Intentionally Accessible: The Movie Experience Levels Up
As a story lover, I have a passion for cinema. Like so many in today’s culture, I bond with others over a film. But what if the movie experience is not the same across the board? We can talk about accessibility and inclusion all day every day, but it is the inventors, movers, and shakers that change the world and revamp daily experiences.
Closed Captioning, that white text representing sound effects and dialogue, has been around since 1971. Apparently the 1982 Academy Awards® was the first ever live broadcast to use closed captioning (CC). As someone who hears, I honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to closed captioning until a dear friend’s complex medical issues started to affect her ability for us to enjoy Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire on movie days. Since then I’ve noticed that there are discrepancies, inaccuracies, and terrible timing or chopped sentences. Sometimes text lags behind the fast paced action or emotional nuances of the actor. Still, it’s something people can turn on with the push of a button.
Today, fifty-four years after closed captioning was developed, I’m excited to share that there is an update that totally levels up the viewer’s experience. “Caption with Intention© (CI)” is a new software that offers a better design. Remember watching the text kind of blend together? I think that kind of reads flat, like a monotone. Or have you ever gotten confused about who is speaking what side of the conversation?
Caption with Intention© addresses all of that! The system uses color to differentiate between the characters speaking. It also uses animation and a variety of typography to let those who aren’t hearing the audio still sense the tone, pacing, and emotion. One sample I watched made the word grow several sizes larger to show that the character was shouting or shrink if they were talking very soft.
The new system is also more synchronized. Text transforms from white to the character’s specific color so that viewers can see the real timing as it is spoken. The designers pointed out “Imagine an entire family laughing at a joke before a deaf individual even has a chance to understand the moment.” Now a viewer can match the emotion, expressions, and actions with the dialogue perfectly paced.
FCB Chicago, an advertising agency, along with the Chicago Hearing Society and film company Rakish Entertainment, created Caption with Intention©. It is still in the early days so there is not a wide list of specific films using the system yet. It is also not automated yet. However, the technology is open-source. That’s right studios and streaming services can apply it to their content freely. The film community just needs to manually apply the design system to their content. As this option becomes more and more recognized, more movies will have this accessibility make-over.
Caption With Intention© plans to grow over time, specifically considering automation and research over how it is used. Together with the film industry they will make stories leap off the screen for many more viewers. Movies will be made even more inclusive than ever before.
Want to learn more about Caption with Intention© (CI)? Visit https://www.captionwithintention.org to watch videos sampling how the software works.
