My name is Brian Quass from Basye, Virginia, and I am a closed captioner with 25 years of experience. In April of this year, I went freelance to create www.captionsfortheweb.com, a website and company whose goal is to bring quality closed captions to online videos. I formed this company after discovering that the vast majority of major nonprofits are using Google auto-generated captions to "caption" their online videos for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. This astonished me, given the wild inaccuracies of such captioning (not to mention the fact that it is punctuation-free). Surely, I thought, these organizations have never bothered to look at these auto-captions that they are serving up. If they did, they would themselves demand quality captioning for their own online videos! And so I set out to change minds, convinced that such apparently reputable nonprofits would jump at the chance to set things right once I showed them examples of just how bad their online captions actually were, once they saw, that is, the lousy (and often unintelligible) auto-generated captioning that they were foisting off on the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
Vain hope!
I have called and e-mailed these organizations for the last three weeks now and have so far found none that are willing to change their ways -- although, to do them credit, Greenpeace and Disabled American Veterans have at least expressed interest in remedying the situation. Also, I apparently spooked the Sierra Club into at least providing their own accurate captioning for their online video about their founder, John Muir ("60 Years of Conservation") -- although the rest of their online videos still appear to have been captioned by a madman. So, even if no one's willing to pay me $1.50-per-video-minute for my 25 years of closed-captioning experience, at least this campaign of mine will result in some nonprofits personally captioning a few of what they consider to be their most important online videos.
Some nonprofits, however, seem to deny that there's even a problem with the captioning on their sites, given their nonchalant and non-apologetic response toward my complaints on that subject. The PR director of the Art Institute of Chicago, for instance, informed me that they do not need my services but will contact me "if the need should arise." This answer astonished me, given the specific examples of ludicrous auto-generated captions on the AI website that I had just forwarded to that contact the prior day via e-mail. So, after picking my jaw up off the floor, I hastily e-mailed back, saying: "With all due respect, I think that the need has already arisen." Meanwhile, Scientific American (a site which features no captions at all) advised me that they have so few online videos that they don't need my captioning services, thank you very much. Once again my jaw went AWOL. "That has to be the most inventive excuse yet for not providing closed captioning," I thought to myself, "the claim that there are too few videos that need captioning!" And so I responded (diplomatically, I trust, though perhaps a trifle tersely): "In that case, I should be able to handle the job all the more promptly" (although what I really wanted to say was: "If you only have a few videos, then why the heck aren't you captioning them yourself?")
SOURCE: Art Institute of Chicago
CAPTION: the war does come from child abuse
AUDIO: the award does come with some challenges
SOURCE: Asia Society
CAPTION: you have to come to terms with his chin
AUDIO: You have to come to terms with history.
SOURCE: ASPCA
CAPTION: I had a few surgeons on my leg
AUDIO: I had a few surgeries on my leg
SOURCE: Boys & Girls Clubs of America
CAPTION: lifeboat bozo
AUDIO: the light bulb goes off
SOURCE: Care
CAPTION: that's a madman at a PG chime
AUDIO: Let's imagine a refugee, a child
SOURCE: Disabled American Veterans
CAPTION: chubby bastard
AUDIO: shall be vested
SOURCE: Feeding America
CAPTION: I want to feed my daughters healthy food that I cannot import all the time
AUDIO: I want to feed my daughters healthy food that I cannot afford all the time.
SOURCE: First Nations Development Institute
CAPTION: or mail porn
AUDIO: cornmeal, the parched corn
SOURCE: Goodwill
CAPTION: we will skip that employment
AUDIO: Goodwill has kept that employment
SOURCE: Greenpeace
CAPTION: okay don't be a hoe
AUDIO: the people versus Shell
SOURCE: Habitat for Humanity
CAPTION: Assad was pulling off
AUDIO: the facade was falling off
SOURCE: Joel Osteen's wife on YouTube
CAPTION: we just have to die
AUDIO: we just have to adopt
SOURCE: Kennedy Center
CAPTION: You've got mail billionaires
AUDIO: I'm Gabriel Pederneiras
SOURCE: Lions Club International
CAPTION: better juicy hines assisting the Osprey Atmos
AUDIO: Here we see Lions assisting the offspring of others.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Philharmonic
CAPTION: when I first came I was most erotic
AUDIO: When I first came, I was almost neurotic.
SOURCE: National Association for Missing and Exploited Children
CAPTION: Dustin reaches for a movie life
AUDIO: Dustin reaches for a loaded rifle.
SOURCE: National Resources Defense Council
CAPTION: next we need to protect their emotions from the west
AUDIO: next we need to protect our oceans from the risk
SOURCE: Nature Conservancy
CAPTION: you have water rights there you have cheese
AUDIO: you have water right there, you have trees
SOURCE: Shriners Hospitals for Children
CAPTION: the modern development on my neck
AUDIO: the Neurodevelopmental Clinic
SOURCE: Sierra Club
CAPTION: with that what he calls the Korea inc
AUDIO: with what he calls Sequoia ink
SOURCE: Teach for America
CAPTION: I am holding one of those steaks
AUDIO: I am holding one of those sticks
SOURCE: United Way
CAPTION: I think it's important to get bad
AUDIO: I think it's important to give back.
SOURCE: World Wildlife Fund
CAPTION: thank you for visiting Debbie Debbie's web site
AUDIO: Thank you for visiting WWF's website.
(Want to read more auto-generated captioning blunders? Visit my growing collection at www.ottocapshuns.com.)
But I'm not just writing this post in order to rant against the status quo, I'm writing to solicit help and suggestions from YOU (you, as a member of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities). Specifically, I'm looking for ideas on how I can make it clear to these stubborn nonprofits that I'm not just asking for quality captions on my own behalf (although naturally I would like for them to hire me for my captioning services), but that there are real people out there like yourselves who would benefit from these captions and who are not satisfied with the often wild guesses that Google auto-generated captions return. Perhaps we could even collect online "signatures" on customized petitions directed specifically at each of the nonprofits that are still "making do" with auto-generated captioning for their online videos, petitions that prove that someone besides yours truly wants quality captioning for those online videos. Then, when I make my next cold call to a skeptical nonprofit phone contact, I'll have an ace up my sleeve when it comes to convincing them to take action.
Speaking of petitions, I've already started my own generic petition in favor of the quality closed captioning of online videos. The petition is located at
http://www.captionsfortheweb.com/petition.php.
It would be a great help to me if you could sign it for me -- after reading the rest of this post, of course ;
What do you think? If you have ideas about how I can convince nonprofits (like the ones listed above) to take the needs of the deaf community seriously, please let me know. Meanwhile, I invite you to visit me online at http://www.captionsfortheweb.com/nonprofits.php
Thanks in advance for any help!
Brian Quass
freelance captioner and founder of
www.captionsfortheweb.com
PS Although the obvious auto-generated captioning errors can be fun to read, it's the small errors that can do the most damage when it comes to reader comprehension of the audio content of a program. After all, if the auto-generated caption says "King Kong" instead of "King John," the reader is likely to know that it's a mistake and therefore dismiss it from their mind, correctly assuming that the video in question has nothing to do with the giant ape that climbed the Empire State Building. But if the mistake is something subtle, it could result in a caption that seems completely correct, but which nonetheless changes the meaning of the audio that it was meant to convey (as, for instance, when the phrase "I won't ever do it" is auto-captioned as "I want her to do it").
Vain hope!
I have called and e-mailed these organizations for the last three weeks now and have so far found none that are willing to change their ways -- although, to do them credit, Greenpeace and Disabled American Veterans have at least expressed interest in remedying the situation. Also, I apparently spooked the Sierra Club into at least providing their own accurate captioning for their online video about their founder, John Muir ("60 Years of Conservation") -- although the rest of their online videos still appear to have been captioned by a madman. So, even if no one's willing to pay me $1.50-per-video-minute for my 25 years of closed-captioning experience, at least this campaign of mine will result in some nonprofits personally captioning a few of what they consider to be their most important online videos.
Some nonprofits, however, seem to deny that there's even a problem with the captioning on their sites, given their nonchalant and non-apologetic response toward my complaints on that subject. The PR director of the Art Institute of Chicago, for instance, informed me that they do not need my services but will contact me "if the need should arise." This answer astonished me, given the specific examples of ludicrous auto-generated captions on the AI website that I had just forwarded to that contact the prior day via e-mail. So, after picking my jaw up off the floor, I hastily e-mailed back, saying: "With all due respect, I think that the need has already arisen." Meanwhile, Scientific American (a site which features no captions at all) advised me that they have so few online videos that they don't need my captioning services, thank you very much. Once again my jaw went AWOL. "That has to be the most inventive excuse yet for not providing closed captioning," I thought to myself, "the claim that there are too few videos that need captioning!" And so I responded (diplomatically, I trust, though perhaps a trifle tersely): "In that case, I should be able to handle the job all the more promptly" (although what I really wanted to say was: "If you only have a few videos, then why the heck aren't you captioning them yourself?")
SOURCE: Art Institute of Chicago
CAPTION: the war does come from child abuse
AUDIO: the award does come with some challenges
SOURCE: Asia Society
CAPTION: you have to come to terms with his chin
AUDIO: You have to come to terms with history.
SOURCE: ASPCA
CAPTION: I had a few surgeons on my leg
AUDIO: I had a few surgeries on my leg
SOURCE: Boys & Girls Clubs of America
CAPTION: lifeboat bozo
AUDIO: the light bulb goes off
SOURCE: Care
CAPTION: that's a madman at a PG chime
AUDIO: Let's imagine a refugee, a child
SOURCE: Disabled American Veterans
CAPTION: chubby bastard
AUDIO: shall be vested
SOURCE: Feeding America
CAPTION: I want to feed my daughters healthy food that I cannot import all the time
AUDIO: I want to feed my daughters healthy food that I cannot afford all the time.
SOURCE: First Nations Development Institute
CAPTION: or mail porn
AUDIO: cornmeal, the parched corn
SOURCE: Goodwill
CAPTION: we will skip that employment
AUDIO: Goodwill has kept that employment
SOURCE: Greenpeace
CAPTION: okay don't be a hoe
AUDIO: the people versus Shell
SOURCE: Habitat for Humanity
CAPTION: Assad was pulling off
AUDIO: the facade was falling off
SOURCE: Joel Osteen's wife on YouTube
CAPTION: we just have to die
AUDIO: we just have to adopt
SOURCE: Kennedy Center
CAPTION: You've got mail billionaires
AUDIO: I'm Gabriel Pederneiras
SOURCE: Lions Club International
CAPTION: better juicy hines assisting the Osprey Atmos
AUDIO: Here we see Lions assisting the offspring of others.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Philharmonic
CAPTION: when I first came I was most erotic
AUDIO: When I first came, I was almost neurotic.
SOURCE: National Association for Missing and Exploited Children
CAPTION: Dustin reaches for a movie life
AUDIO: Dustin reaches for a loaded rifle.
SOURCE: National Resources Defense Council
CAPTION: next we need to protect their emotions from the west
AUDIO: next we need to protect our oceans from the risk
SOURCE: Nature Conservancy
CAPTION: you have water rights there you have cheese
AUDIO: you have water right there, you have trees
SOURCE: Shriners Hospitals for Children
CAPTION: the modern development on my neck
AUDIO: the Neurodevelopmental Clinic
SOURCE: Sierra Club
CAPTION: with that what he calls the Korea inc
AUDIO: with what he calls Sequoia ink
SOURCE: Teach for America
CAPTION: I am holding one of those steaks
AUDIO: I am holding one of those sticks
SOURCE: United Way
CAPTION: I think it's important to get bad
AUDIO: I think it's important to give back.
SOURCE: World Wildlife Fund
CAPTION: thank you for visiting Debbie Debbie's web site
AUDIO: Thank you for visiting WWF's website.
(Want to read more auto-generated captioning blunders? Visit my growing collection at www.ottocapshuns.com.)
But I'm not just writing this post in order to rant against the status quo, I'm writing to solicit help and suggestions from YOU (you, as a member of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities). Specifically, I'm looking for ideas on how I can make it clear to these stubborn nonprofits that I'm not just asking for quality captions on my own behalf (although naturally I would like for them to hire me for my captioning services), but that there are real people out there like yourselves who would benefit from these captions and who are not satisfied with the often wild guesses that Google auto-generated captions return. Perhaps we could even collect online "signatures" on customized petitions directed specifically at each of the nonprofits that are still "making do" with auto-generated captioning for their online videos, petitions that prove that someone besides yours truly wants quality captioning for those online videos. Then, when I make my next cold call to a skeptical nonprofit phone contact, I'll have an ace up my sleeve when it comes to convincing them to take action.
Speaking of petitions, I've already started my own generic petition in favor of the quality closed captioning of online videos. The petition is located at
http://www.captionsfortheweb.com/petition.php.
It would be a great help to me if you could sign it for me -- after reading the rest of this post, of course ;
What do you think? If you have ideas about how I can convince nonprofits (like the ones listed above) to take the needs of the deaf community seriously, please let me know. Meanwhile, I invite you to visit me online at http://www.captionsfortheweb.com/nonprofits.php
Thanks in advance for any help!
Brian Quass
freelance captioner and founder of
www.captionsfortheweb.com
PS Although the obvious auto-generated captioning errors can be fun to read, it's the small errors that can do the most damage when it comes to reader comprehension of the audio content of a program. After all, if the auto-generated caption says "King Kong" instead of "King John," the reader is likely to know that it's a mistake and therefore dismiss it from their mind, correctly assuming that the video in question has nothing to do with the giant ape that climbed the Empire State Building. But if the mistake is something subtle, it could result in a caption that seems completely correct, but which nonetheless changes the meaning of the audio that it was meant to convey (as, for instance, when the phrase "I won't ever do it" is auto-captioned as "I want her to do it").
