Why office webcasts are NOT captioned??

[Jim Powell]

I looked forward to finding great tools and tips for Office 2003 and Office
2007 systems. I had great anticipation for watching the webcasts that covers
specific topics only to find to my great dismay that they were NOT captioned.

I really think Microsoft should have considered 2 factors --
1) There are over 50 million people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
Audio is utterly useless to a Deaf person. Some hard of hearing people may
have a hard time understanding audio, even amped up to max.
2) Playing audio may be a violation of workplace rules especially if
earphones are not readily available for the end-users. This is where
captioning would become a great tool to get the messae across.

I'm like "Come on now, Microsoft. You guys know full well better than that
-- What were you thinking?!"

Get with it, Microsoft and make your products MUCH MORE useful!

Do us a favor -- CAPTION THEM!

 

[Daddy]

You did not mention what media player you are using. For several media
players that I am familiar with, whether or not to show captions is a user
configuration setting.

Neither did you mention what webcasts you mean--you only called them "the
webcasts." Typically, the authors or presenters of a webcast will say
whether or not the webcast is captioned. I have watched how-to videos on the
Office website with the sound turned off, because the word-for-word text is
on the same web page.

Finally, it's best to contact the webcast author directly. This is a
newsgroup of your fellow Office users. No one works for Microsoft here.

Daddy

 

[Jim Powell]

Daddy

See my responses after your questions.

jp

You did not mention what media player you are using. For several media
players that I am familiar with, whether or not to show captions is a user
configuration setting.

Windows Media Player version 10.x AND ..I DID make sure I changed the
option to turn on captions ("ON, if available").

Neither did you mention what webcasts you mean--you only called them "the
webcasts." Typically, the authors or presenters of a webcast will say
whether or not the webcast is captioned. I have watched how-to videos on the
Office website with the sound turned off, because the word-for-word text is
on the same web page.

I gave you clues. Here's a page with many links to webcasts, Podcasts,
miniwebcasts.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/webcasts/FX102557791033.aspx?OI_CL=215

It' is VERY CLEAR that the author of these webcasts is Microsoft.

Finally, it's best to contact the webcast author directly. This is a
newsgroup of your fellow Office users. No one works for Microsoft here.

NOWHERE on their (Microsoft) website offers direct links to give feedback to
Microsfot -- it is not that obvious. I have to waste my time HUNTING for it.
I posted here in the hopes to generate more and more people to respond to
Microsoft and urge them to get their stuff captioned. I do know that
developers look here too and some of them have great connections with
Microsoft.

thank you very much.

 

[Daddy]

Hello again.

On this web page for Office Online Site Help:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/FX101195001033.aspx

there is a link for 'Send us your feedback'.

On the same URL, there is a link for 'Training site help' which leads to
this web page:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CH010220231033.aspx

Click on the link for 'Get the most out of an Office Online training
course.' You can read it for yourself, but I'll quote a snippet of it here:
"In all versions, spoken text is displayed on the screen for you to read at
your own pace."

Another way to contact Microsoft directly is through the link at the bottom
of this and many other pages on the Microsoft website that says 'Was this
information helpful?' Just click 'No' and enter your comments.

You almost certainly won't get a personal reply from Microsoft, but at least
you'll be talking to the right people.

Daddy

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I've passed your original post along to someone I know at MS who might be able to
help. I suspect the first question I'll get in response will be along the same
lines as Daddy's comment:

I have watched how-to videos on the

My experience has been the same, at least for the few tutorial videos I've
watched. Have you found this NOT to be the case? If so, can you supply a few
URLs as examples to send back up the pipe to MS?

 

[Jim Powell]

Steve

here's one:
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT102584591033&CTT=5&Origin=HA102584511033

I haven't looked at any others yet ...why should I bother because if one
isn't captioned for Deaf people like me, why should I bother to look for
others? Yes, I should look, in reality, but n my experience, Microsoft tend
to be consistence ....so if they caption one, there would be more captioned
videos.

Thank you Steve for passing it along to MS.

jp

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve

here's one:
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx? AssetID=XT102584591033&CTT=5&Origin=HA102584511033

Thanks but that's not the url of the web page this is hosted on, it's a link directly to the
movie file.

Am I misreading you, or are you avoiding our questions about the web page text providing the
same content as the audio of the movie? Granted, since the movie isnt' captioned, that may not
be possible for you to answer, but if you'd provide the URL to the page itself, I'd be happy to
verify.

 

[Jim Powell]

I'm not avoiding anybody's questions. The way the newsgroups are displayed
doesn't leave a lot of thread text on screen. the top 1/4 and left half are
all taken up by other stuff. So, it's easy to overlook something when you
have such a small area to read the actual text.

Start here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/webcasts/FX102557791033.aspx?OI_CL=215
(This link came from an email I got from Microsoft Inside Office e-newsletter
I got yesterday or the other day when I subscribed to it).

then click on "Office system" under "Video Tips" heading. And finally click
on the 750k link in:

"Tips and Tricks for the 2007 Microsoft Office System
Take a visual tour with author Evan Archilla and get basic-level tips and
tricks on the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
256k | 750k"

Now, I'm re-reading all the replies on this thread to make sure I got all
the questions.

Looks like we both were mis-interpreting each other statements.

jp

 

[Daddy]

I cannot guarantee that every Microsoft media presentation is captioned.
Most likely, many are not.

However, if your goal is to learn tips and tricks for the Office 2007
system -- and believe me, I need all the tips I can get -- you will find
plenty of similar video presentations on the Office website where the full
text of the audio is displayed below the player.

Of course, I don't work for Microsoft, but if you write to them, perhaps
through the links I suggested, and ask that all future media presentations
be captioned, I have a feeling that you will find a responsive audience.
Even aggressive quasi-monopolies have a heart, somewhere.

Daddy

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Jim, thanks for hanging in there with this. Further comments "inline" below:

I'm not avoiding anybody's questions. The way the newsgroups are displayed
doesn't leave a lot of thread text on screen. the top 1/4 and left half are
all taken up by other stuff. So, it's easy to overlook something when you
have such a small area to read the actual text.

The web interface to this newsgroup is awful. This describes how you can use a newsreader to get
the info here. It's much more configurable and runs rings around the sluggish thing you're looking
at now. It's PPT specific but the same advice applies to all of the MS newsgroups:

The PowerPoint Newsgroup
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00275.htm

And your description nails it; thanks. Indeed, there's no web page to accompany the video, so if
the video's not captioned, you're up a creek. I've just passed this along with your description of
how to find the place.

Trust that there are people at MS who do care about this kind of thing.

And by the way, Daddy's advice is good too ... there really are a lot of pages that combine video
with written text.

Thanks again.