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Project readOn Offers Captions for Any Video May 21, 2007 — 06:02 PM PDT — by Kristen Nicole

As the service grows and more people request videos to be captioned, I’m sure Project readOn will build up a nice database of caption transcripts to choose from, which will come in handy for those uploading videos that are likely duplicates. A library offering such as this could be very useful in the future.

May 17, 2007, 4:40 pm Obama Videos Get Closed-Captioning

By Sarah Wheaton

Web video is helping all sorts of people get connected to the political process — but some have still been left out. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing, YouTube hasn’t really done a whole lot of good — until now.

Nine of Senator Barack Obama’s web videos have now been outfitted with closed-captioning, thanks to Project readOn, which created a special player to display captions alongside a web video (make sure you turn off your pop-up blocker when you try this out).

Several of his videos are directly linked to on Project readOn’s homepage, and you can search for his name to find all of his captioned videos.

Project readOn isn’t a contractor for the Obama campaign. They create “user-requested captions,” explained Mateo Gutierrez, a co-founder. Users can submit the U.R.L. of a web video, and “we will caption it as soon as we can,” he said.

After Project readOn made captions for an Obama video requested by one of its members, according to Mr. Gutierrez, the campaign asked to have the captioning widget on all of its videos. Other than agreeing not to attach any advertisements to the campaign’s captions, he said, Project readOn made no special accommodations. The campaign had to become a member of the site, submit the other eight video requests, and wait its turn.

The campaign’s interest in making its videos accessible to the hearing impaired was prompted in part by Tommy Farr, an Iraq veteran and faculty member at Gallaudet University, the prestigious school for the deaf in Washington, D.C. He called the campaign to point out a need not only among the deaf, but for those coming back from military service with hearing loss, as well. His call “solidified something we wanted to move forward with quickly,” said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign.

Though Project readOn has captioned videos of interviews with President Bush and former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Gutierrez said, Mr. Obama is the “only” 2008 candidate whose videos its users have requested so far. “I’ll be interested to see how that changes,” he added.

Project readOn writes captions for free for requested videos. Although he hopes to ultimately have some sort of advertising on the site, said Mr. Gutierrez, it currently operates “kind of like public radio” with donations and support, especially from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Its parent company, Rhino Moon Captioning, does traditional captioning.

“We noticed that everything is moving to the Internet,” Mr. Gutierrez said. Observing that advocates for the hard-of-hearing usually have to fight and lobby to get access, he sees the user-requested captions as “the perfect way to reverse that process.”

But Project readOn doesn’t just benefit those who can’t hear. Those who can’t listen, such as workers stuck in cubicles, also use the site to watch videos on the job without turning up the volume. Also, while English captions are free, Project readOn will create captions in other languages for a fee. As campaigns seek to attract the growing number of Hispanic voters, Spanish-language captions could be an appealing option.

We are currently seeking funding for the following Project readOn Projects. These projects are an ongoing series of undertakings to bring both English and foreign language captions to the widest possible audience with the broadest application in the hopes of benefiting society at multiple levels. If you are interested in funding (partially or completely) any of these Project please contact co-founder Mateo Gutierrez at mg@projectreadon.com.

1. Project ESL Research: Work with ESL teachers to fully understand the needs of ESL students at the elementary, middle and high school levels as it relates to the use of English and foreign language captions in the school place.

2. Project ESL Implementation: Work with public school districts in urban centers to implement research findings directly in the school place.

3. Project Public School Captions for All: Deliver English captions via the Project readOn player in elementary, middle and high schools in any single urban school district via budgeted, planned and existing web access infrastructure.

4. Project Access for All: Proactively deliver English captions to the deaf and hard of hearing community consistently for one year at a rate of 10.00/min.

5. Project Spanish Language Access for All: Proactively deliver Spanish captions to the deaf and hard of hearing community consistently for one year.

6. Project Community Research: Ongoing research of the exact needs of the hard of hearing for online content: Seeking $250,000.00 over 1 year.

7. Project Media Synch: Research and development into syncing technology between Project readOn player and host media.

8. Project User Feedback Development: Additional ongoing research and development based on user feedback. Seeking $100,000.00 over 1 year.

9. Project Multilingual Website: Ongoing development of multilingual website, tools, and technology.

10. Project Live Events: Funding to attend trade shows, seminars, conventions, etc.

A few weeks back I decided to take my laptop to a local coffee shop and work from there. That morning another of the founders of Project readOn had uploaded a new clip to the site called Third Ward Texas - Trailer. Having lived in Texas and being an artist I was well aware of Project Row House in Houston in the Third Ward, but I had not heard about this film. I genuinely wanted to watch the trailer. The problem was that I didn't want to play the volume for the entire coffee shop to be bothered and I didn't have any headphones. So what did I do? I watched it using our readOn player.

What we are learning is that our readOn player is functioning something like the captions you see in the airport or the gym (except our captions are a heck of a lot better). People in offices who can't have the volume on their computers turned up and would look suspicious if they were sitting at work with headphones on can now enjoy online media using our readOn player!

Another group of people we are looking at working with is students of English as a second language, especially in elementary and middle schools. These children benefit enormously from having the volume turned up so that they can hear the content in English and then simultaneously be able to read the content in their native tongue, at first, and then later reading it in English at the same time. This is proving to be a very powerful teaching tool for ESL teachers.

It's just incredibly exciting to learn about the endless applications of this technology. If you have any more ideas or experiences using our readOn player in a new way please shoot us an email and let us know about it.

Today we are delighted to announce that our member base has grown exponentially and our users are requesting content at very high volumes. But this also means we are getting nearer to the limit of our ability to respond to these requests. Just like a public radio station we rely solely on your generous donations to be able to caption online media. It's just that simple. So we are asking that you please sponsor Project readOn today and help us take the lead in being able to truly deliver on the concept of URC: User Requested Captions.

Our mission is to empower people with the ability to watch anything on the web with English and foreign language captions. We, meaning Project readOn and our users, have the power in our hands to change the way the world views captions.

We can caption anything out there that you request: TV shows, news, sports, politics, education, research, comedy, you name it! So join today and sponsor Project readOn. Every single sponsor brings us all closer to our vision of Access for All!