[games_access] article in escapist magazine

Wed Dec 12 21:25:09 EST 2007

Yes, I had not learned the difference until I meant Reid as well! We 
also can turn on captioning with a remote -- a lot of them will 
automatically put in captions when you hit the "mute" button on the 
remote. But you know I thought that you couldn't have them if it was 
recorded on a DVR (like Tivo) but I just hit the mute button on that 
controller and sure enough, the captions began going across the 
screen. It's my understanding that if you taped a show on video 
cassette that you couldn't call up the captions after the fact, that 
you had to set the TV to closed captioning being on at all times 
(bunch of menu buttons get you to that option). Which was annoying 
because I would show video clips in class on a VCR long ago when I 
taught a large lecture section (300+ students) and the sound system 
was bad, those in the top rows couldn't hear and having captions on 
would have been better -- and that didn't even take deaf students 
into the calculations.

When we were talking about legal/government routes and the lessons 
that could be learned from the movie industry about their captioning 
I learned all the different ways that captions can appear (in that 
industry, a film shown in theatre might decide to put the captions on 
a small additional screen that fits below the main movie screen -- 
that, too, is considered "open captioning," which is not an ADA 
requirement). The courts ruled that closed captioning systems DO fall 
under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) -- a type of closed 
captioning can be "seat-based" captioning where the patron needs to 
sit in a certain seat that is equipped for that. The ruling did not 
include open captioning -- so it's not law in the US that open 
captioning be required for films at movie theatres.

But...Seven years have passed since the courts mandated that NO 
closed captioning in movie theatres is in violation of the ADA. All 
that has resulted in is the courts been bogged down by lawsuit after 
lawsuit to every major theatre chain and even the filmmakers (who, of 
course, need theatres) and I cannot recall a single time I've been to 
a theatre that indicated any kind of "ask us about captioning" 
solutions. What I have learned is that political routes does not 
result in any type of quick change. Seven years and the organizations 
for the deaf are STILL launching lawsuits to get the law 
upheld...meanwhile? Very little change has occurred. If we think that 
we have a tough time as a group...think about how frustrated the 
groups trying to make theatres put in the captioning systems in must 
be! At least we have the chance to talk to developers directly at 
conferences like GDC.

Michelle

>In the UK, pre-digital TV, we had (and still have) a service where you could
>turn text "subtitles" on by dialling 888 on your remote. These "subtitles"
>included description of music, sound effects, and would be coloured to
>denote different characters speaking. As we understand it now, these are
>closed-captions - but most people don't know the difference. I didn't until
>I came across Reid.
>
>Barrie
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bannick" <jbannick at 7128.com>
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:49 PM
>Subject: Re: [games_access] article in escapist magazine
>
>>Reid,
>>
>>Thanks for this.
>>I was just about to ask what Open vs. Closed captions were.
>>
>>John Bannick
>>
>>At 08:13 PM 12/11/2007, you wrote:
>>>Oh, someone else wrote the escapist article, very cool.
>>>
>>>Unfortunately, GTA: San Andreas is not captioned as the author states.
>>>What she's talking about is subtitles.
>>>
>>>- Subtitles = dialog
>>>- Captions = dialog + sound effects and music
>>>- Open Captions = equal captions that are burned into the video signal
>>>and can't be turned off
>>>- Closed captions = equal captions that are encoded into the video or
>>>game data and can be turned on or off at will
>>>
>>>-Reid
>>>
>>>On Dec 11, 2007 4:56 PM, Reid Kimball <reid at rbkdesign.com> wrote:
>>>  > You're also in the latest Game Developer mag. Nice job!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  On Dec 11, 2007 4:53 PM, Eelke Folmer <eelke.folmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>  >
>>>http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_127/2708-Gaming-Ability
>>>>  >
>>>>  > --
>>>>  >
>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  > Eelke Folmer                           Assistant Professor
>>>>  > Department of CS&E/171
>>>>  > University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
>>>>  > Game interaction design        www.helpyouplay.com
>>>>  >
>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>>>  >
>>>>
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>>
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