Editing and captioning videos, however, can be a time-consuming task. What if there was tool that was easy to use and provided your students with accessible video content? Wouldn’t that be great? I recently found such a tool.
What is it?
Type Studio is a web-based video editing tool. What makes this tool different, is that you can edit a video using only text. It offers a free version as well as paid plans.
The tool can be found at the following url: https://typestudio.co/
Here is how it works:
- You create a free account using an e-mail account and password.
- You upload your video from your device.
- Type Studio grabs the audio from the video.
- You then will be taken to the editing interface.
- On the interface you will see the audio transcribed as a text document. Simply correct any errors you see in the text. Delete any items you do not want(just like you would a regular word document or google docs.) That content is then deleted from the video.
- After you make your corrections click on the captions button to enable captions.
The video output
Once you export your video, you are taken to a page that has your video and the transcription. This page is a shareable url link that you can place in any LMS(Learning Management System) or share with students via e-mails. Students do not need an account to view the video.
The video output page is unique because it contains the video and the transcript. When a student clicks on the video, the words in the transcript are highlighted as the words are spoken in the video. That is a powerful feature for students. Type Studio currently supports 13 languages.
Check out this example of an output page!
Accessibility of the product
This product is easy to use but in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities, it is a mixed bag. So, the good news first… The output (the page the students receive) is accessible. It does not have flashy animations; outside ads and the page and player are screen reader and keyboard accessible. The only snag is that student is not able to skip straight to the video with a keyboard. The student would have to do about six tabs before they are able to get to video. This issue can easily be corrected if the vendor adds a skip to content option.
In terms of the teacher (creator) interface, the product does need some work. The teacher interface is neither keyboard and/or screen reader accessible. You are unable to edit the text for the videos using only your keyboard, a mouse is required. Also, when using a screen reader, you are unable to go to the text to edit the content. This means that any one who relies on keyboard navigation (those with dexterity/motor/physical disabilities or blindness) will not be able to use this tool to edit videos. Those who are blind would also not be able to edit the text because their screen reader would not read the text in the editing box.
Classroom Implications
This is an easy tool to use. If you share this tool with your students and task them with creating their own videos, make sure you know the needs of your students. If you have any students who have any dexterity/physical/motor and/or vision impairments, do not ask them to use this tool to make videos. Select a different video tool for that task.
Since the video output is accessible to students, you can share videos with your students via the url link and students would be able to get the content. This is a tool that can be used in any subject for multiple grade levels.
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