Learning Center

Caption Viewer Survey: Error Ranking of Real Time Captions in Live Television News

The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) reported in 2010 that it was conducting the Caption Accuracy Metrics Project (funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) to explore using language-processing tools to develop a prototype automated caption accuracy assessment system for real-time captions in live TV news programming.

Toward a Theory of Media Reconciliation: An Exploratory Study of Closed Captioning

Dissertation prepared by Nicole Elaine Snell, Clemson University, 2012. Ms. Snell's project was an interdisciplinary empirical study that explores the emotional experiences resulting from the use of the assistive technology closed captioning. More specifically, the study focused on documenting the experiences of both deaf and hearing multimedia users in an effort to better identify and understand those variables and processes that are involved with facilitating and supporting connotative and emotional "meaning-making."

Subtitling and the Relevance of Non Verbal Information in Polyglot Films

A paper by Elena Sanz Ortega, University of Edinburgh, U.K., in 2011. Examines the important role which non-verbal information can play in polyglot films (films in multiple languages) at horizontal and vertical levels. As films belonging to this film genre often portray the misunderstandings that exist amongst cultures, they tend to include characters who speak different languages. In relation to this, multimodal analysis suggests that non-verbal components help characters to communicate and are also used to convey information to the audience in situations where fictional characters do not speak. It is in this latter situation where non-verbal information plays its most important role. Consequently, it is necessary for subtitlers to leave enough time for viewers to catch the non-verbal signs in order for them to understand the communication problems that fictional characters exper

Audio Description

Paper in 2004 by Bernd Benecke, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich, Germany. Deals mainly with two aspects of audio description: the development (history) of this mode of language transfer and the main steps in the preparation of audio description. Overviews status of television description in Germany at the time it was written.

Audio Description: Professional Recognition, Practice and Standards in Spain

This article looks at the context of accessibility in Spain, and after a general picture of the Spanish reality on media accessibility, it goes into describing and analyzing the standard for audio description approved in 2005 by the Spanish Ministerio de Trabajo (Ministry of Labour). By Pilar Orero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.

Audio Description, A Visual Assistive Discourse

Individuals who are visually impaired and blind face challenges in accessing many types of texts including television, films, textbooks, software, and the Internet because of the rich visual nature of these media. In order to provide these individuals with access to this visual information, special assistive technology allows descriptive language to be inserted into the text to represent the visual content. This study investigates this descriptive language. A thesis written by Philip Piety, Georgetown University, in 2003.

World Blind Union Toolkit On Providing, Delivering and Campaigning for Audio Description on Television and Film

Though informally there has been much sharing of experience, the worldwide community has not worked systematically together to achieve our aim of an inclusive world of television and film. This document aims to gather the lessons learned in different countries, and to help build capacity across the World Blind Union membership to campaign for audio description. Defines description, and provides technical information and lobbying tips. World Blind Union, 2007.

Enhancing Movie Comprehension for Individuals Who are Visually Impaired or Blind Through Haptics

This work proposes a promising multimodal approach to sensory substitution for movies by providing complementary information through haptics, pertaining to the positions and movements of actors, in addition to a film's audio description and audio content. In a ten-minute presentation of five movie clips to ten individuals who were visually impaired or blind, the novel methodology was found to provide an almost two time increase in the perception of actors' movements in scenes. Moreover, participants appreciated and found useful the overall concept of providing a visual perspective to film through haptics. A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of science at Arizona State University by Lakshmie Narayan Viswanathan in 2011.

Blindness Sector Report on the 2012 ABC Audio Description Trial

This collaborative report, prepared by Blind Citizens Australia, Vision Australia, ACCAN, and Media Access Australia, aims to highlight the consumer experience of the audio description (AD) technical trial on ABC TV in order to persuade the Australian government to support a permanent AD service. Attempts to reflect the high demand for AD by consumers and outline the benefits of AD.

Translating Audio Description Scripts: The Way Forward?

Report on the 2006 testing of the hypothesis of translating or adapting audio description scripts as a faster and more financially viable way to create audio described films. Adapting the audio description from a script instead of creating a description script from scratch from the already dubbed version seems a viable alternative.

Let a Billion Readers Bloom: Same Language Subtitling (SlS) on Television for Mass Literacy

An estimated 250 million officially "literate" people in India cannot read a simple text. Same Language Subtitling (SLS) aims to make reading an integral part of the everyday life of all so-called "literate" people in India, especially the 250 million or so "literates" who quite possibly cannot yet read the day's newspaper headlines. The challenge is to transition large numbers of these budding readers to a functional reading level. By Brij Koth

Same Language Subtitling on Tv: Impact on Basic Reading Development Among Children and Adults

Same Language Subtitling (SLS) was implemented on two nationally telecast Hindi film song programs, Chitrahaar and Rangoli, between 2002 to present. SLS was designed to enable automatic and subconscious reading practice among over 100 million early literates for one hour/week. This study revisited more than 13,000 illiterates and semi-literates randomly drawn from five states, to get a snap-shot of their reading skills at the baseline before the SLS intervention (2002), a year later (2003), and again in 2007. Conclusion: SLS contributes significantly to reading improvement. By Brij Kothari, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay and Debanjan Bhattacharjee, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. (2007).

Benefits of Sign Language Interpreting and Text Alternatives for Deaf Students' Classroom Learning

Presents findings, which combined with other recent studies, suggest that there is no inherent advantage or disadvantage to print materials (C-Print or CART) relative to high-quality sign language in the classroom. By the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the University of Aberdeen, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, the University of Western Sydney, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of New England. (2006).

Using Captions to Reduce Barriers to Native American Student Success

Corpus Based Analysis of Audio Description

This paper presents an investigation into the automated analysis of audio description scripts for 91 films. The investigation reveals some idiosyncratic features of what appears to be a special language. The existence of a special language is explained in part by the fact that audio description is produced by trained professionals following established guidelines, and its idiosyncrasies are explained by considering its communicative function – in particular that it is being used to tell a story.