Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In July 2014, the Federal Communications Commission expanded broadcaster requirements for captioning online videos. The new guidelines, which go into effect in January 2016, require broadcasters to caption online clips from shows originally aired with captions. We conducted a content analysis and examined a stratified sample of one fifth of U.S. Designated Market Areas to see how prepared local TV news sites are for the rule changes and how accessible the sites are for users with disabilities. Barely 60% of sites captioned any of the sampled video clips and almost all sites had major accessibility issues.

Keywords

content analysis digital divide online news accessibility FCC regulation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

AChecker. (2013). Web Accessibility Checker. Retrieved July 26, 2014, from http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php

AChecker Handbook. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2014 from http://achecker.ca/documentation/index.php?p=checker/index.php

Boatner

E. B.

(1981). Captioned films for the deaf. American Annals of the Deaf, 156, 520–525.

Brickman

(1995). TV networks ready Web news content. Interactive Age, 2, 5.

Communication Video and Accessibility Act of 2010, S. 3304, 11th Cong. (2010). Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-11s3304enr/pdf/BILLS-111s3304enr.pdf

Cronin

B. J.

(1980). Closed-caption television: Today and tomorrow. American Annals of the Deaf, 125, 726–728.

Department of Justice. (2010, 9 15). Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Regulations. Retrieved June 31, 2014, from http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_regulations.pdf

Downey

(2007). Constructing closed-captioning in the public interest: From minority media accessibility to mainstream educational technology. Info, 9, 69–82.

FCC. (2014, 5). Consumer guide: Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/CVAA-access-act.pdf

10.

FCC 14-97. (2014, 7). Second order reconsideration and second further notice of proposed rulemaking. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-14-97A1.pdf

11.

Ford

E. W.

Huerta

T. R.

Schilhavy

R. A.

Menachemi

(2012). Effective US health system websites: Establishing benchmarks and standards for effective consumer engagement. Journal of Healthcare Management, 57, 47–64.

12.

Geiger

Evans

R. R.

Cellitti

M. A.

Smith

K. H.

O’Neal

M. R.

Firsing

S. L.

III Chandan

(2011). The healthy Web—Access to online health information for individuals with disabilities. International Electronic Journal of Health Education, 14, 93–100.

13.

Gilbertson

T. D.

Machin

C. H. C.

(2012). Guidelines, icons and marketable skills: An accessibility evaluation of 100 web development company homepages. In Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A ‘12) (p. 4). New York, NY: ACM. Article 17. doi:10.1145/2207016.2207024 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2207016.2207024

14.

Goldfarb

(2005). Access now, Inc. v. Southwest Airlines, Co.—Using the “Nexus” approach to determine whether a website should be governed by the Americans with Disabilities Act. St. John’s Law Review, 79, 1313–1336.

15.

Grubs

J. K.

Brice

B. R.

Jennings

S. E.

(2012). Americans with disabilities act and e-commerce: Target corporation and beyond. Southern Law Journal, 12, 89–115.

16.

Jaeger

(2004). Beyond section 508: The spectrum of legal requirements for accessible e-government web sites in the United States. Journal of Government Information, 1, 518–533.

17.

Jaeger

(2006). Assessing section 508 compliance on federal e-government web sites: A multi-method, user-centered evaluation of accessibility for persons with disabilities. Government Information Quarterly, 1, 169–190.

18.

Jensema

McCann

Ramsey

(1996). Closed-captioned television presentation speed and vocabulary. American Annals of the Deaf, 141, 284–292.

19.

Liang

Xue

Chase

S. K.

(2011). Online health information seeking by people with physical disabilities due to neurological conditions. International journal of medical informatics, 80, 745–753.

20.

S. H.

Yen

D. C.

W. H.

Lin

T. L.

(2012). Migrating from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0– A comparative study based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in Taiwan. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 87–96. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.08.014

21.

Mancini

Zedda

Barbaro

(2005). Health information in Italian public health websites: Moving from inaccessibility to accessibility. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 22, 276–285.

22.

Nielsen. (2014). Local Television Market Universe Estimates Comparisons of 2012-13 and 2013-14 Market Ranks. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/docs/solutions/measurement/television/2013-2014-DMA-Ranks.pdf

23.

Media Insight Project. (2014, 3). The Personal News Cycle. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The_Media_Insight_Project_The_Personal_News_Cycle_Final.pdf

24.

Neuendorf

K. A.

(2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.

25.

Olalere

Lazar

(2011). Accessibility of U.S. federal government home pages: Section 508 compliance and site accessibility statements. Government Information Quarterly, 1, 303–309.

26.

Pai

(2014). Concurring statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai. Re: Closed captioning of Internet protocol-delivered video programming: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010; Closed Captioning of Internet Protocol-Delivered Video Clips, MB Docket 11-154. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://www.fcc.gov/article/doc-328173a5

27.

Pew Research Center. (2014, 3). State of the News Media 2014: News Video on the web: A Growing, if Uncertain, Part of News. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from http://www.journalism.org/files/2014/03/News-Video-on-the-Web.pdf

28.

Pew: Half of Americans get news digitally, topping newspapers, radio . (2012, 9 27). Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/189819/pew-tv-viewing-habit-grays-as-digital-news-consumption-tops-print-radio/

29.

Rubaii-Barrett

Wise

L. R.

(2008). Disability access and e-government: An empirical analysis of state practices. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 19, 52–64.

30.

Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., et al. (2013, 5 16). Report on the state of closed captioning of Internet protocol-delivered video programming. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://instituteforpublicrepresentation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Consumer-Groups-IP-Captioning-Report-Final.pdf

31.

Twenty first century communications and video accessibility act . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/twenty-first-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act

32.

U.S. Access Board (2011). 2011 ANPRM Draft. Retrieved August 8, 2012, from http://access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/draft-rule.htm

33.

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). American Community Survey, 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2012, from http://factfinder2.census.gov

34.

W3C. (1997). World Wide Web Consortium Launches International Program Office for Web Accessibility Initiative. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://www.w3.org/Press/IPO-announce.html

35.

W3C. (2008). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Retrieved June 13, 2012, from http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

36.

W3C. (2012). W3C mission. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from http://www.w3.org/Consortium/mission.html

37.

W3C. (2014a). Info and relationships: Understanding SC 1.3.1. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/content-structure-separation-programmatic.html

38.

W3C. (2014b). Understanding conformance. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/conformance.html

39.

Wildman

(2013, 8 13). An open letter to Netflix RE: Subtitles. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://nerdophiles.com/2013/08/13/an-open-letter-to-netflix-re-subtitles/

40.

Wooten

(2012). Waiting and watching in silence: Closed-captioned requirements for online streaming under National Association for the deaf versus Netflix, Inc. and the CVAA. North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology, 14, 135–166.

41.

Youngblood

N. E.

(2014). Revisiting Alabama state website accessibility. Government Information Quarterly, 31, 476–487.

42.

Youngblood

N. E.

Mackiewicz

(2012). A usability analysis of municipal government website home pages in Alabama. Government Information Quarterly, 29, 582–588.

43.

Youngblood

N. E.

Youngblood

S. A.

(2013). User experience and accessibility: An analysis of county web portals. Journal of Usability Studies, 9, 25–41.

44.

D. X.

Parmanto

(2011). US state government websites demonstrate better in terms of accessibility compared to federal government and commercial websites. Government Information Quarterly, 28, 484–490.

45.

Zickuhr

Smith

(2012). Digital differences. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.pewinternet.org/∼/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Digital_differences_041312.pdf

Accessibility and Use of Online Video Captions by Local Television News Websites

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References