MAGpie reboot: new, free caption-authoring software from WGBH’s NCAM

Handouts

Presented at 11:15am in Windsor on Wednesday, November 16, 2016.

#4948

Speaker(s)

  • Bryan Gould, Director , WGBH/NCAM

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format:
  • Expertise Level: Not provided
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

The National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) is currently developing CADET (Caption and Description Editing Tool). CADET is free, downloadable caption authoring software that will enable anyone to easily produce high-quality caption files that are compatible with any media player on any web browser.

Abstract

The CADET software will build on the original success of NCAM's now out-of-date caption-editing tool, MAGpie (Media Access Generator), whose thousands of users proved that a free, high-quality tool will find widespread adoption by individuals or institutions, especially in education and government.

CADET will implement much of the functionality available only in high-end caption authoring workstations, such as WYSIWYG placement, timing assistance, multiple export formats covering the most used timed-text file types, keyboard shortcuts, and other such features. Unlike other captioning tool creators, NCAM has a unique insight into the needs of caption writers, due to WGBH’s long history in creating captions and developing captioning tools.

Providing this free, high-quality caption editor will make it easy for all content creators, from education to entertainment, to provide captions on all of their online videos.

Learn more about CADET and how try it out for yourself.

Keypoints

  1. WGBH, with 45 years of captioning experience, is developing free captioning software that you can help improve
  2. Key features of CADET: how users will be able to author and publish captions with this free tool
  3. Captions have a large and diverse audience and can also provide additional benefits for video producers

Disability Areas

Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Administrative/Campus Policy, Alternate Format, Assistive Technology, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

Bryan Gould

Bryan Gould, WGBH/NCAM Director of Accessible Learning and Assessment Technologies. Bryan has been conducting blindness-related research and development projects for over 20 years at WGBH. His projects range from improving access to complex scientific images and high-stakes assessments to amusement park rides and smart phone apps. Bryan’s multiple published guidelines, most notably the STEM Image Description Guidelines, have been adopted by many educational publishers and accessibility organizations and he regularly conducts training sessions on how best to present images, video, and digital experiences to meet the needs of people with visual and print disabilities. Bryan is expert in writing image description for alt text and audio description for video.

Handout(s)