October 3, 2010 8:49 pm


Host Seth Odell and special guest host Daniel Brusilovsky talk about how the higher ed industry can better utilize the power of live streaming. Going way beyond just live streaming commencement, find out how you can open your campus experience globally and offer your audience true geographical freedom.

  • Guest

    How does captioning and section 508 compliance play into live streaming?

    • Seth Odell

      That’s a really interesting question. To put it bluntly, I have seen little to no evidence of folks making live streams accessible to folks with hearing impairments. The obvious reason for this is the huge cost involved in putting a system in place that could support that. There are a few options though….

      If cost isn’t an issue, colleges or universities could hire an outside company that is an expert in not only live streaming, but streaming with 508 compliance. An example of such a company would be East Bay Media (http://www.eastbaymedia.com/webcasts/508).

      You could also build an in-house system using either steno typing or a speech recognition software such as Live Closed Captioning (http://www.cpcweb.com/live/). This approach would obviously be VERY labor intensive.

      Either way, my advice would be first to speak with your campus legal council. Under Section 508 section 1194.2 (1) it says that if compliance imposes an undue burden, agencies shall provide individuals with disabilities with the information and data involved by an alternative means.
      I believe you could make the argument that making a live stream 508 compliant is an undue burden. In turn, you could provide a transcript to the live stream for the archive of the event, same as you would with a YouTube clip.

  • Blair Liikala

    Thanks for the shout out…. Watch for an article in Mix 🙂 -Blair, UNT.