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Transcribing actually takes significantly longer than the length of the actual lecture. I randomly picked a psychology course (from http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

Transcribing actually takes significantly longer than the length of the actual lecture. I randomly picked a psychology course (from http://webcast.berkeley.edu/ http://webcast.berkeley.edu/ ) and tried to transcribe a minute of it. It was wholly undoable at normal speed, so I changed it to 1/2 speed and it was tough at best. Keep in mind that I type at 100 wpm, which is well above normal. Furthermore, transcribing _just_ the audio is not sufficient to meet the ADA requirements. You also have to create an accessible way to describe all graphs and pictures for the visually impaired (generally, that means you have to describe each and every photo using words).

markdown 10y ago
$20 will pay for a days work somewhere in the world. Surely a 15min video can be transcribed in 6hrs, charts included.
- kevindong 10y ago
  Sure, but what would be the accuracy of the transcription? In addition, I can't imagine someone able to transcribe high-level English would be very cheap (then again, I could be entirely wrong; I can't say for certain). Furthermore, I can't imagine any public university administrators wants to get questioned by legislators about why they're outsourcing work nowadays. Nor do I think the administrators want to admit that they're paying (by first world standards) sweatshop wages.
  - markdown 10y ago
    Have you heard of the medical transcription industry? If you find yourself in a US or UK hospital, it's very likely that your medical reports and prescriptions dictated by your doctor are sent off to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, or elsewhere to be converted into text. So yeah, English isn't a problem, and there is already a huge pool of talent in the 3rd world trained in turning audio into text. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription
kodt 10y ago
>You also have to create an accessible way to describe all graphs and pictures If a picture is worth a thousand words, and the video is 30fps. Then a one hour video would require well over 100 million words. I agree, too much to do in real time.

markdown 10y ago

$20 will pay for a days work somewhere in the world. Surely a 15min video can be transcribed in 6hrs, charts included.

kevindong 10y ago
Sure, but what would be the accuracy of the transcription? In addition, I can't imagine someone able to transcribe high-level English would be very cheap (then again, I could be entirely wrong; I can't say for certain). Furthermore, I can't imagine any public university administrators wants to get questioned by legislators about why they're outsourcing work nowadays. Nor do I think the administrators want to admit that they're paying (by first world standards) sweatshop wages.
- markdown 10y ago
  Have you heard of the medical transcription industry? If you find yourself in a US or UK hospital, it's very likely that your medical reports and prescriptions dictated by your doctor are sent off to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, or elsewhere to be converted into text. So yeah, English isn't a problem, and there is already a huge pool of talent in the 3rd world trained in turning audio into text. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription

kodt 10y ago

>You also have to create an accessible way to describe all graphs and pictures If a picture is worth a thousand words, and the video is 30fps. Then a one hour video would require well over 100 million words. I agree, too much to do in real time.