knows what she is talking about.

That doesn't necessarily make her right. In fact, it makes her site (and other vlogs) an echo chamber; whereas non-fluent signers like myself might be interested in what she has to say, the odds that we'll get her message are low. Which is a pity, because education will get the community more allies - or at least get hearing people to understand better. In fact, if Ella provided a transcript, perhaps I would be better able to understand her position on this issue, and agree with her; as it is, I'm learning about it second-hand, and quite possibly things are being distorted along the way.

On the other hand about captioning, what do you know about the recent issue where FCC was about to permit no captioning for hundreds of TV programs?

So, what, you're gonna take your toys and play somewhere else? An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

Why should we bother trying to be the example when hearing people don't give a damn? If they see our ASL vlogs that aren't captioned, the hearing people will feel the frustration that we Deaf people felt for a very long time. They will understand and appreciate the experience much better than to watch something already captioned FOR the hearing people.

Very naive. All it means is that a hearing person who stumbles across a vlog that isn't captioned will ignore it and move on, rather than take a moment to check it out.

Again, it goes back the the main issue: money and timing. Not everyone have the luxury of having both available at all times when making vlogs AND captioning them.

True. And no one should be forced to caption their vlogs; that would be ridiculous. But at the same time, it should be recognized that captioning your vlogs is a good thing for the community as a whole.
 
I voted no, even though I think the question should have been phrased differently. By voting no I'm not saying that it's bad to caption vlogs, but that more or less forcing people into doing it (by making them feel really bad if they don't) is wrong. If the choice is between posting a vlog entry with captions and not posting at all, you'll end up with fewer vlogs. If people feel they have the time and energy to add captions, that's a good thing. Encourage captions and transcripts, by all means, but don't shame people into doing it.

PS. No, I don't understand everything in most ASL vlog posts, since I'm not fluent, but some vloggers are much easier to understand than other. I usually get 85-90% of the content when the vlogger in question is someone like Amy Cohen Efron or Joey Baer. If the signing is very fast, out of focus and done in poor lighting I understand almost nothing. On the other hand, I don't think I'm the only one who prefers clear over grainy and poorly lit.
 
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