Last Thursday Google announced that it was going one step further to make videos more accessible on YouTube. One of the first steps Google took was the development of a caption feature in 2008. Then in November 2009, Google released auto-captioning for a small, select group of partners. This allowed a small number of users to combine speech-to-text tools to automatically generate video captions when requested by a viewer. The announcement this week by Google will open up auto-captions to all YouTube users. In a statement Google noted that, “with just a few quick clicks videos can be accessed by a whole new global audience. And captions can make is easier for users to discover content on YouTube.” There will be a request processing button for un-captioned videos that any video owner can click on if they want to speed up the availability of auto-captions. In making this announcement, Google representatives stated, “making some of these videos more accessible to people who have hearing disabilities, not only represents a significant advancement in the democratization of information, it can also help foster greater collaboration and understanding.”
A link to Google's blog post about Youtube captioning may be viewed by clicking the link in this post's title.
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