Re: Standards for web captioning

Hi, Paul:

>* font size
>* words per minute
>* lines of text per viewing frame
>* capital characters versus lower case

>Or anything else along these lines. There are standards for television,
>but are there any for the Web? 

Actually, there aren't any standards for these things in the broadcast world.  Font size is determined by the available technology; the rest are determined by individual captioning agencies in conjunction with viewers.

>If there isn't a set of standards, should we
>create one?

Including some common-sense pointers in the guidelines is a good idea--for starters  see http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/captioncenter/ccstyles.html-- but I don't think the WAI is the proper body to write a full recommendation about captioning.  Some caption agencies, including The Caption Center, have already put in years of research regarding caption timing, display, quality, comprehension, etc.

Geoff Freed
WGBH/NCAM


>Paul Bohman
>Technology Coordinator
>WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
>www.webaim.org
>Center for Persons with Disabilities
>www.cpd.usu.edu
>Utah State University
>www.usu.edu 
>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 18 June 2002 08:15:29 UTC