Just wanted to call your attention to a new resource we have been developing on the Maine CITE website. Called “Captioning Video,” this resource contains information about the need for and the way to caption videos on your websites or for your instructional materials. We’ll be updating the resource regularly and reporting information here as appropriate.
Another reference I want to share is regarding new federal laws and rules related to videos and captions. Because our friends at Automatic Sync Technologies (AST) have already done the work, I will share an excerpt from their recent AST Education Newsletter.
A mandate for Internet Protocol (IP)-Video captioning rules began in 2010, when the FCC established the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) as required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).
The CVAA mandates that television content distributed on the Internet be captioned with at least the same quality as the television version. The VPAAC meetings are focused on how this will be achieved and the implementation schedule.
On January 13, 2012 the FCC announced adoption of a Report and Order establishing the scope of rules and the implementation timeline, based upon recommendations from VPACC, and its Advisory Work Groups and Committees.
On April 9, reports of all VPAAC Working Groups will be provided to the full VPAAC, which will then deliver its final report to the FCC to determine the rules to be added to the federal register of requirements later this year.
Once rules are entered into the register, the timeline for content owners to implement the new requirements will be:
- 6 months: Prerecorded programming that is not edited for Internet distribution.
- 12 months: Live and near live programming that was recorded within 24 hours of broadcast on television.
- 18 months: Prerecorded programming that is edited for Internet distribution.
- 24 months: Archival programming.
Anticipated to have a wide impact on protocols for all video programming, new FCC rules would govern TV stations, cable systems, broadcast and cable networks and virtually every video program producer who is now, or will in the future be making programming available for Internet access.
Read the rest of this article in the AST Education Newsletter.
