The first Network TV Captioning

On March 16, 1980—41 years ago today—that the network TV channels ABC, NBC and PBS debuted closed-captioned television shows, in which the show’s dialogue and soundtrack appeared as text on-screen as the action proceeded. The first shows to be aired with captioning were The ABC Sunday Night Movie, Disney’s Wonderful World and Masterpiece Theatre.

YouTube ends its community captions feature

We warned you back in July that YouTube was planning to discontinue its community captions. And it did so on Monday, despite complaints from the Deaf community including an online petition with more than half-a-million signatures. The feature allowed viewers to add subtitles but YouTube says it wasn't used enough. According to YouTube, they decided to deactivate the said feature because it is rarely used and plagued by spam and abuse. “You can still use your own captions, automatic captions, and third-party tools and services,” YouTube said in an update on its help page here. But the Google automated are often full of errors.

Change to Netflix playback coming

The National Association of the Deaf is applauding Netflix for its plan to allow users to speed up or slow down videos. The feature will also slowdown captions which would help people who might prefer the captions at a slightly slower speed.  Read more about the change here.

YouTube is ending its community captions feature

YouTube will discontinue its community captions Sept. 28. It allowed viewers to add subtitles but YouTube says it wasn't used enough. “You can still use your own captions, automatic captions and third-party tools and services,” YouTube said in an update on its help page here.  An online petition asking Google to change the decision has gotten more than 90,000 signatures.

How Deaf Advocates Won the Battle for Closed Captioning

"It wasn’t until March 16, 1980 — 40 years ago this Monday — that the network TV channels ABC, NBC and PBS debuted closed-captioned television shows, in which the show’s dialogue and soundtrack appeared as text on-screen as the action proceeded..But getting there was a fight, and that battle still continues today." Read more about the battle for closed captioning from TIME magazine here.

Settlement: MIT agrees to caption videos

MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has agreed to provide captions for more of its publicly available online videos. It's part of a settlement with the National Association of the Deaf over a lawsuit filed four years ago. Attempts by both Harvard and MIT to get the case dismissed failed. National Association of the Deaf CEO Howard Rosenblum said, “The settlements with MIT and Harvard usher in a new era of accessible online learning in higher education. The civil rights mandate is clear – all colleges and universities must ensure that the video and audio content on their websites are accessible through quality captioning.” Read more about the settlement here.

Marlee Matlin vs Delta Airlines

Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin is calling out Delta Airlines for failing to provide captions for its videos during flights.

Sad to see that my preferred airline, @Delta flight 1998 has provisions for various languages and audio description for in-flight entertainment but no closed captions for deaf and hard of hearing flyers. #noaccess #stillwaiting for #ADAcompliance pic.twitter.com/CXnmqbHSDB

— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) December 26, 2019

The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability on airlines.

NAD wins settlement against Harvard over captioning video

Harvard has settled a lawsuit over captioning. The school has agreed to make its website and online courses "friendlier" to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The National Association of the Deaf filed the suit four years ago, saying "many of its videos and audio recordings lacked captions or used inaccurate captions." NAD CEO Howard Rosenblum said, "This lawsuit (puts) universities and colleges on notice that all aspects of their campus including their websites must be accessible to everyone." At first, Harvard tried to get the lawsuit dismissed. A judge rejected Harvard’s argument that its websites do not constitute a physical “public accommodation” covered by federal civil rights laws. The judge ruled that Harvard’s online are offerings can be seen as an extension of the campus. Read more details on the settlement from the NAD here.

A Legal Battle over Text Captions for Audiobooks

Book publishers are suing Amazon to stop the internet company from offering text captions for audiobooks through Audible. Publishers say it's a copyright violation. Audible says that since users can't scroll through the text there's no problem. The feature is called "Captions" and will be available starting Tuesday for Amazon-owned and public domain titles. The works of publishers like HarperCollins and Macmillan, who are suing Audible will not be included until the dispute is resolved. You'll find the text of the lawsuit here.

The deaf YouTuber campaigning over poor Captions

Rikki Poynter's #NoMoreCRAPtions campaign to get YouTubers to ditch the site's automatic captions "highlights how impressive advances in assistive technologies such as automatic captioning can obscure these technologies’ imperfections. The campaign is Poynter’s way of pushing back against any misguided notion that deaf people live in a technological future that hasn’t yet arrived for everyone else." Read more about the deaf 28-year-old in a piece published by The Atlantic here.

Theater loses appeal: Must provide terps

The Fox Theatre in St. Louis must provide interpreters for the deaf when asked —- not just once for the run of a show. That's the ruling of an appeals court panel. The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals voted two to one to uphold a lower court ruling. Tina Childress sued the theater when it refused to provide her captioning for a performance of Rent. She was told there was only one interpreted show and she would have to attend it if she wanted a sign language interpreter. You can read the ruling here.

Deaf Access to Legislative Sessions Debated in Florida

Florida's failure to provide captioning on videos of its legislative sessions has led to a legal battle that has made its way to an appeals court. The National Association of the Deaf and activist Eddie Sierra sued, claiming it's an ADA violation. Lawyers for the state claim captioning the sessions is just too expensive and the lawmakers would rather not have a video feed at all than have to pay the cost of captioning. Read more about what's at issue in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a Courthouse News article here.

FCC Debates Live Captioning for News

The FCC recently held a forum on best practices for TV news closed captioning. TV Technology reports that forum included not only the FCC but broadcasters and the Deaf community. Read more about it here.

Seattle bar owner upset over new captioning law

image from Google Maps

The owner of the Marco Polo Bar and Grill in Seattle says that while he'll turn on the captioning on the TVs in the bar if someone asks, he doesn't like the city council requiring him to do so. Matt Miera told KIRO radio, that "the closed captioning ordinance, like so many of the city’s recent regulations, is just 'another way to reach into my pocket and take more money.'" The ordinance takes effect later this year and will fine businesses that fail to turn on captioning for everything TV they have on display. Miera asks, “Is the city of Seattle going to require us to have a translator there, to do sign language for the music that’s playing over the jukebox?” Read the full story here.

Google announces new captioning app

There's a new captioning app that will soon be available for Andriod phones that's getting some good reviews. Live Caption works for audio and video. Here's a video that show it in action.

Closed captioning Becomes Seattle City Law

Closed captioning will be the law in Seattle for TVs in bars, restaurants and other places starting tomorrow (May 1). The City Council voted unanimously for the new city ordinance earlier this month and the mayor signed it into law last week. Councilmember Lisa Herbold sponsored the law and says in a press release:

It’s important to shift the onus from having to request closed captions as a public accommodation to instead create the expectation that folks have it in advance. I especially want to thank Seattle Commission for People with DisAbilities for bringing this issue to my attention, and for making this a top priority in their workplan to support development of this ordinance.

While the law goes into effect on May 1, enforcement won't begin until November. The city will send an advisory letter to businesses not in compliance. After that, businesses face a possible $125 fine, rising to $300 if violations continue. Read the full story from the Seattle Times here.

Judge: Captioning Suit can go Forward

A judge has rejected an attempt by Harvard and MIT to dismiss a lawsuit over video captioning on their MOOC (massive open online courses) offerings and guest lecture videos hosted on the school's YouTube channels. The National Association of the Deaf filed the lawsuit in 2015, saying the captioning was so bad on these videos they were pretty much useless. The recent attempt to get a dismissal is the second time the schools have tried and the second time they've been turned down. Read the decision here.

Seattle may Require Captions at Bars and Restaurants

Seattle is considering a city law that would "require closed captioning to be activated on all TVs in public spaces." KUOW-TV reports that the "proposed legislation would require closed captioning be turned on during business hours in a range of settings where TVs are present, including places like waiting rooms, restaurants and bars." Read the full story here.

City settles Captioning Lawsuit

Key West, Florida has agreed to add captioning to its meetings—and pay $10k to settled a lawsuit. Eddie Sierra, who is deaf, filed the suit, saying the failure to include captioning is an ADA violation. Read more on the story in the Miami Herald.

Ariana Grande's New Video

Ariana Grande just released her new video 7 Rings with captioning. The move comes after she failed to include captioning on her video thank u, next. Nyle DiMarco called her out for the mistake, saying, “466 million people with hearing loss” who would like to watch it." Below is the new video.