Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

DavidGaffaney — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:12:13 -0000

Choosing a venue for a blind date can be tricky. By definition, blind dates involve meeting someone you have limited or no blind date uncensored information about, so the best option is probably to keep it neutral and pick a universally popular dating location. A coffee date, drinks at a pub or a quiet dinner at a restaurant are safe options for blind dating.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

web conferecing — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:25:26 -0000

Well, in my opinion, it makes your site more accessible on other people not just on ordinary people and will also help the search-engine ranking especially with upcoming video search engines.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Les Stockton — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:04:58 -0000

This is just typical politically correct bs. What about the blind? Will the same sites have to be shut down because blind people can't see the videos? There's no way to make the videos accessible to blind people.
Sure, measures can be taken for navigation for the blind, but nothing can be done about the content of a site, if that content is visually oriented.
Likewise for the deaf, sometimes things that go on with audio are for affect, and not just something you can put in a transcript. It seems ridiculous to try to legislate this.
And after all, isn't this free speech? For expression?

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Mark Jaquith — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:08:17 -0000

/me sums up:

Accessibility good. Government mandates bad.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

evonne heyning — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:25:20 -0000

DotSub.com would fill the technology gap needed while also providing access in hundreds of languages. There are ways to make video more available to everyone, although I'm not sure if California will be the one to force it on us.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

USTIN — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:40:16 -0000

I totally agree with Jeremy Steele,it all depends on how we look at it.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

marshamlow — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:34:02 -0000

A friend of mine has trouble typing and has voice activated software for her computer. It recognizes what she says and types it up for her. Another option is for video makers to type up the transcript themselves. I think it is unfair to say the only way to make transcripts for videos is to hire someone. Making things accessible to more people is a good idea, I think that enforcement laws would give people the push they need to do the right thing.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Tony B — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:28:47 -0000

Before the internet became video-enabled, us Deaf people were empowered to be on a level playing field with the rest of the world. Since the proliferation of vlogs & videos, the communication barriers have slowly grown every day - leaving us marginalised once again as it is in the physical world. I would welcome some legalisation to prevent closed captioning becoming an afterthought. Not only it will make accessible for deaf people, there are people with ESOL who would like to read captions in case they might not understand the person's accent.

I would advocate businesses and governmental services to caption their videos. Can't see it being enforceable on the home vlogging front so YouTube will be safe. All we can ask of you vloggers is to caption your vlogs or provide a transcript as a gesture of goodwill and in the spirit of freedom across the internet so the internet is not disabling us Deaf people.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Joe Clark — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:01:03 -0000

First, quit talking about “transcripts.” Captioning is how you make video accessible. And yeah, if you’re running a video “industry,” you need to grow up and make your videos accessible. Watched TV lately?

Now, home videos are quite another matter.

And at some point you’ll notice that the Target lawsuit involves accessibility for blind people, not deaf.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Christopher Coulter — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:35:40 -0000

But 'totally missing the point' is Robert's calling-card. Create a storm, get suckers to comment city and send in traffic, send in the correction later.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Joshua Allen [msft] — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:45:19 -0000

This is totally missing the point of the Target case. Target runs a business that sells things to people. They have brick-and-mortar stores that are required by ADA to be accessible. There is no reason that an e-commerce site should be inaccessible to people with disabilities, and there are plenty of e-commerce sites which are accessible. Excluding disabled people in this scenario sure looks a lot like discrimination.

Glibly saying, "will visual art museums be sued by the blind under ADA?" is not clever or original at all.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Rohitj — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:57:52 -0000

It depends on how you look at this issue. On one hand, you could argue that its expensive and unreasonable to demand. On the other hand, you're opening up your content to additional people. If that additional segment is large enough, it may actually generate profit.

At the very least, making your site accessible, will help the search-engine ranking especially with upcoming video search engines.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Jeremy Steele — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:47:47 -0000

It should be up to the business/individual is they want to provide this stuff, the govt. shouldn't force us to fork up thousands of dollars to do this. If they really want to help take a million bucks out of their budget and invest in technology that will automatically make transcripts.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:39:22 -0000

ProejectReadon could be the answer http://www.projectreadon.com/

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Emily — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:38:02 -0000

Okay, maybe don't legislate it, but is it really that bad an idea to provide accessible content? You are alienating entire groups of people not because they don't WANT to learn about what you're saying, but because they CAN'T and you are choosing not to give them that ability.

That's kind of sad, really.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Preston — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:04:47 -0000

I think you might have two possible legality issues:

(1) DORMANT COMMERCE CLAUSE - the internet is national thing, if not global. When I post something in Utah, people in California can read it. Am I purposely availing myself of California laws? Well, the thing is, if California makes that law, depending on its breadth, it will affect people that publish videos in other states negatively. California can't regulate citizens in Utah, Nevada, New York, or any other state. They don't have that power. So, I think, there could be a dormant commerce clause issue. And this leads to my second point.

(2) People that can't afford the transcripts, or amateur publishers, may just turn off their content to California readers. It's just like the Ad-blocker firefox add-on, with the guy blocking the add-on users. Just set it up to block IP addresses from California. By doing this, you don't come within the the constraints of California law and don't have to abide.

This could change things, though.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Sean Percival — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:56:33 -0000

Not sure how they could even begin to enforce such a thing. Also my servers are in texas so would I be exempt?

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Jim McCusker — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:43:25 -0000

Robert,

Check out Redlasso's new player. All of our broadcast media clips include closed-captioning. Just click on the CC icon in the upper right corner of the player. You can check out a sample clip here:

http://www.myspace.com/nick...

Many more features to talk about, but it's good to see this issue create another opportunity for Redlasso!

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Kamal Jain — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:24:25 -0000

I think personal freedom takes priority over accessibility. A personal blog is a free expression by a blogger. Nobody expects me to make my house accessible. Why would anybody expect me to make my free expression accessible. Sure when I speak I do not make a voice to text translation available. Then why would anybody expect me to make this transaltion available when I speak on the internet?

Having said that, it may be possible to ask the bloggers who blog on behalf of an institution to make their blog accessible.

The role of companies hosting personal expressions, such as Youtube, is not clear to me.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

John Handelaar — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:10:12 -0000

More urgently, I'd be concerned if my video platform didn't even *permit* me to add captions.

If you're running such a platform and you don't, and I'm in some way looking for a legal target, you'd probably be first on my list.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Sebastian — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:51:30 -0000

Although I doubt that this applies to you, Robert, I still hope that PodTech will one day publish text transcripts of your videos, with video-snippets in this text where appropriate.
Yes, I appreciate _seeing_ the people you talk to. But no, I can't watch every video that's interesting. It's simply not possible. I watch the GigaOm show, because it's only weekly, very well edited and has had high-profile guests on every episode so far, but I could read through the interviews and topics in half the time, watching video snippets that are embedded in the text, where necessary.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Ron — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:26:41 -0000

I don't think this applies to you scoble.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

Nickie — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:23:39 -0000

As I said in my Twitter replies to you, if I, as a blind person can successfully play your videos and understand the content of them, then you've made your content accessible to me.. For those who are deaf, a transcript is needed. There's also something called reasonable accommodation, in which the accommodation must be reasonable. So if the price is too high for a transcript, and it's not reasonable, you find a more reasonable solution.

A friend of mine does videoblogs in sign language, and accommodates me, and those who can't understand sign language by providing a summary of her main points. That's what's reasonable for her to do.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

thatedeguy — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:01:34 -0000

Without a doubt, something like Mechanical Turk could do the trick. However, I think this accessibility thing is getting a little out of hand. I can't read spanish. Should all spanish language websites be forced to translate their sites to English? Or should I be forced to translate to Spanish?
I realize that a person cannot "learn" to see or hear, but the concept is the same. If there is no chance of you doing something, you don't try and do it.
If I choose to convey my art through the visible word, that's my choice. I'll miss out on some readers(listeners) because my site isn't accessible to the blind. When will newspapers be forced to include a audio recording and a braille version with each paper sold?

That all being said, I think it's hard to argue that the web isn't a frontier place that is the future of a lot of communications and many sites will feel the need to add accessibility options, but that's the natural progression and shouldn't be forced.

Re: Will videoblogs be outlawed because of California’s accessibility laws?

headlemur — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:50:31 -0000

http://www.ravinglunacy.org...