A look back at 2015

2015 saw a lot of accessibility advocacy around subtitles/captioning and audio description with some great victories. This is by no means a complete list but it does summarise some of the highlights for me.

Amazon Instant Video UK finally started added subtitles to their VOD service after some great advocacy which had its origins in the Love Subtitles campaign.  In 2014, there were no subtitles at all, and by the end of 2015, approximately 50% of its content is subtitled (see ATVOD report detailed later in this article). Let’s hope that percentage figure continues to rise in 2016 .

Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix

Netflix US / UK found itself the target of an advocacy campaign to add audio description to its content after it released an original series about a blind superhero Daredevil based on the Marvel comic book character of the same name without making it accessible to blind and visually impaired viewers. Thanks to the efforts of The Accessible Netflix Project,  there was a pretty fast response from Netflix in releasing audio description tracks for this series and more on its platform.

The Action On Hearing Loss #SubtitleIt! campaign succesfully obtained a public comittment from Sky that it would increase the amount of  subtitled VOD content on it’s services by summer 2016 following a petition from Jamie Danjoux. I think a lot of people will be watching this one closely and look forward to seeing the comittment being met in 2016.

All of these campaigns are far from over and many are continuing their advocacy into 2016. The #SubtitleIt campaign just published a useful summary of ATVOD’s final report  (before being taken over by Ofcom) into the Provision of Access Services published at the end of 2015.

There were many other interesting publications around accessibility in 2015:

• Action on Hearing Loss published the results of its survey into the state of VOD accessibility in the UK called Progress On Pause.
• RNIB published the results of trial involving blind and visually impaired members using an audio description app called MovieReading.
• Stagetext published the results of its research and development using new technology called CaptionCue to produce live captioning of live theatre performances.
• BBC R&D published a whitepaper on Responsive Design for Personalised Subtitles.
• HBB 4 All published its report into New approaches to Improving the Quality of Media Accessibility Services on HbbTV.
• Ofcom published its final 4th report into measuring the quality of live subtitling on live TV. Amongst a wealth of statistics was an interesting snippet of information about  a possible technical solution for some live UK TV channels and live subtitling latency. A solution referred to as using ‘switchable delays’. I have been lucky enough to see a clip of this from tests and the results do indeed look very promising so I hope that this will be implemented.

There were many other successful advocacy and awareness campaigns in 2015.

I had great fun taking part in the UK’s first #CAPaware week launched by Stagetext to celebrate its 15th birthday which amongst many activities that week included tweeting alongside watching a captioned play from Digital Theatre.

Turn On The Captions Now  was a campaign that successfully passed a local city law in Portland, Oregon USA which states that all public televisions in public areas such as bars and restaurants must have closed captioning switched on. The Portland: Turn On The Captions Now! group have since published a website that includes instructions for turning on closed captions and advice for Portland residents on how to request captions if they spot non-compliance.

American Airlines showed everyone how not to respond to a query on social media to a request for closed captioning to be made available on their in-flight entertainment.  It lead to a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #DeafInTheAir

But it wasn’t just airlines, Braam Jordaan was successfull in getting the White House to make its video content accessible with a campaign predominantly on Twitter using the hashtag #WHccNow

.@whitehouse Please add captions to videos posted on social media! #WHccNow More info: https://t.co/zpPSnDlB3b pic.twitter.com/cGXvLmHLtR

— Braam Jordaan (@braamjordaan) December 10, 2015

In fact it seems when it comes to social media, (whisper it carefully, I don’t want to jinx it) but it seems that the knowledge that subtitling and captioning your video media leads to other benefits outside of accessibility is starting to become mainstream. Video marketing websites have been quick to report research showing that adding subtitles can increase the video completion rate and  the video share rate. I for one have noticed more and more videos on social media with auto-play *and* open subtitles.  I hope that this trend continues as it can only lead to more accessible content online for everyone. Roll on 2016…

 

#withcaptions Fixing You Tube’s auto-captions

Last month some high-profile vlogger’s that include Rikki Poynter and Tyler Oakley on the popular video sharing site YouTube got the attention of some mainstream press with a campaign that started with the hashtag #withcaptions.  It’s fantastic to see other’s campaigning and educating their audience as to the importance of not just captioning your online videos but captioning them accurately. I won’t repeat what mainstream media coverage reported but if you missed it or have no idea what I am talking about click on the links below:

• ABC News: Hard of Hearing You Tube star campaigns for better closed captioning.
• Upworthy: Pretty much a no brainer. So why do so many people with brains forget to add this to their videos?
• BBC Newsbeat: Tyler Oakley adds subtitles after vlogger campaign.

To anyone who accurately captions their online videos. Good job. Thank you.

It is so refreshing to get some positive mainstream press coverage about the importance of subtitling and its even more brilliant that the message is being spread by individuals outside of the subtitling, captioning or SEO industry. To all of you individuals doing this or perhaps have acted on this information and are now accurately captioning your own You Tube video’s – a massive thank you from me.

As most of you reading should already know, You Tube does use automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to automatically create captions from the audio track of uploaded video content on its site but these are very rarely, if ever accurate.  But what if you could fix these to make them accurate, rather than have to start from scratch to create accurate captions? That’s exactly what Michael Lockrey, who refers to these as ‘Craptions’ aims to solve with nomoreCRAPTIONS.  As Lockrey explains:

nomoreCRAPTIONS is a free, open source solution that enables any YouTube video with an automatic captioning (‘craptioning’) track to be fixed within the browser.

Craptions is the name coined by me for Google YouTube’s automatic craptioning – as they don’t provide any accessibility outcomes for people who rely on captioning unless they are reviewed and corrected. As this rarely happens and as Google rarely explains that they haven’t really “fixed” the captioning accessibility issue, we have a huge web accessibility problem where most online videos are uncaptioned (or only craptioned which is just as poor as no captioning at all).

If you don’t believe me, then look at Google YouTube’s own actions in this space. The fact that they don’t even bother to index the automatic craptioning speaks volumes – as their robots hunt down pretty much everything that moves on the internet. So it’s obvious from these actions that they don’t place any value in them at all when they are left unmodified by content creators.

There is also no way to watch the automatic craptioning on an iOS device (such as an iPhone or iPad) at present, unless you use the nomoreCRAPTIONS tool.

Lockrey who is profoundly deaf has taught himself web development skills to solve a problem that he feels Google (You Tube’s owners) have largely ignored.  This hasn’t been easy as although there’s a huge amount of learning materials on YouTube and other platforms, most of them are uncaptioned or craptioned. Lockrey explains:

Previously if I encountered yet another YouTube video that was uncaptioned or craptioned, I would often spend my own money and invest personal resources (my own personal time, effort, etc) in obtaining a transcript and / or a timed text caption file.  This usually also involved taking a copy of the YouTube video and then re-uploading the video onto my own YouTube channel so I could add the accessibility layer (i.e. good quality captioning).  Quite often I would end up being blacklisted from Google YouTube’s automated copyright systems, when I was only trying to access content that was freely and publicly made available by the content creators on YouTube and was not trying to earn revenue from the content (via ads) or any “funny” business, etc I knew that there simply had to be a better way.

No More Craptions lets you edit You Tube’s auto-captioning errors

With nomoreCRAPTIONS you simply paste in a YouTube URL or video ID and it instantly provides you with an individual web page for that video where you can go through and fix up the automatic craptioning (where there is an automatic craptioning track available).

At the moment it’s a very simple interface and it is ideal for shorter YouTube videos of 4 or 5 minutes in duration (or less). It works in all languages that Google supports on YouTube with automatic craptioning. Here’s an example of the Kim Kardashian superbowl commercial which is very short and sweet.

You can modify the text of the auto-captions to correct any errors via the yellow box on the right.

Lockrey explains:

There’s very little learning curve involved and this was intentional as whilst Amara and DotSub have great solutions in this space, they also have quite a substantial learning curve and I wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone to just hop on and do the right thing. One the biggest advantages of the tool is that the corrected captions can be viewed immediately once you have saved them. This means it’s possible for a Deaf person to watch a hearing person fix up the craptions on a video over their shoulder and see the edits in real-time!

We’ve even had a few universities using the tool as there’s so much learning content that is on YouTube, and this is simply the easiest way for them to ensure that there’s an accessible version made available to the students that need captioning – without wasting time on copyright shenanigans etc.  I’ve also been using it as a great advocacy tool – it’s so easy to share corrected captions with the content creators now and hopefully we can bridge that awareness gap that Google has allowed to fester since November 2009.

noMORECRAPTIONS is still very much in the early development stage and there is more to come. The next steps are a partnership with #FreeCodeCamp to help with rolling out improvements and new features in the very near future. This includes looking at other platforms such as Facebook and Vimeo videos as part of the next tranche of upgrades as more and more platforms cross over to HTML 5 video.

Lockrey is keen to get as much user feedback as possible so what are you waiting for – try the tool for yourself. For more information please contact @mlockrey.

And when you’ve done that, you might also want to read: OMG! I just found out there’s only 5% captioning* on YouTube.

MOOC’s, Learning and Education

Please don’t think a lack of blog posts over the summer means a lack of interest in the subject of all things captioning and subtitling, far from it. In fact in an attempt to improve my skills and knowledge, one of things that I’ve been busy with is learning. I took my first steps into the world of MOOC’s. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, it stands for Massive Open Online Courses. They are courses that exist online, and the majority consist of a combination of reading material and video lectures.

So you can probably guess what I am going to comment on next. As a hard of hearing person, just how accessible was the video content? Well it goes without saying that a key factor in me choosing a MOOC was not just the subject matter but whether the video and audio content was subtitled or captioned in English. The two MOOC’s I took were from FutureLearn and Coursera*

Coursera – At A Glance section of the page detailing subtitle availability

FutureLearn’s FAQ includes information on the availability of subtitles

 

I am happy to say that it was relatively easy for me to find out if content on their courses was subtitled. I particularly like Coursera’s clear layout and course summary from a course’s main page which tells you if subtitles are available. You have to dig a little deeper to find the answer on FutureLearn’s website but it is there in a detailed FAQ – Technology and Accessibility page. All of FutureLearn’s courses are subtitled in English, I am unsure if that is the case for Coursera.

But…having established that the video content of the course itself is subtitled, why oh why, on both websites, is the introductory video not also subtitled! I have to rely only on the text description of the course to decide if it is the right one for me. This is the only opportunity you have to make me a ‘customer’ and commit to joining your course, so why are you leaving this video out?  It’s clear time and effort has been put into recording and editing them – so for goodness sake make them accessible and add subtitles!

So what was the quality of the subtitling of the course content like I hear you ask? Well, varied to be honest. Starting with the good – the errors that did occur in the subtitles for both MOOC courses were not frequent enough to stop me from understanding and completing assignments. The most grave example – where a word error actually changed the meaning of the sentence came from Coursera. For example the phrase “Dublin Core” was subtitled as “Double Encore” and it was a horrible distraction when trying to understand a new topic that I had not studied before. When I pointed this out in the course forums, the staff explained it was likely due to an  auto-captioning error and apologised for the mistake. They also fixed the error relatively quickly allowing me to watch the video again two days later with much less confusion. Whilst it would have been better if the error was not there at all the speed of the response to fix it meant I didn’t get left behind in my studies. On the FutureLearn course one video used an incorrect word. I have to admit if it wasn’t for my own lip-reading skills I may not have realised this. When I posted a comment about it, it wasn’t the staff that responded but a very helpful fellow learner who clarified the correct word for me.

Now for the not so good. Anyone who is a professional subtitler or captioner will know the importance of chunking, character limits per line and reading speeds. Now assuming the same guidelines for subtitling pre-recorded content for captioning/subtitles on broadcast TV also applies to pre-recorded educational MOOC videos (I don’t see why not but please comment if you disagree) these rules were not adhered to. The question is did it stop me learning? Honestly, no it didn’t (I can at least pause,rewind online) but it did make the retention and understanding harder. The user experience was not as good as it could have been. It is not what I am used to. I would prefer that the level of quality I am used to seeing on broadcast TV and DVD is replicated for MOOC videos.

Another issue, for both courses is that the teacher would sometimes direct you to an external resource such as another website or video not hosted by the MOOC platform itself. And here’s where the access falls down. On both FutureLearn and Coursera the external content contained videos that were not subtitled or captioned. So I was unable to benefit from this. Now it would be nice if the platforms only allowed external links if the content has been made accessible. However the decision to include such content is probably at the discretion of the teacher not the MOOC platform. It’s exactly the same issue we currently see with VOD (Video on Demand) platforms. They might host the video but they are not the providers of content for whom it is generally accepted that the responsibility to provide the captioning or subtitling lies with. Did this prevent me from learning and passing tests and assignments? Thankfully no, because for both courses the external content was an optional extra but it still stands that this current format/situation does not equate to equal access to content. And that is most certainly a bad thing.

Both MOOC courses that I took allowed students on the course to download a transcript of all videos (Coursera also allow you to download the subtitle file itself). This is a nice tool that all pupils on the course can benefit from. And this brings me to the point of one of the reasons I set up this blog – the belief that subtitles and closed captioning are not just a resource for deaf and hard of hearing communities, they are for everyone. There has been numerous research and studies over the last 20-30 years that suggest subtitles and closed captioning can help improve reading skills, literacy and the retention of information. There are a few websites that highlight this, the most comprehensive are Captions For Literacy and Zane Education.

SOURCE: National Captioning Institute – Guide for Using Captioned Television in the Teaching of Reading (1987)

Some of this research has been recognised and there are resources for teachers in Australia via Cap That!, and the USA via Read Captions Across America and Reading Rockets.  In fact, the USA as far back as 1987 realised the benefits and the National Captioning Institute published a guide for teachers.

Does anyone know if there are or have been similar publications or resources for teachers in the UK? I have been unable to find anything and given the level of subtitled coverage on TV we now have, it seems a missed opportunity for teachers not to use it as a learning tool and encourage their use?

Going back to MOOC’s , the global nature of the internet means its recognised that subtitles are needed given the course can be taken anywhere in the world and a pupil might need to read subtitles in their own language or use same language subtitles to aid their understanding. And everyone stands to benefit from this. I really enjoyed the experience overall and will absolutely consider taking more subtitled MOOC courses in the future.

I haven’t even mentioned the services of CART (Communication Access in Real Time) or STT/STTR (Speech To Text) as an educational tool yet. These services were not available to me as a student but where they have been made available for at talks, meetings, or events I have absolutely benefited from being better at retaining the information being spoken simply because I can read every word.  I look forward to more research and evidence in the area of real-time live subtitling/captioning access because again I think all learners could benefit from this not just those who struggle to hear what is being said.

What has been your experience with using captioning or subtitling as an educational tool been?

*other accessible MOOCs are available.

The Killing – Christmas Jumper Day (with subtitles) #xmasjumperday

Today is Christmas jumper day in the UK. A charity campaign from Save The Children. Check out this video of a clip of popular subtitled Danish series The Killing also with its own ‘translation’ subtitles:

Hope it made you smile! Maybe not if you understand the original language, but I love the idea for the campaign.

SMPTE Internet Captioning Webcast

This webcast posted by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is a good introduction to current US captioning regulatory requirements and new requirements due to come into play in the USA. All US broadcasters must caption content online that has previously been broadcast on linear TV by the end of this month. This includes pre-recorded content that has been edited for broadcast online. By March 2014, this also applies to live and near live content. Whilst the webcast is US-Centric the technical problems and solutions it discusses around captioning formats for online, and multi-platform broadcast content is relevant to all global broadcasters. The webcast covers both pre-recorded/block style captioning as well as live subtitling. It is captioned and you can view it below:

Q&A with Films14 Director Shaun Sadlier

A fully subtitled from launch, with the aim to also eventually provided full BSL signed movies from a Video On Demand service.  Imagine that? Well one business entrepreneur Shaun Sadlier is planning to do just that through Films14.  Read the Q&A from Shaun below and watch the video for more information:

Q:  Your service is called Films14.  Is there a story behind the name?
A: I was looking for a name which it is easy to remember and maximum is 7 letters or numbers, films is what we provide and 14 references 2014 when we want to launch.

Q: You are based in the UK but the internet is global. Can anyone sign up to Films14 or is it UK residents only?
A: That’s correct, we are global brand but we start out in UK and if it goes well then we will expand across the world. Anyone can sign up but it is for UK residents only. If I found anyone who aren’t UK residents then they have to wait for us to come over.

Q: Can you reveal what content there will be available to watch?
A: We’ve got two types of content, Subscription and On Demands. There will be 50+ movies / TV shows in the first month and additional 50 or more on every month for Subscription. There will be 60+ blockbusters movies every year for On Demands.

Q: The subscription content – does that cost extra to access it in addition to the monthly fee? Or does the monthly fee give you access to the subscription content?
A: No, it will not cost extra. It is a monthly fee to access subscription and discount blockbuster movie from On Demand.

Q: Are there any benefits to signing up in advance of the Films14 launch?
A: Yes, there is a benefit.

1. £4.99 for first month and then £6.99 monthly
2. Access to subscription movie’s and TV series (50+ Movie’s & TV Series addition every month)
3. Discount Blockbusters movie’s On Demands (60+ New movie’s in a year)
4. Can cancel membership after first month
5. Pay nothing until launch
6. 100% Subtitles and In-vision signer for sign language (On and Off feature!) – World first!
7. Mystery Gift on the Launch day for Pre-Launch membership only

About the Mystery Gift.
1. If we get over 20,000 UK residents sign up before launch then Pre-Launch membership will get £4.99 monthly for life.
2. If we get over 50,000 UK residents sign up then before launch Pre-Launch membership will get £3.99 monthly for life.
3. If we get over 150,000 UK residents sign up then before launch Pre-Launch membership will get £2.99 monthly for life.

Q: How is this service funded?
A: This service will be funded by crowdfunding and then membership sign up on the first month of launch. Our Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Investment Scheme are currently pending which take up 4 to 6 weeks.

Q: How will the subtitles be provided, are you creating them?
A: Our content distributors provides movies with subtitles included. I won’t accept any movies or TV show without subtitles available because in my view, it is pieces of junk.

Q: How will the BSL be provided, are you creating them?
A: I have a studio which I can use and hire professional BSL signer’s but it will take lots of time to edit them therefore I am looking around for a professional company that can offer a good deal.

Q: Will all content released on the website have subtitles and BSL immediately?
A:  All will have subtitles immediately and BSL will start out with a few titles because it is very expensive and it is new technology. Eventually, all movies will have Sign Language included. That’s our mission.

Q: What are the challenges you are facing in getting this service up and running?
A: The most challenging is to get as many subscriber’s as possible to cover the costs and in-vision signer features. I am very confident it will go OK.

Q: Will you be able to watch the content on all internet enabled devices or desktop and laptops only?
A: It will work on Playstation 3, Wii, iPad and any devices with an internet connection and screen because we are going to use HTML5 video player.

Q: What can readers do to help get the service up and running?
A: Readers can help us to find weakness in our services and sign up please.

Q: What is your favourite subtitled content?
A: 100% Subtitles with options of size, colour and background colour to suit their need.   I don’t have a favourite subtitled movie because I love so many movie’s so it is very difficult to choose. But I mostly watch Sci-fi, Horror, Thriller, Adventure and Drama. Sometime Comedy.

Q: What is your favourite BSL content?
A: In-vision signer with on and off feature. We are going to start with British Sign Language and when we expand to USA we will put in America Sign Language. American’s are excited and want us to come over, even Australia as well!  I don’t have a favourite British Sign Language movie because I haven’t seen one yet considering we don’t get 24/7 access to entertainment and currently it is very limited access.  When I heard about a movie with in-vision signer on TV, they normally show these at 2am in the morning which it is frustrating for us. And, some BSL TV series are shown on PC or Laptop which is limited devices. Therefore, our company is 24/7 access, you can watch anytime, anywhere and any devices with internet connection and screen. It will also be the fastest way to watch movies.

Q: Why do you think current content providers are so slow at providing access?
A: They don’t think how important about our access need because they don’t see how we feel after all these years. I feel so frustrated to have limited access to entertainment and it is getting worse. So, here I am.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about Films14?
A: Films14 is Deaf-led company and we know what we need to access the enjoyment of movies and TV Series. Also, we are world first to have sign language with on and off features. Just like subtitles.

All the best!

Shaun Sadlier
Director
Films14

Shaun has already made a BSL signed and subtitled video explaining the service which you can watch on the Films14 website or watch it below:

You Tube – pay for translation captions service now available

This is interesting, You Tube are now offering translation pay for services for people wishing to provide translation subtitles/captions to viewers for their You Tube hosted videos. Would you use it? Or would you go for a free option only? (crowd sourced Amara perhaps? Or Google Translate?) There are pro’s and cons to both.

Nike #makeitcount advert with graphics subtitled

On UK TV the majority, but by no means all adverts are subtitled (so long as you have them turned on in the first place). Online, I see very few subtitled. However I came across a campaign from Nike promoting the use of a twitter hashtag #MAKEITCOUNT that has subtitled it’s advert online for the deaf and hard of hearing. The difference is they have subtitled the graphics and not the audio (which is music lyrics) which is traditionally what subtitles are used for:

Graphics on screen are subtitled in original language (same language subtitling)

The subtitles have also been used in the more conventional way to translate into other languages, but again it is the graphics that are translated and not the music audio:

Nike subtitles translate the graphics into another language – in this example – into Spanish.

What I found interesting is that Nike have also chosen to match the graphics style of text on screen and replicate as best as they can with the subtitles too. Here is an illustration:

Nike subtitles – the subtitles are designed to try to match the look of the graphics on screen.

This includes adding the “@twitterhandle” names of the athletes appearing in the advert in the twitter handle style. This is included both in same language subtitles and the translation subtitles:

Nike subtitles – same language subtitles includes twitter handle names in “@twitter style”

Nike subtitles – translation subtitles includes twitter handle names in “@twitter style”

See for yourself by watching the subtitled Nike #MAKEITCOUNT advert here:

Do you like this? Or would you rather see the audio subtitled? I suppose it illustrates that for Nike the key messages they want the viewer to understand are in the graphics and not the audio in the first place. And if it is not, they really should be subtitling the music audio!

Web Series – increasing in popularity? Where are the captions?

So far on this blog when discussing access to video content on the web I have focused on catch-up services provided by traditional linear TV broadcasters. But increasingly there is some content that is available on the web only, usually refered to as a web series.

A web series is a series of videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode or webisode.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

Web Series shouldn’t be mistaken for being small-fry, it is an industry big enough to have its own awards called The Streamys. The number 1 subscribed web series on You Tube is currently Smoosh with over 7,000,000 subscribers! This kind of content is not subject to the same regulatory rules as web catch up services in any country so far as I am aware (readers please correct me by commenting on this post if I am wrong). Unfortunately much of this content is without captions or subtitles but there are some fantastic individuals working hard to advocate and educate producers of web series to encourage them to include it. Captioned Web TV is a fantastic blog that lists all web series it finds that includes captions. It also contains useful information for web producers to take steps in captioning their videos. If you know of any web series with captions that is not listed you can submit that information to the site.

In addition to web series created by individual producers, OTT platforms such as Amazon and Netflix are starting to produce their own exclusive shows. Netflix’s first produced show is a remake of the TV series House Of Cards. To my pleasant surprise the trailer which is already online has been captioned and so I hope the same will be true of the series itself:

In a similar vein Amazon Studios has greenlit several productions but have not yet completed production. And in the US Hulu has several exclusive series, the captioning of which seems to be a mixed bag:

Wow, Hulu must be putting pressure on its Hulu exclusive series producers to caption. I just found 13 Hulu exclusive series with captions.

— Caption Action 3 (@CaptionAction3) January 27, 2013

At the same time, three of the newest Hulu exclusive series have uncaptioned trailers, which means the shows themselves may not be cc.

— Caption Action 3 (@CaptionAction3) January 27, 2013

It is not just the OTT companies, traditional Film & TV production companies also produce series exclusively for the web. One of the series I would very much like to watch but cannot because it is not captioned is from Crackle (run by Sony) called Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. It’s success in bringing viewers to the site has meant that a second series is being produced, and according to paidContent, “2013 is the year of the web series second season”. What I’d like to see is “2013 – the year of captioned web series”. I’ll settle for 2014 if I have to. I’m not convinced changes will happen this quickly. For a start because of its very nature – anyone can upload a web series anywhere at anytime once they have made it, how to keep up with it all? Here’s a list that is fairly current of the many ways to watch web series. I don’t doubt this list could be out of date fairly quickly. But what if The Streamys gave an awards category for the most accessible content? I’d like to see producers whether individuals, OTT platforms, or web content from traditional production companies all competing for that as much as they are for subscribers/hits/views at the very least. Right now, a lot of us are missing out.

i heart subtitles – Now on tumblr – Capturing closed captions and the animated gif

GIFSoup

As an extension to this blog, much like twitter, I decided to join tumblr. Why? In part to extend potential reach but also because tumblr has become a popular place for publishing and sharing screen grabs of closed captions and subtitles. It’s a fascinating use of a feature originally designed to create access. Online, it seems many are using the feature to communicate to friends and followers a favourite scene from a movie or TV show. A picture paints a thousand words, but it seems to communicate the message even more if you screen grab a picture with its dialogue by turning on the closed captions or subtitles. Here are just a sample of some of the tumblr blogs on this topic:

fuckyeahsubtitles
closedcaptionedscreencaptures
[ccsfx]

Equally popular, if not more so, is blogging and sharing animated gif’s (though some say it is dying out in popularity despite the word GIF being 2012’s Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year). The animated GIF has been around for years but in its more recent years it has been used to capture video clips. Converting these clips to an animated GIF and adding captions has become a popular way of expressing emotion or opinion in blogs. As a format GIF files don’t support audio and so the text has to be added if the dialogue is to be captured. I really enjoy this form of communication because it is completely accessible to me. I am sure you have come across many examples of this in social networking (maybe you use them yourself!) and one of my favourites is MYLIFEISDEAF from a blogger using animated gifs to express emotions and life experiences as a cochlear implant user and succeeds brilliantly. Perhaps in a way that is better than just the written word. What do you think?

So if your are on tumblr follow me! I shall reblog and blog gems I find of this sort there.

EDIT: Interesting to note, 3 days after I posted this, came across an article explained that the animated GIF might be coming to Twitter. Good/bad?