Learning Center

Description Key - Quality Description

Today's students are expected to learn from increasingly visual curricula. Using narration to describe visual information enhances comprehension and retention. Description not only benefits students who are blind or visually impaired, it benefits children on the autism spectrum, English language learners, and children with learning differences.

Description Key - Background

Adapted from the original "Background of The Description Key," written in 2008 by Kay Alicyn Ferrell and Mary Ann Siller, American Foundation for the Blind.

Description Key - About the Key

Originally developed through a partnership between the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), the Description Key began as recommendations, suggestions, and best practices culled from an extensive literature search and meta-analysis [PDF] in 2006.

Welcome to the Description Key

Description is the key to opening a world of information for persons with a vision loss, literacy needs, or loss of cognitive abilities. The American Foundation for the Blind reports that 21.5 million adults have vision loss and 94,000 children with a vision loss are being helped by some kind of special education. While description was developed for people who are blind or visually impaired, sighted children may also benefit from description’s concise, objective translation of media’s key visual components. Specialized learners, such as students with learning differences, English language learners, and children on the autism spectrum, benefit from its value in literacy development (e.g., vocabulary and reading) and content learning. DCMP’s Listening Is Learning campaign focuses on these benefits.

DCMP Implements New Player-Based Captions and Description

To ensure that all media in DCMP's video library is always accessible, captions have been "burned in" or "open," meaning the captions are physically part of the video. Likewise, audio description has been added to each video's main soundtrack. Beginning in April, 2020, captions and description began transitioning to "player-based," meaning that these accessibility features are comprised of separate tracks that can be toggled on and off by the viewer. To continue DCMP's commitment to ensuring each viewing of every video is accessible, at least one accessibility feature will always remain on. All new content will have player-based accessibility upon release, and existing content will gradually switch to player-based as we quality check each one to ensure proper functionality.

Focus on Learning

Editors note: This article was written in April, 2020, and reflects DCMP during the period of 2016-2021.

New Tool Streamlines Creation of Multiple Student Accounts

DCMP has implemented a new tool for educators to expedite the creation of Student Accounts for multiple students. A new interface allows for several names to be added while usernames and passwords are auto-generated.

Getting a Job! for Students Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired - Module

The Getting a Job! for Students Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired online training was developed and designed for students who are blind and visually impaired and the professionals who work with them. Focusing on the transition from school to work, the training offers a series of activities, supporting documents, and topical videos designed to help the job seeker prepare for the world of work. It features several blind and low vision role models to guide students along the path to work.

Classroom, Remote, and Hybrid Learning With DCMP Accessible Videos

Teachers and parents across the country are taking advantage of DCMP's resources for classroom, remote, and hybrid learning. For educators who have at least one student with a disability, DCMP can help ensure that educational videos are accessible for students learning in the classroom and at home.

Captioning Key - YouTube

Google offers an “auto caption” feature for YouTube uploads by which text-to-speech software attempts to automatically generate captions from a video’s soundtrack. If you’d like slightly more control over the content of your captions, Google has also implemented “automatic caption timing.” To use this feature, simply transcribe all of the words found in your video, and upload it as you would your SRT (timed) caption file (see below). The same text-to-speech algorithms used for “auto caption” will synchronize your transcribed text for you, eliminating the need to worry about timecodes. (Check YouTube help for more about these automatic features.)However, the safest (and most accurate) bet would be to upload an SRT file with your video; once completed, this will enable a “CC” button on the video player interface and captioning will be turned on by default. YouTube has provided instructions for users interested in adding captions to their YouTube videos.

Captioning Key - Tools for Creating Captions

Captioning Key - About the Key

The first captioning of films in America occurred in 1951, three decades before the advent of closed captioning on broadcast television. It was performed by Captioned Films for the Deaf (CFD), the ancestor of DCMP, which became federally funded in 1958. Guidelines were developed at CFD to assist teams of teachers and deaf persons who wrote captions for many years, first for films and then later for videos.

Captioning Key - Elements of Quality Captioning

Captioning is the key to opening up a world of information for persons with hearing loss or literacy needs. There are more than 30 million Americans with some type of hearing loss. Millions of others are illiterate, learning to read, or use English as a second language.

Captioning Key - Language Mechanics

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Captioning Key - Presentation Rate

A reoccurring question about captioning is whether captions should be verbatim or edited. Among the advocates for verbatim are organizations of deaf and hard of hearing persons who do not believe that their right for equal access to information and dialogue is served by any deletion or change of words. Supporters of edited captions include parents and teachers who call for the editing of captions on the grounds that the reading rates necessitated by verbatim captions can be so high that captions are almost impossible to follow.