ADA COMPLIANCE



American Disabilities Act 508 Compliance has been a hot topic for many schools. If you want to put a video online as a public institution of education, it needs to be captioned or transcribed. Most schools have a catalog of video materials that they are unable to post online because they are not captioned or do not have transcripts. This means either the few trained people (if you have them) on campus have to caption or transcribe video, or the video is outsourced to a captioning or transcription company (very expensive). Either way captioning and transcription is an incredibly time intensive and expensive process.


Most schools using the Student Generated Content Instruction Model are having their students caption or transcribe their work as part of the course deliverable. The most simple way to describe the ADA compliance act to students is to use the Blindfold/Earplug test. When you are creating a video keep in mind that a person should be able to get the same information that a person without disabilities would if they were blindfolded or wearing earplugs. There are a few ways to make a project ADA compliant. We will describe some below:



Closed captioning


You usually see Closed Captions whenever you go to the gym or a restaurant and the volume on the TV is turned all the way down. It usually shows up in a black box at the bottom of the screen.


Here is a 7 step explanation of how to build closed captions in Quicktime from the University of South Florida (each will open in iTunes):


  1. 1.Quicktime Subtitles - Create a Placeholder Text File with TextEdit.webloc

  2. 2. Quicktime Subtitles - Exporting as a Text Movie with QuickTime.webloc

  3. 3.Quicktime Subtitles - Exported Subtitles File.webloc

  4. 4.Quicktime Subtitles - Editing the Subtitles File.webloc

  5. 5.Quicktime Subtitles - Combining the Movie and Subtitles File.webloc

  6. 6.Quicktime Subtitles - Placing the Subtitles.webloc

  7. 7.Quicktime Subtitles - Picture-in-Picture.webloc


Pros:

  1. -Closed Captioning is screen reader accessible for blind students

  2. -You can turn the captioning on and off

  3. - Captions are displayed with correct timing of the video


Cons:

  1. -Not all mobile devices play closed captions

  2. -The process to build to closed captions is very time intensive.




Open captioning


Most schools using the Student Generated Content Instruction Model are using open captioning or just uploading a transcript of their video along with the captions. In open captioning the text track is just burned into the video file as a subtitle. Because most student generated projects will be less than five minutes in length, the captions are not distracting and act as a benefit, especially with ESL and language learners.


A video explanation of how to do this in iMovie will be coming shortly. Stay tuned.


Pros:

  1. -Open Captioning is burned into the video and will play on any device the video will play on

  2. -Captions are displayed with correct timing of the video

  3. -Open Captioning is easy to do with iMovie


Cons:

  1. -Open Captioning is not Screen Reader accessible




Transcript


Uploading a transcript of the video project is by far the most simple way to make your video project accessible. Most students are required to write a script as the writing component of the project and this script acts as a great transcript for the project! Also the script can be turned into turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.