Equal access to information—a matter of compliance

Government Need:  Organizations that receive federal funding need to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (*see below a short description of the act) by making information systems, user interfaces and content accessible to individuals with disabilities.

MediaCAST Solution:  A range of options that support your need to caption old, analog media and new,digital media and internally-generated media. 

Capture and display of closed captions is supported through a range of options.  Closed-caption information that exists on VHS tapes (on line 21) and on DVD subtitles is stored along with videos in MediaCAST.  Our MediaBroadcasters and OnLocation Carts can capture the closed-caption information within the video stream while encoding to streaming format.  When the video is viewed through MediaCAST the user can turn captions on or off based on their viewing preference. 

MediaCAST also allows you to create from scratch as well as upload SAMI and SMIL files (industry-standards for storing captioning information separate from a video) and have the captioning synchronized with the video.

Additionally, we offer a service where we can add captioning to video that doesn’t already have it.  If you do a video conference or create a staff development video we can create a full transcript and captioning which is fully searchable within MediaCAST. 

Results: Inventive Technology is committed to increasing access to information in organizations for people with disabilities and others in the society that will be deeply affected by digital delivery systems as they continue to be developed. 

Please contact us to discuss how we can support your content development efforts with captioning services—800 474-5128.

 
*"On Aug. 7, 1998, the President signed into law the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 which includes the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.  Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments requires that when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, they shall ensure that electronic and information technology allows federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of information used by federal employees who are individuals without disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency.  Section 508 also requires that individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to the non-disabled public.  This rule applies only to electronic and information technology that is procured by federal agency on or after August 7, 2000." (Source: University of Wisconsin)