Support letters
The Open & Closed Project has received a surprising degree of formal and informal support, including signed letters of support from the following. (Minor copy-edits carried out. Originals, in tagged PDF format, available on request.)
Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. (TDI)
It has been brought to my attention that the Open & Closed Project is seeking support for funding to provide captioning and video description for various accessible media content.
Joe Clark, founder of the Open & Closed Project, has a long record of success in the captioning market. His influence with the television networks, home video companies, program producers and advertisers is evident in the extent to which this vital telecommunications service is currently available to the millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers in the United States and Canada.
TDI commends the goals of the Open & Closed Project toward the higher standards of living as enjoyed today by this special population, and endorses its captioning and video-description activities.
Sincerely,
Claude L. Stout
Executive Director
CaptionMax
I am the founder and president of CaptionMax, a 10-year-old captioning and audio-description provider with offices in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and New York. We currently caption approximately 12,000 hours of broadcast television annually. Last year we started our audio-description department, and we are describing about 350 hours of programming per year.
The purpose of this letter is to show my enthusiastic support for Joe Clark’s Open & Closed Project. I have read the summary, and have had conversations with Mr. Clark surrounding this very timely idea.
We have especially high hopes for the
.xexportion of the Open & Closed Project, as the issue of conflicting file formats in the accessibility industry has proven to be a great disservice to the deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, and low-vision people who rely on our and other providers’ services.I’ve known Mr. Clark since 2001, and can attest to his expertise in many aspects of accessibility. Even before I knew Mr. Clark personally, we relied on his published opinions on standards and guidelines to help create our own company’s style guide.
My experience with Mr. Clark has shown me his undying dedication and passion for the subject of accessible media. I therefore urge you to support his Open & Closed Project.
Sincerely,
Max Duckler
President
CBC Broadband & Digital Services
I am writing to offer support for the Open & Closed Project.
As Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC takes accessibility seriously. In television broadcasting, the Corporation has decades of experience with captioning and increasing experience with audio description. Our CBC Online Style Guide includes improvements in Web accessibility. Moreover, CBC News Online has worked with Joe Clark on an online captioning project....
CBC prides itself on being at the forefront of standards development. I am aware of Joe’s plans for the Open & Closed Project – a research and standardization project in accessibility. Although no agreement has been signed at the time of writing this letter, some possible collaboration between CBC and the Project is anticipated. For example, CBC is funding a report on accessibility for video-on-demand, and this report will be made available to the Open & Closed Project.
Sincerely,
Mark Hyland
Director, Broadband & Digital Services
CBC Television
Galaviz & Hauber Productions Inc.
Galaviz & Hauber Productions is a Toronto-based company that creates video description for the visually-impaired. Since 2001, we have been providing several hours a week of described product to networks such as Global TV, CTV, CHUM, and Vision TV.
We have known Joe Clark for almost two years. Throughout this time, he has constantly impressed us with his knowledge of issues concerning accessibility for visually- and hearing-impaired audiences. His knowledge of closed captioning is almost encyclopædic, and he is extremely well versed on video description.
We are therefore lending as much support as possible to his idea for [the] Open & Closed Project, which we hope will establish the current state of accessibility in the media in this country and set goals for future improvements.
Sincerely,
John A. Hauber
Softel
I think that [the Open & Closed Project] is a very worthwhile project that will benefit the captioning and subtitling communities as a whole.
The EBU 3264 subtitle file-exchange format definition was an early example of a similar initiative that made a big difference in interoperability. Unfortunately, the technology behind EBU 3264 is showing its age and needs to be redone.
I think that there are a number of areas that you might consider in your initial research.
- Audio-description scripts are similar to caption files.
- Metadata could be captured within the format.
- Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) looks as though it may be an up-and-coming technology that is worth following. Media Exchange Format (MXF) can be encompassed by AAF to wrap many types of video and audio....
- XML technology has shown itself to be versatile and expandable on some of the projects we have undertaken.
- MPEG-7 may be overkill for captioning and is a little new at the moment, but it is a technology that needs to be monitored for future developments and uptake.
- Video-editing product manufacturers such as Avid (with MetaSync) have initiatives to incorporate captioning and similar streams within the envelope of their file formats.
- Deriving instructions for transmission to avatars displaying signing [not actually within the remit of the Open & Closed Project].
- Extracting information from
.xex[™]files when searching for subjects.- Use of
.xexfiles for storage of automatically-received captions for archive purposes.- Other research done in adjoining areas, e.g., University of Surrey Television in Words (TIWO) project.
I would like to encourage and support your work.
Regards,
Russ Wood
Research Director
Australian Caption Centre
The Australian Caption Centre is a not-for-profit company that promotes and produces captions and subtitles, making media such as television, video, DVD, and cinema accessible to people for whom it would otherwise not be due to health or social reasons. We have been in operation since 1982, serving a client base that includes Australian broadcasters, advertisers, and video producers and distributors. We have strong liaisons with the Deaf community and major national hearing-impairment organizations, providing valuable feedback to help shape presentation standards to satisfy the often disparate demands of the audience.
I have been aware of Joe Clark’s activities in the field of media access for many years, primarily through the Access mailing list which he runs. Having read his comments therein and various other documents which he has written, I can certainly say that Joe’s reputation as an expert in media access for Deaf and hearing-impaired people is not misplaced.
I understand that Joe is currently researching a project with the aim of internationally standardizing the file format for the exchange of captions, subtitles, and other media-accessibility information. Such work has the potential to greatly decrease the cost of making media accessible on a global scale by facilitating a ready exchange of accessibility assets – just as the picture and sound are currently exchanged – between markets. Consequently, our organization endorses such a pursuit. [...]
Yours sincerely,
Robert Scott
Chief Executive
Nancy Harvey Productions Inc.
As president of Nancy Harvey Productions, I have over ten years of experience in production of translated versions of feature films. Our biggest client is Imax Ltd. My company has produced over 500 hours of dubbed film and television productions. I have also managed audio description for a number of Imax films.
I’ve known Joe Clark for nearly two years, and we’ve worked together on audio-description scripts. My company is an early collaborator in his Open & Closed Project in the form of an ongoing research project in audio description.
I’m writing to support Joe and his Project. In my work in the general field of film accessibility, I am very aware of the need for standards and research. If anybody can put together the evidence required to produce a solid set of standards for the fields I work in, Joe can.
Yours truly,
Nancy Harvey
President