Another upgrade from YouTube; this time the ubiquitous video giant is announcing that it plans to automatically bring text captioning to many of its videos, making them accessible to people with hearing impairments.
YouTube says it will roll out the technology slowly, concentrating first on a handful of channels that contain primarily educational content, reports the New York Times. The paper also said YouTube will only be able to insert captions on English language videos initially. Users will be able to use YouTube parent Google’s automatic translation system for some 51 languages.
“This is something that I have dreamt of for many years,” Ken Harrenstein, a deaf engineer who helped develop the captioning system, told the Times. “To see it happen, is amazing.”
YouTube last week launched a high-definition option on its site, offering 1080p play for the first time.
For more:
- see this New York Times article
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