{"id":27321,"date":"2014-05-07T01:35:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T06:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=27321"},"modified":"2014-05-07T01:35:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T06:35:03","slug":"marlee-matlin-on-the-fccs-feeble-attempts-at-online-closed-captioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/05\/07\/marlee-matlin-on-the-fccs-feeble-attempts-at-online-closed-captioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Marlee Matlin on the FCC\u2019s Feeble Attempts at Online Closed Captioning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marlee Matlin on the FCC\u2019s Feeble Attempts at Online Closed Captioning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Longtime lobbyist fights for the deaf and hearing impaired to enjoy binge-watching sessions just like the rest of us.<\/p>\n

By Jordyn Taylor<\/p>\n

April 28, 2014<\/p>\n

For some of us, it\u2019s all too easy to get lost in a seven-hour Netflix marathon, but for the deaf and hearing impaired, getting through a single episode of an online TV show can be nearly impossible. Captions on the web are often inaccurate and unreliable \u2014 but new regulations going into effect this week will hopefully change things.<\/p>\n

Last week, Betabeat<\/span> met with Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who\u2019s been deaf since she was 18 months old. She told us a frustrating story from three years ago, about the time she\u2019d tried to stream a CNN video about the unveiling of the Hellen Keller statue at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are streaming it on my computer, and there\u2019s the Hellen Keller piece, and I thought, wait \u2014 theres<\/span> something wrong with my captions,\u201d Ms. Matlin said through sign language. \u201c[There were] no captions. How ironic that it\u2019s Hellen Keller, the leading disability advocate, and it\u2019s not even captioned for someone like me to be able to understand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, President Obama signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CCVA) into law, stipulating, among other things, that anything shown on TV with captions also had to be captioned when re-shown on the Internet. Two years later, the FCC issued a set of guidelines outlining exactly which types of TV programming are required to be captioned on the web, and the deadlines by which the captions have to be added. Entities that fail to comply with the FCC\u2019s guidelines and deadlines could be subject to fines and other penalties \u2014 but only if viewers log complaints about them to the FCC.<\/p>\n

But although online videos became equipped with closed captioning, people have been complaining that the captions are often still inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable. We mentioned to Ms. Matlin, for instance, that we\u2019d checked out the closed captioning on one of her shows, The L Word, on Netflix the night before. We\u2019d noticed that in group scenes, where multiple characters were talking at once, the captions didn\u2019t pick up everything that each character was saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what that\u2019s called?\u201d A disappointed Ms. Matlin asked us. \u201cLaziness. Sloppiness. Carelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Rules, Starting This Week<\/p>\n

Thankfully, this spring, the FCC is adopting a detailed new set of quality standards and recommended practices for the captioning of online videos, \u201cto ensure that caption viewers have full access to television programming,\u201d according to the rule. The new regulations go into effect this Wednesday, April 30.<\/p>\n

The FCC is stressing that captioning of online content should embody \u201caccuracy, synchronicity, completeness and placement,\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201c(1) accurately reflect what is in the program\u2019s audio track by matching the dialogue, music, and sounds, and identify the speakers; (2) are delivered synchronously with the corresponding dialogue and other sounds at a speed that can be read by viewers; (3) are complete for the entire program; and (4) do not obscure important on-screen information and are not obscured by other information on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just unfortunate that it took this long to understood<\/span> that there are needs of 35 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States alone, and millions of people outside the United States,\u201d Ms. Matlin reflected. \u201cAt some point we need to understand that everybody deserves access to broadcast content.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the new regulations are in effect, the FCC won\u2019t be actively monitoring the closed captioning in each individual video \u2014 they\u2019ll just investigate potential infractions through a complaint-driven process. Entities that repeatedly violate the guidelines may receive fines or other penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the captioning police, but I\u2019m one of the people who depend on them so I\u2019ll keep an eye out,\u201d Ms. Matlin<\/span> said. \u201cI\u2019ll make sure that they\u2019re doing the right job captioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Billion Words March<\/p>\n

Despite the new rules, Ms. Matlin still seemed wary about the future of online captioning. Streaming site will only be penalized, after all, if enough complaints are made. There is one site, though, that she said is doing an excellent job \u2014 Viki.com.<\/p>\n

In conjunction with the timing of the FCC\u2019s new regulations, Ms. Matlin is supporting the Billion Words March, a year-long initiative by streaming site Viki.com to make online TV shows and movies accessible and reliable for deaf and hearing impaired viewers around the world. Viki\u2019s project aims to crowdsource<\/span> the subtitling and captioning of \u2014 as its name suggests \u2014 one billion spoken words<\/span> in the videos on its site.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t know that this model of consumer activism could exist,\u201d she said, describing the day she heard about Viki\u2019s campaign. \u201cIt was almost too good to be true\u2026 I jumped right on board immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time we spoke with Ms. Matlin, she said Viki users had already captioned 600 million words. Ms. Matlin thinks the initiative has been so popular because people are tired of waiting around for companies to make their videos accessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople watch and want to be entertained, so if they have a hand in making the captions happen, then why not?\u201d Ms. Matlin<\/span> said. \u201cThey\u2019re jumping on board, they\u2019re making choices and they\u2019re creating different languages. They\u2019re tired of having people who have the power make<\/span> the decisions for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Still Work To Be Done<\/p>\n

Despite the FCC\u2019s new rules, and initiatives like the Billion Words March, there are still huge arenas left inaccessible for hearing impaired web users.<\/p>\n

Sites that air user-generated videos, like YouTube, aren\u2019t required to caption their content, unless that content was shown on TV with captioning. That\u2019s not the case for the majority of addictive cat videos out there. YouTube, to its credit, does have an automated captioning program, but Ms. Matlin said it\u2019s horribly unreliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stopped watching machine-generated captions \u2014 they\u2019re so pointless,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s based on the sound of language. It just doesn\u2019t come out right. It\u2019s a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Matlin also remembers how back in 2008, when she appeared on Dancing with the Stars, she was unable to watch a promo for the show online. That problem still isn\u2019t fixed, either \u2014 the FCC\u2019s captioning rules don\u2019t apply to \u201cvideo clips and outtakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Matlin<\/span> is also waiting to see whether Netflix, which was sued by the National Association for the Deaf in 2010 for not having sufficient closed captioning, will improve its accessibility. When Netflix settled the lawsuit, they agreed to have 100 percent of their videos captioned by this year. Ms. Matlin confessed she\u2019s been really wanting to watch Orange is the New Black, but is worried about the quality of its captions<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of work still to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Follow Jordyn Taylor on Twitter or via RSS. jtaylor@observer.com
\nSOURCE:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/betabeat.com\/2014\/04\/marlee-matlin-on-the-fccs-feeble-attempts-at-online-closed-captioning\/#ixzz310bRjCcT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marlee Matlin on the FCC\u2019s Feeble Attempts at Online Closed Captioning Longtime lobbyist fights for the deaf and hearing impaired to enjoy binge-watching sessions just like the rest of us. By Jordyn Taylor April 28, 2014 For some of us,…<\/p>\n

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