Deaf Canadians Petitioning Closed Caption Act Bill

WATCH [CC] - Deaf News: Petitioning Closed Caption Accessibility Act Bill to Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

TORONTO -- Can you hear me? I cannot hear you. I am Deaf. Hearing is the only thing we can’t do… We can do anything else - and not hearing doesn't make us any less Canadian that everyone else! We love our beautiful country as much as you do. We love the quality of life here that is afforded to every Canadians, both citizens and newcomers.

Unfortunately, life for Deaf people in Canada is without many of the things you take for granted. We face much hardship, discrimination, inequality in employment, and poverty. We are not even able to enjoy our internet or technologies or facilities or events or anything you see and use in daily life. Sign up petition HERE.

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

Canada has not enacted a law similar to the US “21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act” which would provide an entitlement for Deaf citizens to access media online with mandated closed captioning. Without captioning, online content remains mostly inaccessible for us. In Canada, we are left out, falling behind the times in terms of modern accessibility; Technology changed and the rules didn’t. We have no clue what politician may say on videos or ads online. We are unable to watch any video online even ESPN, HBO, Netflix, MTV or our national new sites (CTV.ca or CBC.ca) because they choose not to provide closed captioning for some or all of its contents and are not required to do so.

Even more importantly, on the employment side, with all of the technological advancements available, communication barriers have been broken down. Today’s technology has revolutionized the workplace in terms of communications. With such a wealth of technology, incorporating the Deaf into a workplace environment should be fairly easy to do. You'd be thinking that it should have solved some of the unemployment issues, so did we!

In federal election 2015 that Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party won the majority, we the Deaf note that none of the parties have addressed the issues of accessibility; none have developed any remedies for the issues facing the Deaf communities across this great country with exception of promising Accessibility Act but falling short of mentioning anything on our issues.

We are demanding that you develop an Accessibility Act that addresses the need to improve employment supports and opportunities for those with disabilities.

Related: Canadian 'Deaf Superintendent Now' Movement

Related Posts: #DeafCanadians

Deaf Viewers Push YouTube For #withcaptions

Deaf and Hard of Hearing community call YouTube online video for closed captioning.

YouTube videos are not accessible to everyone, adding closed captions to videos will make them accessible to millions of more people. Share this video on social media, tag your favorite creator and help make your favorite videos enjoyable for everyone! #withcaptions

Closed Captioning [CC] and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Captions and Subtitles are essentially the same and typically used as a transcription of the audio portion of a program as it occurs (either verbatim or in edited form), sometimes including descriptions of non-speech elements. Other uses have been to provide a textual alternative language translation of a presentation's primary audio language which is usually burned-in (or "open") to the video and not selectable (or "closed")... Read The Full Story.

How To Create Captions and Subtitles For YouTube Videos.

Step by step, how created Closed Captions / Subtitles vlog for the videos on YouTube, and how to translate Captions to different languages, made easy.

How To Caption YouTube Videos

YouTube blogging teaches how to makes captioning your videos.

Matt Ballek teaches people how to makes closed captioning your videos not only makes them more acessable for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, but they also make the contents of your video more accessible to YouTube.

Once YouTube knows exactly what is being said in your video you will be more likely to rank when people search for related words or phrases.

Did you know a very simple way already exists in the YouTube interface to add captions? Follow along with one of your own videos and watch your views increase. Visit http://vidiseo.com/how-to-caption-youtube-videos/ for more details.

#captionTHIS videos - #captionTHIS

Related Captioning:
#CaptionTHIS - #Captions - #ClosedCaptioning - #CC - #Subtitles

Deaf Want A Fair Hearing On Film & TV Subtitles

Maltese Deaf people want a fair hearing on film and TV subtitles.

VALLETTA, Maltese -- The quality of life of Deaf people would dramatically improve if subtitles were introduced on TV and in cinemas, according to campaigners. “Think how much general knowledge you get from the TV,” said Alison Vere from the Deaf People Association, which is behind the Subtitles Now campaign launched recently.

“With the exception of the five-minute Deaf News in Maltese sign language, local TV is inaccessible to Deaf and those hard of hearing,” she added.

Organised jointly with film culture NGO Kinemastik, Subtitles Now is promoting the introduction of sub-titles on TV and more screenings of subtitled movies in cinemas.

The campaign released a video on Youtube to drive home its message: https://youtube.com/watch.

It starts with sound and sub­titles so that all people can understand what is happening, but then the captions disappear and all the dialogue is conducted in sign language.

Eventually the sound of Bob Dylan singing the words “How does it feel?” from Like a Rolling Stone can be heard and a caption asks, “How does it feel to see but not hear?”

Ms Vere said deafness was an invisible disability because it went unseen unless people were communicating in sign language or wearing visible hearing aids.

If their campaign is successful, it would “provide a quantum leap in the quality of life of Deaf Maltese and would also help increase Deaf literacy.”

Association president Steven Mulvaney visited the UK recently and was amazed to find he had the option of closed caption subtitles on every programme on the TV in his hotel room, available through the push of a button.

The association would like Maltese Deaf people to have the same option... Read The Full Story.

RELATED - Sony's New Subtitle Glasses For Deaf Moviegoers

Sony’s Entertainment Access Glasses Utilizing Unique Holographic Technology - The movie industry’s transformation to digital technology has created an opportunity to efficiently deliver closed caption data to movie patrons. This coincides with large demand from people with hearing difficulties to watch movies more easily and enjoyably.

Sony has therefore developed entertainment access glasses utilizing its unique holographic technology: the STW-C140GI Entertainment Access Glasses with Audio and, as part of this solution, the STWA-C101 Data Transmitter. When wearing this stylish and lightweight see-through eyewear, users can see closed caption text seemingly superimposed onto the movie picture that they’re watching on screen - it’s a natural subtitle-movie experience.

In addition, as the captioning glasses’ receiver box is equipped with an audio assist function, this solution is useful not only for people with hearing difficulties but also for people with visual impairments - both can enjoy movies far more than ever before... Read The Full Story.

Visit Sony for more details:
http://pro.sony.eu/pro/lang/en/eu/products/entertainmentaccessglasses

Related Captioning:
#CaptionTHIS - #Captions - #ClosedCaptioning - #CC - #Subtitles

Growth of Viral Video Leaves Deaf Community In The Dark

Viral videos may be good for sharing ideas and spreading funny foreign pop hits, but they are leaving millions of Deaf people out of the loop.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Online video is becoming a more ubiquitous part of American life. Netflix videos made up one-third of online data used in the United States last year. YouTube expects 90 percent of online traffic to be video in the next few years. By 2016, Cisco estimates, 1.2 million minutes of video will be streamed or downloaded every second.

That video explosion has been great for small-film and TV producers, who are able to reach an audience without a big studio budget, and fans of niche programming. But in some ways, it has left the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community starting from scratch after years of advocating for captions on traditional television.

“We could be back to square one,” said Christian Vogler, director of the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University.

The rise of e-mails, instant messages and social media was a godsend to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, which embraced the new, text-based ways to communicate.

“In the mid- to late 1990s, it was close to the ideal medium,” Vogler said. But as the Web evolved to include more video, he said, old barriers to communication resurfaced... Read The Full Story.

Support #CaptionTHIS:

Sign the petition at:
https://change.org/petitions/tell-cnn-to-start-providing-equal-access-to-their-online-videos
To send letters to different companies and learn more about this:
https://blog.deafpolitics.org/2012/05/captionthis-social-media-movement.html
More Benefits of captions:
https://curbcut.net/accessibility/the-benefits-of-captions-legit/
Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning:
https://ccacaptioning.org

What Is It Like For Deaf People Without Captions?

What is it like for Deaf people without captions? [#captionTHIS]

See the original #captionTHIS video :#captionTHIS.
See the second #captionTHIS video: #captionTHIS Day of Action.

Sign the petition at:
https://change.org/petitions/tell-cnn-to-start-providing-equal-access.

To send letters to different companies and learn more about this:
https://blog.deafpolitics.org/2012/05/captionthis-social-media-movement.html

Further information regarding captioning and accessibility can be found at:

GLAD's lawsuit against CNN:
https://gladinc.org/information-center/in-the-news/2011/breaking-news-cnn-.

NAD's lawsuit against Netflix:
https://nad.org/news/2011/6/nad-files-disability-civil-rights-lawsuit.

Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning:
https://ccacaptioning.org.

More Benefits of captions:
https://curbcut.net/accessibility/the-benefits-of-captions-legit.

Forbes article on CC Upgrades, Searchability and Why It's Personal:
https://onforb.es/y3pYki.

Video created by Jules Dameron:
https://julesdameron.com.

ASL Video: #captionTHIS: Day of Action

#CaptionTHIS Day of Action June 6th is when we work together to protest to end the injustice from oppression, because we care.

Transcript is included in this description, after these links.

Sign the petition at:
https://change.org/petitions/tell-cnn-to-start-providing-equal-access-to-their-online-videos.

To send letters to different companies and learn more about this:
https://blog.deafpolitics.org/2012/05/captionthis-social-media-movement.html

Further information regarding captioning and accessibility can be found at GLAD's lawsuit against CNN:
https://gladinc.org/information-center/in-the-news/2011/breaking-news-cnn-.

NAD's lawsuit against Netflix:
https://nad.org/news/2011/6/nad-files-disability-civil-rights-lawsuit-against-netflix.

Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning:
https://ccacaptioning.org.

More Benefits of captions:
https://curbcut.net/accessibility/the-benefits-of-captions-legit.

Forbes article on CC Upgrades, Searchability and Why It's Personal:
https://onforb.es/y3pYki.

Get a "Stop Audism" t-shirt!
https://www.handsay.com.

Special thanks to Ben Jarashow for the Pierre Desloges Quote - An Ink and Salt Production:

Sign the petition here: https://change.org/petitions/tell-cnn-to-start-providing-equal-access-to-their-online-videos.

Also check out our Facebook page: https://facebook.com/captionTHISnow.