In its media release, the ACMA states that the ABC did not provide the service required “as the live captions that were broadcast were not adequately synchronised with pictures on the screen. There were also problems with inaccurate and missing captions.” Another issue identified in the investigation reports was that colouring of the captions, which is used to indicate different speakers, was inconsistent.
Media Access Australia applauds the fact that the ACMA has recognised that the captioning on these programs were of a quality which would have made it difficult for caption users to follow them. We note, however, that there appears to be inconsistency in the ACMA’s treatment of the issue of captions not being synchronised with the action on screen.
A time lag is inherent in live captioning, which is created by a ‘stenocaptioners’ using a stenographic keyboard, or with the use of speech recognition software, as a program goes to air. In its investigation report on Gruen Planet, the ACMA notes that the delay in the display of captions varied between 2 and 7 seconds, but this would be the average on most live captioning on Australian television, while sometimes it can be even worse. (The other problems that the ACMA highlights – the inaccuracies, missing captions and inconsistent colouring, are also common features of live captioning.)
All of this reinforces Media Access Australia’s view that live captions are inherently second best for viewers, and should be kept to an absolute minimum. The issues dealt with in these investigations would be avoided entirely if the production schedules of programs like Gruen Planet and At the Movies were modified slightly (moving delivery forward by no more than a few hours would suffice) to allow for the preparation of properly timed and edited ‘block’ captions.
An alternative is to pre-prepare captions from scripts and video as they become available in the lead-up to broadcast, then have a captioner transmit these as block captions while the program goes to air. This is how news bulletins used to be routinely captioned in Australia, but in recent years all of the networks, with the exception of Seven, have abandoned this method. Media Access Australia and consumer advocacy organisations have argued strongly for a return to it.
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