21 Legislation is almost never the answer

Joe, you misunderstand the meaning of the word right, and what the government’s job really is; but, because the government also lost track of what it is supposed to be doing, I’m not surprised. Rights are not “granted” by the government, they are “intrinsic” by their very nature. The Declaration of Independence set forth, based on the writings of John Locke and other philosophers, that we “are endowed by our creators with certain unalienable rights…” and that “to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. When governments becomes destructive to these end it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”

I agree that captioning is a good idea, but so keeping sites we work on as non-offensive as possible (whatever that happens to mean). Should we legislate one, we will open the door to legislate the other. Are you ready for the government to begin deciding what is “government approved” website content for your personal blog? Are you prepared for it to tell you that you can’t use technology X on your site, because there are people who may not have that plug-in? Are you prepared to be forced hold your log files for seven years in case your called to present them as evidence?

The governments job is not to force everyone online to caption their media, or to make every home accessible. This is the slippery slope that all laws tend toward by setting precedent. If they are allowed to restrict the content of the internet by forcing accessibility, then later they will assume the power to restrict content by manner of censorship. Do not allow yourself to be deceived with smile, trust it not sir. Men will listen to the song siren until she transforms them into beasts. I beseech you, trust it not. It will prove a snare at all our feet. The question before the house is no more the question of freedom or slavery. I know not what other men will do; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

posted at 09:51 pm on November 18, 2008 by Jeremy Streich

24 Joe, you have a bad attitude

I am an accessibility champion at work and know from experience that you get more accomplished from trying to help rather than to browbeat. Please stop attacking people who, 1) have a different opinion to you 2) disagree with you altogether. Constructively talking about what we can do rather than making snide remarks to posters asking questions will see much better results in the community.

that’s my 2 cents

posted at 10:18 pm on November 18, 2008 by michael hewson

25 Captioning isn't ubiquitous for a reason

The ability to caption online video is solely dependent on a simple to use technology that has yet to be developed. And if search firms haven’t developed it yet, then it’s probably because the technology to do so isn’t up to snuff. Just as large media have an invested interest in creating captioned content (for referencing, advertising, cataloging, etc. as you pointed out WGBH makes a nice return based on this service), so do the modern search engine companies for the exact same reasons.

The fact is that the web as we know it is still a nascent venture and although I do agree that strong leadership on the issue is needed, legislation requiring such would miss the mark. Let technology innovate. This entire argument may be completely moot by this time next year if technologies evolve down a rather predictable path.

The whole idea of an accessible web is based on resources for the disabled unimaginable 10 years ago. Even if it takes 10 more (it wont) to land on ubiquitous captioning (standards or not), really is that too long? To suggest that Google/YouTube, Hulu and others aren’t doing enough for captioning when online video has barely been around for 4 years in any meaningful way, is to say the least misguided.

posted at 10:24 pm on November 18, 2008 by Billy White

28 For many web publishers, it is the problem

If you anticipate an accessible web where videos are published and captioned with ease by an empowered public, a simple to use “outsourced” solution is absolutely required, even if it is in conjunction with a standards based solution for professional video producers.

To me it’s a no-brainer that Google or somebody will develop a tool where you simply run the video through some online process that ads captioning, as you pointed out is already being done. Should the output be standardized? Yes. Should the innovation for that standard be mandated? No.

Regardless, it’s a fantastic dialog and article and ALP is the perfect format to push for such standards. However, inciting the specter of legislation to reach those means is dangerous at best and disastrous at worst.

posted at 10:54 pm on November 18, 2008 by Billy White

29 Is legislation really going to help?

I can understand that legislation is often necessary to enforse a decision, but the problem with legislation is in most cases a preferred solution (captioning technology) is not prescribed. And if a preferred solution is prescribed it either is an unworkable compromise or the government is advised by the large technology partners because civil servants are not engineers. Argueing open standard should be enforced is mere political correctness speak, because so far any standard has been set by industry and from what I understood in the article there is no current open standard defined (unless I really do not understand what is written).

How to avoid this trap?

Also, in how many languages is captioning required? Google operates in almost any country. Are you only required to provide captions in languages where laws require you to do so and let handicaped people in less fortunate countries be left in the cold? English alone is not enough as most European citizens will tell you (or Brasilian, Chinese, Argentinan or Egyptian).

Joe has argued that any rule will apply to ‘professional’ organisations (NBC for instance), but Citibank publising a help video on how to use an ATM on their customer support pages, are they obliged to caption? Where to draw the line? By class action law suits?

I mean, I’m not opposed captioning, I’m opposed to half-baked unworkable solutions and I see some challenges on the horizon.

posted at 11:45 pm on November 18, 2008 by Martijn ten Napel