Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What HR3101 Will Not Cover

Some people seem to think that the Act will require everyone to caption on YouTube. Only commercial and government broadcasters will likely be required to do so.

Here's a repost of part of the Introduction to Caption Action 2 post on here;

Read the COAT and National Association of the Deaf press releases about the 21st Century Act, to learn more. For convenience, reprinted below from the NAD press release is the key information about the Act as it pertains to online captioning:

Video Programming Access

  • Requires closed captioning display capability in all video programming devices.
  • Extends closed captioning obligations to television-type video programming distributed over the Internet (not user-generated content).
  • Requires easy access to closed captions via remote control and on-screen menus, and requires easy access by blind people to television controls and program selection menus.
  • Restores video description rules and requires access to televised emergency programming for people who are blind or have low vision.

The keywords here are "user generated content." This means content created by a single person does not need to have captioning. Content created by businesses, corporations, and government agencies will require captioning.

The Caption Action 2 cause on Facebook has more links and information. You don't need to be a Facebook member to browse the group.

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