NatCapVidMo Day 30: Probing Platypus Evolution

We seem to have wound up back in Australia, for no reason in particular, except that I like platypuses (and they're also the occasional mascot of my alma mater) and I thought the footage in this video was pretty cool. If you want to know the results of the study they were conducting, some preliminary data seems to be in.

So that's the end of this year's NatCapVidMo! 30 captioned videos in 30 days, plus one video with audio description and one video with subtitles in both English and French. Not bad, all in all. I had a great time this month, and I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to do it again when next November rolls around. In the near future, I'll try to get links to these videos collected on the articles page of my website, for easy reference. Thanks for following along, and for all your encouraging comments along the way. This blog will now resume its relatively low-traffic status.

Oh, one more thing. I captioned all 30 of this month's videos using Universal Subtitles. It's a fantastic solution for quick and easy captioning in a variety of online video formats. It's versatile, simple to use, and free/open source. Check them out, and if you like them as much as I do, think about getting involved. Thanks, Universal Subtitles. I couldn't have done it without you guys.

NatCapVidMo Day 29: Linda Buys a Hat

It's the penultimate day of NatCapVidMo! If you guys have any more video captioning requests, you'd better get them in soon, because this is your last chance. Here's a classic skit from Sesame Street which originally aired in 1993. By that time, Linda Bove had already been on Sesame Street for 22 years. I remember her well from when I watched the show as a little kid in the early '80s. In fact, I'm pretty sure that she was the first Deaf person I was ever consciously aware of, and that the first time I ever saw anyone use Sign Language was on Sesame Street. I've been studying ASL for about two and a half years now, so I realized while watching this video that she altered her signing a bit for the show so that it was closer to English word order than to ASL syntax. (For instance, she signs the sentence "I want to buy a hat" "I-WANT BUY HAT" rather than the more correct "HAT I-WANT BUY" or "HAT BUY I-WANT".) But I still really enjoyed watching it, and the language is simple enough that even an intermediate signer like me can translate it with a pretty high degree of confidence. I think it's funnier if you can understand both sides of the conversation, so I decided to caption it. Now Deaf/HoH signers and non-signing Hearing, deafened, and HoH English speakers can all get in on the joke.

NatCapVidMo Day 28: Refreshabraille 18 on the iPod

Mike Paciello tipped me off to this video today on Twitter. It's about how to use a Refreshable Braille Display (The APH Refreshabraille 18) with an iPod Touch or iPhone. I don't have any of these devices; my phone is a Blackberry 8330, my mp3 player is a Toshiba Gigabeat F, and I don't know braille, though I'm certainly very open to providing CART for someone who uses a refreshable braille display. I really liked getting an inside look on both the display itself and the iPod's VoiceOver interface (which I had heard about but had never seen in action), and I was extremely impressed by Chase's facility with the interface and clear way of describing everything he was doing. Below I've attached a transcript of the video, because I'm not sure how accessible Universal Subtitle's "download subtitles" interface is for deaf-blind people using braille displays or screen readers. This also reminded me to attach a transcript to my post for Day 16, Out of Sight (with Audio Description).

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CHASE: Hi, this is Chase again. And today I want to show you how to pair a Refreshabraille 18 with the iPod Touch or iPhone running iOS4. As you might know, the Refreshabraille 18 can only connect with the iPod Touch or iPhone via Bluetooth, as they do not have a USB port. And I have an iPod Touch here, which is already on, so what we need to do next is to turn the Refreshabraille on. I will hold down the power button. (cells vibrating) And you heard the cells vibrate. And now we see my display's name. Now, by default, Bluetooth is automatically turned on, so we don't need to do anything to enable Bluetooth. What we need to do to get braille working on the iPod touch is to go to settings, so I'll tap my touchscreen near settings.

iPOD: Page one of three, iTunes. Settings.

CHASE: I did that by flicking left. I'll double tap here.

iPOD: Settings, settings, music, button.

CHASE: And now my cursor was placed on the music item in settings. But I'll flick left.

iPOD: General, button.

CHASE: And that's general, which is where we need to go. I double tapped.

iPOD: General, settings, back button.

CHASE: And now we need to go to accessibility, which is where you can set all of the iPod and iPhones' accessibility features.

iPOD: General, restrictions, up, date and time, keyboard, international, accessibility, reset, accessibility, button.

CHASE: Now, what I did to get to accessibility was I touched near the bottom of the screen, and then flicked right 'til I got to accessibility. Now I'll double tap.

iPOD: Accessibility, general, back button. Accessibility. VoiceOver, on, button.

CHASE: Now we need to go into VoiceOver. VoiceOver, if you do not know, is the built-in screenreader on these devices, and that is what the Refreshabraille 18 will connect with.

iPOD: Zoom, off, button.

CHASE: But we also have things like the monaural audio and the magnifier, called Zoom.

iPOD: VoiceOver, on, button.

CHASE: But we'll go into VoiceOver, by double tapping.

iPOD: VoiceOver, accessibility, back button.

CHASE: And now we'll need to flick right 'til we get to braille.

iPOD: VoiceOver, VoiceOver, VoiceOver speaks items, to select, to activate the selected item, double tap, to scroll, flick three fingers, practice VoiceOver gestures, button, speak hints, off, speaking rate, 22%, typing feedback, words, use phonetics, on, use pitch change, off, braille, button.

CHASE: And there's the braille button. We'll double tap.

iPOD: Alert, Bluetooth is turned off. Bluetooth is required to use a braille device. Would you like to turn on Bluetooth? Bluetooth is turned off.

CHASE: And now we need to turn on Bluetooth. You don't need to enable Bluetooth before you get into the braille setings, as, as you heard, it informs me that Bluetooth is turned off.

iPOD: Bluetooth is required to -- cancel -- okay.

CHASE: I'll double tap okay, which will open the braille settings and turn on Bluetooth.

iPOD: Braille, VoiceOver, back button.

CHASE: And now we'll have some braille settings, as well as the displays that are in range of the iPod.

iPOD: Braille, contracted braille, on.

CHASE: That is to show Grade 2 braille. I have turned that on.

iPOD: Status cell, off.

CHASE: Status cell is off.

iPOD: Choose a braille device. Refreshabraille chase. Not paired, button.

CHASE: Now, the iPod's searched for my Refreshabraille, which is called Refreshabraille chase, as I have named my display "chase". And it has already found it. What we need to do to pair it is to double tap.

iPOD: Refreshabraille chase. Refreshabraille, Refreshabraille chase, PIN, secure, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4. PIN, 1, done, button, done, end, braille, VoiceOver, back button.

CHASE: My display just went blank, and now we see VoiceOver, back, and then if I pan to the right, BTN, which stands for button. Now, I want to explain what I did when it asked for the pairing code. You only have a certain amount of seconds to pair this and put in that code, so I did that before I discussed it, so I'd have enough time. The PIN code, or personal identification... This code allows you to securely connect to your Refreshabraille 18. By default, the Refreshabraille 18's PIN code is 1234. So I typed that in, and then pressed the "done" button. So now we have braille. Now, what I want to do is to go to the practice VoiceOver gestures, which is in the VoiceOver settings. So I'll flick to the left, until I get to the VoiceOver back button.

iPOD: VoiceOver, accessibility.

CHASE: And now we're back in the VoiceOver settings screen.

iPOD: Back button, VoiceOver, VoiceOver, on. VoiceOver speaks items on the screen. To select an item, touch it.

CHASE: Now on the braille display I can use the joystick to flick right, by pushing it to the right.

iPOD: To activate the selected item, double tap. To scroll, flick three fingers. Practice VoiceOver gestures, button.

CHASE: Now, this is what I want. I can either double tap on the touch screen or press down on the joystick. I pressed down on the joystick.

iPOD: Practice gestures.

CHASE: And I'll touch on the screen.

iPOD: Practice VoiceOver gestures in this area. Select the done button in the top right corner and double tap to exit.

CHASE: Now we can do gestures on the screen, like...

iPOD: Rotate clockwise. Select next rotor setting.

CHASE: Or, on the display, we can press any of the display keys, like...

iPOD: Joystick pressed. Activates the selected item.

CHASE: Or... I'm panning to the right, and it's showing what it just said, but if I get to the end...

iPOD: Pan braille to the right.

CHASE: That's the pan braille to the right. But you can also use chorded commands. That is, letters and symbols, with the space bar. And they'll tell us what they do. So H-Chord, for example...

iPOD: Dot-1, Dot-2, Dot-5, space bar. Activates the home button. Practice VoiceOver gestures in this area.

CHASE: Or...

iPOD: Select the done button in the top right corner and double tap to exit.

CHASE: Or, if I press E-Chord...

iPOD: Dot-1, Dot-5, spacebar. Activates the return key.

CHASE: Activates the return key. Now, I'll go ahead and get out of this.

iPOD: Done, button. 20% battery... Practice VoiceOver gestures in this area.

CHASE: Now, I touched too high.

iPOD: Select the done button in the top right corner and double tap to exit.

CHASE: I tapped too high on the screen, so I got into the status bar. So...

iPOD: 20%... Practice VoiceOver, done, button.

CHASE: There's the done button. I'll double tap. And we're back in settings.

iPOD: VoiceOver, accessibility, back button.

CHASE: Now I'll press H-Chord to get to the home screen, or I could press the home button on the iPod.

iPOD: Home, settings.

CHASE: And we'll see... Home, settings, on the braille display. Now, what I want to show you is... We can go to an application, for example, Notes, that allows you to input text and use the Refreshabraille 18's braille keyboard to type.

iPOD: Calculator, Clock, Notes.

CHASE: There's Notes. I used the joystick left function to get to that. I'll press down on the joystick to open Notes.

iPOD: Notes, new note, text field, is editing, character mode.

CHASE: And we're automatically placed into the new note field. So if I type "this is a test" in grade 2 braille...

iPOD: This... Is... A...

CHASE: This is a test. And it didn't speak the last word because I put a period and then a space. I kind of interrupted it. But I have "This is a test" in grade 2 braille. But if you typed in, in an email, for example, in grade 2 braille, and you sent it, that email would be translated into regular text, so you can type in any text fields on the iPod using the Refreshabraille 18's keypad. I'll now return to the home screen with H-Chord.

iPOD: Home, Notes.

CHASE: That is all that I want to show you. I'll be back in a future video, talking more about connecting the Refreshabraille 18 with other devices.

NatCapVidMo Day 27: Traditional Hand Signs

A video from Clifton Biendurry, via the Enduring Voices Project.

From Biendurry's website: Clifton Jungurrayi Bieundurry belongs to the Walmajarri people of the Central Kimberley. [...] He speaks several traditional contemporary and Indigenous languages, including Walmajarri, Kukatja, Jaru, and Kriol.

I thought it was interesting to learn about people who communicate using their voices most of the time, but who have a set of hand signs they use to communicate something silently or inconspicuously when speaking isn't possible.

NatCapVidMo Day 26: Organic and Polymeric Semiconductors

This video was suggested by my brother William. I think it's pretty interesting stuff. If they actually figure out how to make organic and polymeric semiconductors into efficient solar cells, they could transform the face of this planet. Best of luck to 'em! Well, there are only four more days left of NatCapVidMo, and the requests are still coming in. Be sure to send yours to info@stenoknight.com or comment on this post before time runs out.

NatCapVidMo Day 25: Missoula Parkour

I've had a wonderful warm, cozy Thanksgiving, cooking at home and eating glorious food with my partner and cat here in New York City. I've been in this city for six years now, and I love it with all my heart. It's huge, mysterious, vital, complex, and unexpectedly kind. Living here is the adventure I dreamed of all through my childhood, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But this is also the time of year that I find myself thinking about the rest of my family back home in Missoula, Montana. (There's also an outpost of Knights in Seattle.) I thought it might be nice to put up a captioned glimpse of where I came from, and I figured that among the more interesting ways to do it would be to show a bunch of reckless youths risking their hides as they jump around on various Zootown landmarks. I always enjoy watching Parkour videos, though I've never done it myself -- partly because I get winded if I run more than half a block or so, and partly because I'm my family's primary breadwinner, so if I screw up my hands, we don't eat. That means I have to get my leaping and scrambling thrills vicariously. Enjoy the energetic lads of the Missoula Parkour Group, and if you can take your eyes off their flailing limbs, check out the scenery while you're at it. That's where I grew up. It's a peculiar little city, but it's home.

ETA: One formatting note. It's generally conventional when doing captioning for people with hearing loss that you don't repeat words in captions that are already written on the screen, such as the names of the vaults in this video. The reason why I captioned them is because Universal Subtitles also allows translation of captions, and if someone wanted to translate this video into another language, they'd be able to translate the names of the parkour moves as well.

NatCapVidMo Day 24: Signs of Our Ideas

I found this pair of videos while looking for footage of Peter Cook, the famous ASL comedian. I thought it was fascinating for a number of reasons. For one, I really enjoyed the linguistic content. I knew that there were two different signs for "poetry", but I'd never heard about the international Deaf conference that inspired the more modern one. I always love watching Peter Cook sign, whether he's being silly or serious. I also thought these videos were a timely thing to post on the day before Thanksgiving. It's important to think about things like poverty and privilege year-round, but especially when we're giving thanks for all the good things in our life, we need to remember what it's like for people who haven't gotten the help, support, education, and security that many of us take for granted. As it says in the video, poverty is much more than just a lack of money. I'm going to try to be aware of my many privileges this week and in the weeks to come, and I'll try to keep thinking about people affected by poverty and what I can do to help. One peculiarity of these videos: Even though they're announcing a contest that ran from March through April, 2008, I haven't been able to find any entries for it on YouTube, much less the announcement of the winning entry which they said would happen in May 2008. Columbia College's website has documents about the beginning of the contest, but nothing about the end of it. And when I searched YouTube for "ASL" and "poverty", I didn't find anything connected to Columbia College, Peter Cook, or Signs of Our Ideas. Were there really no entries? If so, that's really a shame. It was a wonderful idea, but perhaps it wasn't publicized enough. Maybe sometime in the future the contest will be revived. Meanwhile, I hope my captions help to make these ideas accessible to new groups of people.

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