Do-It-Yourself Video Captioning Tools

closed-captionAdding captions to videos definitely adds a bit of time on to a project, and is so important for accessibility. But remember that captions can also help other folks who may not be deaf or hard of hearing.

According to Penn State University’s Accessibility Website, non-deaf beneficiaries of captions include:

  • anyone with defective computer audio
  • students needing to learn new terminology or
  • those whose first language is not English
  • viewers in a noisy room or with a sleeping roommate

Free Video Captioning Tools

Here are some free tools that can help you get the video captioning job done:

Amara >> Free, open source, online captioning tool

YouTube Captioning

MovieCaptioner >> Free 14-day, fully-functional demo version available – closed captioning software for Mac and Windows (works offline)

Caption Format Converter Tool >> Free tool that converts SRT or SBV to various caption formats

Veed’s Caption Generator >> Free tool that works on Windows or Mac computers. No software download or plugin required.

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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How to Create Accessible CAPTCHAS

It’s common for web developers to use CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) functionality for anti-spam verification to make sure HTML form responses are being generated by humans and not computer “bots”.

Example of a visual CAPTCHA

The most commonly used CAPTCHA presents a visual of distorted text for the website visitor to interpret. Another alternative is the audio CAPTCHA, offering human verification to the blind and other visually impaired people. Unfortunately, both types of CAPTCHAS offer accessibility issues:

  1. People with visual disabilities use screen readers that cannot read a CAPTCHA.
  2. You cannot add ALT text to a CAPTCHA image, because then a bot would be able to read it, defeating the purpose of using it.
  3. Audio CAPTCHAs present difficulties for people with hearing disabilities.

SOLUTION: Use Text-based Logic Questions or Math Equations CAPTCHAs

Use a question rather than an image or audio to create CAPTCHA functionality.

A sample CAPTCHA question might be “Which animal is larger—an ant or a elephant?”or “What state is Boston located in?”

Another way to challenge: use math questions (e.g. “What is one plus three?”).

Example of a math question challenge question that can replace a CAPTCHA

PHP Script Solution: All CAPS vs lowercase

For those of you who use PHP, here’s a simple coding trick that enables you to create an accessible CAPTCHA on an HTML form. I have used this for years on client websites, and it works great.

At the bottom of your form, create a text field named Validate. Above the field, add a validation text code of capital letters and numbers (in this case GHW53405) that the user will need to enter in order to submit the form. Also let the user know that the validation code is case-sensitive.

Sample of validation text code form

Once the user enters the validation text code and submits the form, add the following condition at the top of the PHP processing page:

<?php
if (strtolower($_POST[‘Validate’]) != ‘ghw53405′) {
die(‘Sorry…you forgot to enter the special code in the form…hit your back key and try again. Please note that the special code is case-sensitive’);
} else {

rest of script

}

Note that in the PHP condition you need to change the values of the capital letters used in the validation text code to lowercase (see bold above). The PHP function strtolower converts all the text characters of the submitted Validate string to lowercase. If the validation text code has been entered correctly, the rest of the script will process with no problem. If the validation code has been entered incorrectly, the submission will fail and the user will be directed back to the form.

Check Out This Additional Resource: The TextCaptcha service provides access to textual CAPTCHA challenges via a simple JSON or XML API over HTTP. http://textcaptcha.com

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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