July 17, 2019 By David Appelt
The Power of Accessible Video on Social Media The Streaming Revolution has made it possible, among other things, for the average person to spend roughly 38 hours per week watching video content (40% of which is streamed, often on mobile devices). Forty-four percent of people watch more than 5 videos...
CONTINUE READINGApril 24, 2019 By David Appelt
The world where your content is competing is a world where closed captions and subtitles are necessary, if not more necessary than ever—according to multiple digital media usage studies.
CONTINUE READINGApril 12, 2019 By David Appelt
Closed captioning and subtitles are not given primary consideration very often. Most of the time, this means that closed captioning gets pushed to the bottom of your list. Your video may end up with the necessary captions, but they might not be helpful, professional, or up to FCC specifications.
CONTINUE READINGJune 20, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Have you noticed the trend lately? Social media feeds are no longer showing just simple text or images. Now we’re seeing social media platforms shift quickly and favorably toward video. So why is this shift happening? Because the social giants know users are engaging with video more often than plain text or images…
CONTINUE READINGMay 22, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Quality captions don’t just get the words right, they express every sound and nuance that’s happening on screen. This belief is more than a commitment to showing integrity in our work—it’s a matter of upholding basic, necessary accuracy.
CONTINUE READINGApril 27, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Discount companies are using shortcuts and claim high accuracy at low costs, which sounds pretty good, right? But the FCC isn’t looking for “pretty good”—it’s mandating perfection.
CONTINUE READINGMarch 29, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Who would’ve guessed that tax benefits and SEO go together? It’s true for closed captioning. Not only does closed captioning provide accessibility to and benefit a broader audience, but there are several benefits to your business as well—two of which are tax credits and SEO.
CONTINUE READINGFebruary 17, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Closed captioning adds value, whether an audience is hearing impaired or not. With the increase of films distributed globally, closed captioning will play an important role in reaching audiences who previously would have trouble understanding the original content.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 25, 2016 By Ryan Hawthorne
The 50th anniversary Super Bowl game is coming up in February.
That means COMMERCIALS, of course. I confess that I actually walk to the kitchen to grab another slice of pizza when play resumes just so I don’t miss those silly commercials.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2016 By Adam Grover
In the same way the ADA required ramps on buildings, closed captioning should be required on all online video content for the hearing impaired.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 08, 2016 By Bianca Johnson
Like a lot of you, I begin the New Year by making a few personal improvement resolutions.
This year I started thinking about some of the most common attitudes and concerns of the potential clients that call us for closed captioning services every day. What if they took the time to set some resolutions around the services provided by companies like CaptionLabs?
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 07, 2016 By Robin Walters
There’s been some debate lately about whether search engine optimization (SEO) is dead. It’s true that millennials are splitting their searches between the traditional Google and a host of other topic-specific sites that share consumer ratings of products and services. These days, millennials want to know what their friends think about a service before buying.
CONTINUE READINGNovember 24, 2015 By Robin Walters
Last week I received a call from a gentleman out west who asked if we could help him caption a video. It wasn’t just any video, it was his wedding. Turns out his wife is deaf and he wanted to surprise her for Christmas by making the video more accessible.
CONTINUE READINGOctober 23, 2015 By Adam Grover
The FCC averages around 500 closed captioning quality complaints per year. Imagine the level of frustration felt by the hearing impaired person that actually takes the time to register a complaint.
When you consider that the majority of Americans can’t seem to find the time to vote – the fact that someone would take the time to complain to a government agency shows the level of angst they must be feeling.
CONTINUE READINGOctober 08, 2015 By Ryan Hawthorne
A pure gold brick wrapped in an ugly package.
If you’re a ministry organization, and you’re settling for poor quality closed captioning, that’s exactly what you’re offering to deaf and hard of hearing parishioners.
CONTINUE READINGOctober 07, 2015 By Ben Kalb
The accuracy of closed captioning is important. It affects nearly 40 million Americans who are hard of hearing or functionally deaf.
Next time you’re at the gym watching the TV scroll closed captioning, notice how many times “there” should be “their.” What about homophones like carat, caret and carrot? We’ve all seen the viral videos of closed captioning gone wrong, but if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, it’s not very amusing at all.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Derek Nicol
If closed captioning could salute its pioneer, Emerson Romero would be the man. He was a Charlie Chaplain impersonator, an actor for silent movies, and the first to champion accessible media. The best part—he was deaf.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ryan Hawthorne
The FCC unanimously voted to adopt new standards for closed captioning on television programming. The new rules are meant to ensure the best efforts of video programming distributors to improve closed captioning quality. The new standards focus on quality improvement to post-produced closed captioning in four specific areas: accuracy, synchronicity, completeness and placement.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ryan Hawthorne
Students around the country are now back in school following the holidays. This year, though, the break meant a unique assignment for some elementary students in Memphis, Tennessee.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
CaptionLabs proudly introduces the addition of StationDrop to its already popular closed captioning services. StationDrop allows producers to deliver full-length broadcast programming to stations and networks digitally with no hassle, no tapes and no shipping.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ryan Hawthorne
One of the most common questions asked about the closed captioning process centers around transcription. Many people inquire about whether transcription is an automated process using voice recognition, or if it is still truly a function done best by humans.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Recent YouTube improvements have made watching online videos with captions better than ever. Since YouTube’s introduction of caption support in 2006, the social media site has been a trendsetter for online accessibility.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Another important milestone to providing accessibility over the Internet has been reached. In October 2010, President Obama signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) into law. Among the things it required was closed captioning for video programming delivered over the Internet.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ryan Hawthorne
Many editors and producers often wonder how to add closed captioning to their video projects. Fortunately, this process is becoming easier and easier due to great improvements in editing software.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Many people are aware that a DVD can contain subtitles, but few realize that closed captions can also be included. In fact, authoring a DVD with captions may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually a much easier process than you might think.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ryan Hawthorne
The conversation surrounding closed captions has traditionally focused on the television set and, more recently, even around Internet based video services. What is often overlooked, though, is the great need for accessibility at live entertainment events.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Almost everyone has used captions at one time or another, whether they are hearing impaired or not. Think about it – how many times have you read captions in a restaurant or at the gym? Closed captions are used everywhere.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Closed captions link whole segments of the population to the world, and that link is about to get stronger.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Adding closed captioning to your TV show in the edit suite just became a little easier. Thanks to new methods using Final Cut Pro and a supported AJA video card, there has been a revolution in the way captions are encoded.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
Many people associate captioning only with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. It’s true that millions of Americans depend on captions for news and entertainment, but the benefits of captioning extend far beyond.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
It’s been said that “only two things are certain in life — death and taxes”. Although this is a funny little saying, it also seems very true, doesn’t it? Well, here’s a little tip that may save your small business some money. If you have closed captioned programming, you may be eligible to receive a tax credit for providing accessibility to persons with disabilities. It’s called the Disabled Access Credit and is reported on IRS form 8826.
CONTINUE READINGJanuary 18, 2017 By Ben Kalb
With only a few exceptions, all programming for broadcast in the United States must be closed captioned. The rules for the requirement of closed captions were directed by the U.S. Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and became effective starting in 1998. Since then, the required amount of captioning has been steadily increasing. Today, nearly 100% of all English and Spanish language programming is closed captioned.
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