Time to start demanding captions on videos

"Web video can't do captions." Someone said that to me just last week, no doubt echoing an impression that is widely shared among users of web video. Problem is, as we see below, it just isn't true:

The reality is that many, if not most, products for streaming video on the Internet in its most popular form (Flash video, or FLV), have the ability to show captions.

Joe Clark, a passionate (some would say cranky) Toronto-based expert on accessibility, has links and great thoughts about online captioning at his beautifully designed website. Among Joe's key gripes: those that already pay to caption their shows on TV (because the FCC requires them to) don't bother to carry those captions over to online; and those that do often present those captions in a VERY UNAPPEALING WAY LIKE USING ALL CAPS (as NBC did above with "Martha").

If you benefit from captions as I do — how the heck else am I supposed to understand what John and Abigail are whispering to each other on "John Adams"? — then it's time to take note whenever a favorite show of yours is available online, but its captions aren't. Tell the network they know better.