With recent legal action concerning accessibility, many organizations are shifting their discussions from whether they need to caption to how they will caption and what defines high quality captioning. In this webinar, Jason Stark from the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) and Cindy Camp from Pepnet 2 will go over DCMP’s captioning guidelines and preferred techniques that will help you produce captions that are accurate, consistent, clear, readable, and equal. This webinar will cover: DCMP’s captioning guidelines and standards The importance of quality captioning Preferred techniques for different types of media Working with web media that doesn’t support certain captioning features About DCMP DCMP is a federally funded organization that advocates for equal access to educational media and the establishment and maintenance of quality standards for captioning and description by service providers. About Pepnet 2 Pepnet 2 is a federally funded program whose mission is to increase the education, career, and lifetime choices available to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

1. Understanding Closed Captioning
Standards & Guidelines
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Cindy Camp
Strategic Planning Team
Pepnet 2
Jason Stark
Project Director
DCMP
Lily Bond (Moderator)
3Play Media
lily@3playmedia.com

2. Understanding Closed Captioning
Standards and Guidelines
www.dcmp.org
www.pepnet.org
Cindy Camp Jason Stark
cindy.camp@pepnet.org jstark@dcmp.org

3. Pepnet 2 (pn2) is a federally funded project whose mission is to
increase the education, career, and lifetime choices available to
individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. We do this by
supporting the professionals who work with these individuals.
We provide:
• Live trainings
• Online modules available 24/7
• Online facilitated trainings
• Technical Assistance and Live Chat
• Training materials online and for download
• Evidence based resource to support your work
What is pepnet 2?

4. Our mission is to promote and provide equal access to communication
and learning through described and captioned educational media.
The ultimate goal of the DCMP is for accessible media to be an integral
What is DCMP?
tool in the teaching and learning process for all stakeholders in the educational
community, including students, educators and other school personnel, parents, service
providers, businesses, and agencies.
The DCMP supports the U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan for 2014-2018 by
committing to the following goals:
• Ensuring that students (early learning through grade 12) who are blind, visually
impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind have the opportunity to achieve the
standards of academic excellence.
• Advocating for equal access to educational media as well as the establishment and
maintenance of quality standards for captioning and description by service providers.
• Providing a collection of on-demand described and captioned educational media.
• Furnishing information and research about accessible media.
• Acting as a gateway to Internet resources related to accessibility.
• Adapting and developing new media and technologies that assist students in
obtaining and using available information.

5. What Are Captions?
Captioning is the process of converting the
audio content of a television broadcast,
webcast, film, video, CD-ROM, DVD, live event,
or other productions into text and displaying
the text on a screen or monitor. Captions not
only display words as the textual equivalent of
spoken dialogue or narration, but they also
include speaker identification, sound effects,
and music description.

6. What Are Captions, Really?
Captions relay not only
what is said, but also
what is being
communicated.
In other words,
captions aren’t just a
straight translation of
spoken words.

7. Who Benefits from Captions?
• Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Individuals whose second language is English
• Individuals in noisy environments
• Emerging readers
• Individuals with learning disabilities
• Everyone!

8. Why is Quality Important?
When captions are not high quality, meaning
they are not correctly synchronized with the
audio, are not properly formatted, and
contain grammatical or spelling errors, an
individual who is deaf or hard of hearing will
not have full access to the content of the
video.

10. Captioning Key
www.captioningkey.org

11. It is important that captions are:
• Accurate
Errorless captions are the goal for each production.
• Consistent
Uniformity in style and presentation of all
captioning features is crucial for viewer
understanding.
• Clear
A complete textual representation of the audio,
including speaker identification and non-speech
information, provides clarity.

12. It is important that captions are:
• Readable
Captions are displayed with enough time to be
read completely, are in synchronization with
the audio, and are not obscured by (nor do
they obscure) the visual content.
• Equal
Equal access requires that the meaning and
intention of the material is completely
preserved.
consistent with the 2014 mandates by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

13. Core captioning rules:
• Accurate spelling
• Correct grammar and punctuation
– Often grammar rules differ between
reference manuals and there are sometimes
more than one way to produce a correct
caption. Your goal: be consistent!

14. Why is grammar important?
Let’s eat, Grandma.

15. Why is grammar important?
Let’s eat Grandma.

16. • No more than 32 characters per line including spaces
• One or two lines of text per screen

17. • Use upper and lower case letters
• Choose a font with ascenders and descenders

18. Too light Too heavy
Just Right

19. When possible use white letters with a drop
shadow and a gray translucent box as background.

20. When possible text should be centered
on the screen and left aligned.
Yes No

21. When a sentence is broken into two or more lines of
captions, it should be broken at a logical point where speech
normally pauses unless it would exceed the 32-character-per-
line requirement.
• Do not break a modifier from the word it modifies.
• Do not break a prepositional phrase.
Correct Incorrect
Mark pushed
his black truck.
Mark pushed his black
truck.
Correct Incorrect
Mary scampered
under the table.
Mary scampered under
the table.

22. • Do not break a person's name nor a title from the
name with which it is associated.
• Do not break a line after a conjunction.
Correct Incorrect
Bob and Susan Smythe
are at the movies.
Bob and Susan
Smythe are at the movies.
Suzy and Professor Barker
are here.
Suzy and Professor
Barker are here.
Correct Incorrect
In seconds she arrived,
and he ordered a drink.
In seconds she arrived, and
he ordered a drink.

23. • Do not break an auxiliary verb from the word it
modifies.
• Never end a sentence and begin a new sentence on
the same line unless they are short, related
sentences containing one or two words.
Correct Incorrect
He suspected that his face
turned pale.
He suspected that his face
turned pale. He knew he
Correct Incorrect
Mom said I could have gone
to the movies.
Mom said I could
have gone to the movies.

24. • A description of sound effects,
in brackets, should include the
source of the sound.
• The source may be omitted if it
can be clearly seen onscreen
Sound effects should be captioned if it is necessary to
the understanding and/or enjoyment of the media.

25. • Described sound effects may be
combined with onomatopoeia.
– The described sound effect should be on
the first line of the caption, separate
from the onomatopoeia.
– Both described sound effects and
onomatopoeias must be lowercased.
• Offscreen sound effects should be
italicized, if italics are available. This
includes background music.

26. • When captioning background music, use
descriptions that indicate the mood. Be
as objective as possible. Avoid
subjective words, such as "delightful,"
"beautiful," or "melodic."
– Offscreen background music
description should be italicized.
• If music contains lyrics, caption the lyrics
verbatim. The lyrics should be
introduced with the name of the
vocalist/vocal group, the title (in
brackets).
– Caption lyrics with music icons (♪).

27. Establishing the identity of both onscreen and
offscreen speakers is vital for clarity. When names are
unknown, be as specific as possible in providing a label.
• When possible, use caption placement to identify an
onscreen speaker by placing the caption under the
speaker.

28. • When a speaker cannot be
identified by placement and
his/her name is known, the
speaker's name should be in
parentheses. Also, the speaker's
name needs to be on a line of its
own, separate from the captions.
• When a speaker's name is
unknown, identify the speaker using
the same information a hearing
viewer has (e.g., "female #2,"
"male narrator").

29. Spoken language is rich and full of meaning.
However, it also consists of oddly formed sentences
and even word play. Accuracy, clarity, and readability
are challenges for the person creating the transcript.
Captions should include auditory information that is
not conveyed visually, to ensure full access for those
who are deaf or hard of hearing.

30. • If clues that denote the emotional state are not shown,
indicate the speaker's emotion.
• When a person is whispering, captions as:
• When people are seen talking, but there is no audio,
caption as [no audio] or [silence].
Correct Incorrect
[angrily]
Well, whatever!
Well, whatever!
[whispering]
Okay, you go first.

31. The captioning standards presented are based on
research, best practices, and the experience of experts
in the field. Following these guidelines will ensure
high-quality captions which promote access and
learning. However, not all captioning software is
capable of creating the preferred captioning
formatting. In addition, not all caption file types
support all of the preferred
formatting.

32. For example, most captions on Internet videos are
positioned in the bottom third of the frame and are
both center justified and aligned, instead of the
preferred method of having the text positioned
appropriately to suit the scene while being left aligned.
This is because .srt files, a common caption file type
for online videos, do not support caption placement.

33. When choosing a captioning software and a file
format for the captions, it is important to
recognize the limitations of each. They can
significantly impact the quality and versatility of
your captions.
You might also have to change
your captions if a particular
formatting option isn’t
available.

34. Quality Does Make a Difference

35. Questions?
Questions
If you have questions please feel
free to contact us:
cindy.camp@pepnet.org
jstark@dcmp.org

36. How Can You Access pn2 and DCMP?
help@pepnet.org
info@dcmp.org
www.pepnet.org
www.dcmp.org

37. Q&A
Upcoming Webinars:
 November 5: Implementing Universal Design for
Online Learning Accessibility
 December 3: How to Implement Accessible Lecture
Capture
 December 10: Quick Start to Captioning
You can register for our free webinars at:
www.3playmedia.com/webinars/
A recording of this webinar will be available for replay
Jason Stark
Project Director
DCMP
jstark@dcmp.org
Cindy Camp
Strategic Planning Team
Pepnet 2
cindy.camp@pepnet.org
Lily Bond
3Play Media
www.3playmedia.com
lily@3playmedia.com