REGULATORY REFERENCE (Americans with Disabilities Act)

28 CFR 35.160-35.164:

"II-7.1000 Equally effective communication. A public entity must ensure that its communications with individuals with disabilities are as effective as communications with others. This obligation, however, does not require a public entity to take any action that it can demonstrate would result in a fundamental alteration in the nature of its services, programs, or activities, or in undue financial and administrative burdens.

In order to provide equal access, a public accommodation is required to make available appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary to ensure effective communication."

CAPTIONING FOR MEDIA AT BALL STATE UNIVERSITY

One manner of accommodating persons who are deaf or hard of hearing is to provide captioning for media. This media includes videos, DVDs, and all subsequent technologies. Because of the continuing increases in media that are used for instructional purposes and because of continuing increases in media produced by the University, not all media may be captioned. However, the University will attempt to caption media in the following order of priority:

1. Media used for instructional purposes for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing and who is enrolled at the University;

1A. Media used at a University event in which a person who is deaf or hard of hearing is in known to be in attendance;

1B. Media used to promote the University (e.g. Admissions, Orientation, Advancement);
Whenever possible, the University will caption

2. Other media created by the University;

3. Corporate clients of BSU.

Because time constraints limit the number of clients that can be served with the current captioning resources, some clients may be referred to outside agencies for captioning.

OPEN VS. CLOSED CAPTIONING

If it is technologically possible, the University will produce open captioning on all media listed under #1 (including 1A and 1B). However, productions designed specifically for television will be produced with closed captioning unless a specific request for open captioning is made. If open captioning is not technologically possible and the Captioning Committee deems access necessary, a transcript or closed captioning will be provided.

  • Open captioning is a process by which text is added to video or other media that is a written translation of the media's dialogue. Unlike closed captioning, open captions require no special decoding equipment for viewing on televisions or monitors and are always displayed and cannot be turned off.
  • Closed captioning is a process where specifically encoded text is placed onto video or other media for the benefit of the hearing impaired. Normally invisible, closed captioning requires an internal decoder to be activated for viewing on the monitor/television.

CAPTIONING COMMITTEE

Ordinarily, decisions about captioning for instructional purposes will be made through consultations with the Disability Services office. Other productions which serve to orient, publicize, promote, or explain the University and its services will be captioned as per policy.

The Captioning Committee will consist of representatives of each of the vice presidential units, and will include both the caption writer and a representative of the Disability Services office. The role of the Captioning Committee will be to develop and update policies and procedures and to help determine if it is appropriate to provide captioning in situations falling under numbers two and three in the order of priority above and/or to approve exceptions to the above policies and priorities.

It is the sole responsibility of the media producer to contact the Caption Writer, or another representative of the Captioning Committee, to discuss and make arrangements for all potential accommodations.