Captionning

Including text captions on videos can help make audio aspects of the video accessible for people with a hearing impairment.

Open captions appear when the videotape is played on a regular recorder. A tape with open captions cannot be viewed without the captions being visible. Closed captions can be viewed if the tape is played using a video player with a decoder.

In 2002 a Queensland Government policy was introduced requiring that all videos produced by government agencies be captioned:

It is compulsory for all Queensland Government departments, including regional offices, to caption television commercials, videos, DVDs and CD-ROMs that are being viewed by the public. This includes general information videos/DVDs playing in a customer service area, public function or trade show, and videos/DVDs that the public can request, hire or buy.

For a copy of this policy, go to:

http://www.auscap.com.au/export/auscap/captionview/legislation.htm#14

If the link to the policy does not work, go down the page to the relevant section and use the link there.

The Australian Caption Centre is the major supplier of captioned videos in this country.

See their web site for information on the cost of captioning, how captioning works, and what it looks like: http://www.auscap.com.au/web/auscap

For more information, contact:

Australian Caption Centre (Brisbane)

Phone: 07 3844 5011

Freecall: 1800 777 801

Fax: 07 3844 2077

Email: acc_brisb@auscap.com.au

This site is a working draft only! For more information on this project, send an email to: unidesign@optusnet.com.au