YouTube Captioning

YouTube official logoYesterday, Google announced that it would deploying several new options for increasing the number and quality of closed captioned videos on the site. The New York Times reported on this as a first step to making videos available to deaf and hearing-impaired audiences, but it seems clear that there are a lot of potential beneficiaries – foreign language audiences (captions can be translated to 51 languages), those of us who can’t turn on the speakers at work, and anyone who wants to search the verbal content of a video.

So, how are they doing it? First, speech-to-text technology currently used by Google Voice is being applied to a small number of videos on the site (largely educational content) to produce captions automatically.

“Because the tools are not perfect, we want to make sure that we get feedback from the video owners and the viewers before we roll it out for the whole world,” Mr. Harrenstien said. “Sometimes the auto-captions are good. Sometimes they are not great, but they are better than nothing if you are hearing-impaired or don’t know the language.”

Presumably, if this works, speech-to-text will be rolled out more broadly. For now, you can take a look at how this works below. To see the captions, Google/YouTube explains – “Click on the menu button at the bottom right of the video player, then click CC and the arrow to its left, then click the new “Transcribe Audio” button.” I’ve picked a clip of PBS’s upcoming series This Emotional Life, focusing on Asperger’s.

Obviously, it’s not perfect – “Asperger’s syndrome” is transcribed as “Mister Gerson” – so I hope that speech-to-text improves before this initial stage is extended to other videos. This, however, leads to the second option that Google/YouTube have made available, which is to provide your own captions for videos you upload.

Now, after you upload a video, you can also upload a text file  – YouTube will combine the video and the text to create captions. Through “auto-timing,” YouTube will match a transcript (a file with only verbal content) to the video using speech recognition, or will match a caption file (which includes time codes for the text to appear) to the video. The help file on this seems fairly clear, and also includes tips like including bracketed information about non-verbal sounds [whistling], or using >> to indicate changing speakers inthe captions.

I gave it a try – not the easiest experience. They weren’t kidding when they said that clear speech works best, as my transcript file (no time code) was not able to be matched and displayed as captions. People singing to cats didn’t translate well. Thus, to get a captioned video, I had to try the old fashioned way, creating a .sub file with time codes. This quickly got me in a bit over my head – while I could do it, given the time, there’s a reason most people don’t caption their YouTube videos. It’s time intensive, there’s a learning curve involved, and the results may not seem important enough to justify the work.

This, of course, is exactly why forays into speech-to-text and auto-timing are so exciting. If captions could be created automatically, or from a simple text file, captions on user-created video would certainly become more common and make the world more accessible. While the tools as they are today aren’t anywhere near perfect, it’s certainly a first step in creating automatic accessibility features for participatory media.

As someone who studies accessibility and internet media, I’m constantly torn between getting excited about social/participatory media and being disappointed in their access options. This WordPress blog I’m using is notoriously terrible in its implementation of image alt text, for instance. Blogging has given so many people an outlet to write and connect, but if they want to make a blog accessible, it takes additional research and effort. Attempts to build accessibility features in automatically are, in my opinion, game-changers when they’re done well. I’ll withhold judgment on this YouTube move for now – it has potential – but I’ll be watching to see whether it develops .

November 20, 2009 | liz | 3 Comments »

Read other blogs!

Cupcake with pink frosting and a cherry on top

Today’s my birthday, and I’m taking a break from blogging (and reading, and writing, and teaching and most other parts of my usual routine!).

But, it happens that I share a birthday with Chally, a fantastic (and prolific) Australian blogger who writes about disability issues, feminism, sex ed, and more. In the spirit of the day, check out some of her work from all around the internet:

At FWD/Forward

At Zero at the Bone

At Feministe

November 16, 2009 | liz | 1 Comment »

Gleeful Controversy

Artie in his chair

Artie in his chair

Fox’s hit show Glee has been receiving a lot of media attention – about its May premiere, its diverse (and/or stereotypical) characters, its dark humor, and of course its musical numbers. This week, however, as Glee puts the members of the Glee Club into Artie’s shoes (and wheels), it faces criticism for casting an able-bodied actor in one of the few visible PWD roles on network television.

While many media outlets are emphasizing the charms of Kevin McHale and the show generally, USA Today presented an alternate take. Talking to members of a small union of actors with disabilities, including Chill Mitchell, the author argues that given the reach of television, actors with disabilities need the opportunity to perform in roles that represent their lived experience. Glee’s executive producer Brad Falchuk described the casting decision as based on charisma, and singing and dancing skills, implying that actors with disabilities who auditioned were simply not good enough – a claim that the Media Access Office and working actors and producers dispute.

Yet, the issues of “crip drag” involved in Artie’s casting are not the only concerning element of the episode. For one thing, Glee missed an opportunity to showcase the fascinating world of wheelchair dancing. In this behind the scenes segment, we see the cast learning their wheelchair routine:

In the New York Post’s coverage of “Wheels,” the falsity of the performance is highlighted.

Let’s get one thing straight: Kevin McHale, who plays wheelchair-bound underdog Artie Abrams on “Glee,” can really dance.

The implication that he can “really dance” suggests that PWD cannot, and would merely be “pretending” to dance, while his charisma and talents are prioritized, and he only “pretends” to be disabled. Echoing Falchuk’s words, talent is tied to able-bodiedness, and the accomplishments and differences of PWD are discarded.

An integrated dance group

An integrated dance group

Wheelchair dancing and integrated dance troupes (with dancers both in and out of chairs) have a long, and beautiful history. There are numerous troupes, choreographers, and performers who specialize in dance with chairs, and who no doubt could have created something truly remarkable and resonant for the group’s performance. For thoughts on the creativity and strength that are part of wheelchair and integrated dance performance, check out Wheelchair Dancer and her links to other dance groups.

In addition to the dancing, however, this episode of Glee raises a lot of interesting questions about access, introduces the character of Becky (a jump rope savant who also has Down Syndrome), and puts its able-bodied characters in wheelchairs for a few hours a day. I was excited about the potential of the first two plots, but deeply nervous about the play-acting with disability. These exercises have a long history, and are well-intentioned, but frequently misfire by convincing able-bodied users that they now completely understand the challenges of PWD. Just as caring for an egg baby can’t replicate caring for a live infant, a few hours and mistakes can’t replicate a life of experiences and struggles. For more of my thoughts on Glee, head over to Antenna, where I’ll be blogging about it again later today!

November 12, 2009 | liz | 1 Comment »

Disability, Sports and Siblings

Representations of disability on television are fairly rare (and usually seem to be male – which is another post), and it is even rarer for these parts to be played by an actor with a disability. As Anna at FWD/Forward notes, this “crip drag” can make for problematic representations and can further exclude disabled actors. When a character with a disability is played by an actor with a disability, it is worthy of some attention, and thus I offer a clip of Brothers – a FOX sitcom almost certainly not long for this world.

Darryl “Chill” Mitchell was a comic actor in the 1990s (you may remember him from Veronica’s Closet, Galaxy Quest or as the teacher in the film 10 Things I Hate About You) who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 2001. Since then, he has used a wheelchair in both his personal and professional life, first on Ed and now on Brothers. The show focuses on Mitchell, his parents, and his brother (Michael Strahan), who is a former NFL star and whom Michell’s character blames for his accident.

While I don’t want to exaggerate the possible causality here, the fact that his character’s disability is treated as a fact of life that can be joked about is a welcome antidote to common storylines of disability as tragedy or inspiration for able-bodied characters, and may be tied to the lived experience Mitchell brings to the role. Certainly, he is aware of the risks and possible rewards involved in the representation of an African-American man with a disability on network TV, telling The Atlantan:

“And I’m not only part of an African-American family, I’m a person who uses a wheelchair. I’m not pitching for one community. I’m pitching for two. This isn’t just a TV show. It’s a movement.”

Brothers, however, has had terrible ratings, is not particularly funny, and is rumored to be already quietly canceled by FOX.

Turning to a brother on a different low-budget series, Make It or Break It on ABC Family focuses on four teenage girls who are also elite gymnasts. Our protagonist, Emily, has a younger brother who uses a wheelchair. Yet, Brian’s health is never discussed, and he seems to be a peripheral character within the series and his own family, dominated as it is by his sister’s gymnastics, his mother’s sexuality, and the family’s poverty. In fact, Brian seems to perpetuate the representation of PWD as saintly characters who take care of and inspire those around them. So far, Brian is practically a contemporary Tiny Tim, preserving his family’s optimism in the face of other challenges and minimizing his own needs. For whatever it’s worth, Brian is not played by an actor with disabilities. And, of course, this tween-focused dramedy is far from well-written on any level.

Yet, the contrast between Brothers and Make It or Break It is notable for their very different approaches to fairly similar stories of sibling, elite athletics and disability. Apart from the presentations of brothers with disabilities, I find their athletic siblings an interesting counterpoint. To some extent, the same contrast between athletics and disability is present in Friday Night Lights, as well. Why are disabled bodies invoked in these series, in particular? One possibility is that these characters are an attempt to to humanize their physically impressive siblings, bringing them “down to earth” from elite athletics by showing interactions with “pitiable” or “vulnerable” people with disabilities. Related to this, the contrast in bodily representation seems to underscore the skills of the non-disabled athletes by presenting them in connection with a perceived Other; Emily leaps across the uneven bars at nationals and Brian watches her on television while sitting in his chair, at home. Make It or Break It will be back for another season this winter – let’s hope that the characterization of Brian can take a page from Chill and present a somewhat less cliched family dynamic around disability.

For more reading on disability in the media (because I certainly won’t post often enough to keep you up to date!) the series of posts on disability in media and popular culture at FWD/Forward has been fascinating reading lately. I was particularly impressed with Ouyang Dan’s post on House, as well as posts on Torchwood and Joan of Arcadia, and heartily recommend the series and the blog.

November 9, 2009 | liz | 5 Comments »