Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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I need captions for movies/shows but I'm starting to not be able to read them no matter what. I'm scared😥 (self.Blind)
submitted by BabyBaphomet_
I'm not deaf but I have a really hard time processing language through audio. It's especially bad with movies and shows, I don't know why.
My fiance and I used to watch movies and anime a lot together. If something didn't have subtitles I wouldn't watch it because I'd get very lost. I used to be pretty good at guessing what a caption said by the shape of it + the sounds I could hear, which is very complicated but it worked for me.
I'm losing my ability to do this as my vision declines. I've been crying a lot about it. What can I do? Get large print transcripts in paper? I feel like I'd just be looking at the paper instead of enjoying the film. I'm already at the point where I have to be right in front of the screen to read the largest captions with my glasses on. I can't play my favorite video games anymore because of my vision and now I might not be able to understand movies? I'm very distraught over this.
My fiance and I used to watch movies and anime a lot together. If something didn't have subtitles I wouldn't watch it because I'd get very lost. I used to be pretty good at guessing what a caption said by the shape of it + the sounds I could hear, which is very complicated but it worked for me.
I'm losing my ability to do this as my vision declines. I've been crying a lot about it. What can I do? Get large print transcripts in paper? I feel like I'd just be looking at the paper instead of enjoying the film. I'm already at the point where I have to be right in front of the screen to read the largest captions with my glasses on. I can't play my favorite video games anymore because of my vision and now I might not be able to understand movies? I'm very distraught over this.
CloudyBeep 5 points 3y ago
If you're using a screen reader such as VoiceOver for iOS, you can have VoiceOver set to read any captions that appear in apps such as Netflix. You can set VoiceOver to turn on and off by pressing the Home or side button three times by going to Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut (Accessibility is in the General section in iOS 12 and earlier). I won't give you instructions on how to get VoiceOver to automatically read captions because I think it's changed in iOS 13 and I'm still using iOS 12, but look for a setting called something like Media Descriptions somewhere in the VoiceOver settings.
If your vision continues to decrease, you may also find audio description helpful.
If your vision continues to decrease, you may also find audio description helpful.
JennyThalia 3 points 3y ago
In iOs 13, after turning on VoiceOver, you go to Verbosity → Media Descriptions and then you have the options of "Off", "Speech", "Braille", "Speech and Braille".
CloudyBeep 2 points 3y ago
Cool. It hasn't changed.
JennyThalia 2 points 3y ago
Oh and another thing I've noticed is that for captions to play on apps like Facebook, I had to enable Closed Captions + SDH by going into the Subtitles & Captioning menu in Accessibility. Mind you, I've only been using VoiceOver for a few days to test out how it renders content my team produces (and also because it'll hopefully enable me to convince my aunt that assistive technology would be very useful for her) so there might be another way but I haven't figured it out.
WolfSoul12 5 points 3y ago
I can relate to this 100%! I rely on captions as well because of audio processing issues. For me, the only way I'm able to remotely understand audio is if its really freaking loud. My husband and I are trying to get used to me listening to audio descriptions and just audio as my vision declines. Most captioned things don't really allow you to change the size of the captions, so that is rarely an option for me any more. It's very frustrating. I wish there was a better answer, as this is really hard for me, too. I would just take things slow. Try to get yourself used to listening to things slowly and figuring out what they are saying. I'm trying the same. Let us know how you make out. Good luck, stay strong.
BabyBaphomet_ [OP] 3 points 3y ago
I wish there was audio mixers for movies like there are for games! I hate how loud music gets in movies, it hurts my ears. But then they start whispering and I'm like what? Huh? Who? Lol. I'll try to get used to listening to louder stuff. It's just so frustrating, I was very comfortable with using captions before. It used to be as simple as putting on my "movie reading glasses" lol.
dasnessie 2 points 3y ago
If the sound is 5.1 and not just stereo, you should be able to increase the volume of the speech by turning up the "front center" channel (either on your physical speaker, if you have 5.1 installed, or on the TV/computer you are watching on). Then to decrease the volume of the music decrease the other four channels. At least American movies are usually mixed like this.
BabyBaphomet_ [OP] 1 points 3y ago
That's really helpful actually, I'll try that out before buying new stuff. Thank you guys so much. I really thought no one would be able to help with this because it's very specific lol.
CinnamonShipper 3 points 3y ago
Since captions come as a seperate file to the video if they're closed, could a software be developed to put the subtitles onto a braille strip and then have a few second early command at the start and end of the strip in order to prompt the user to start reading?
Sorry if that explination is a bit confusing, I'll try to clarify if you have any questions :-)
Sorry if that explination is a bit confusing, I'll try to clarify if you have any questions :-)
BabyBaphomet_ [OP] 3 points 3y ago
Hmmm...that's a really really interesting idea! I think that could work. I'd have to get really fast at reading Braille tho haha. I'll see what I can do, my dad's a developer (I'm also learning programming!) so maybe this is a project we could work on together! I think this could work...thank you!
CloudyBeep 2 points 3y ago
My suggestion about getting VoiceOver to read the captions also allows you to read them in braille, so the technology to do this has already been developed if you use a streaming platform to watch TV and have a braille display and an iOS device.
BabyBaphomet_ [OP] 1 points 3y ago
Omg! That's awesome thank you. All of my stuff is Android but I could probably get a cheaper used iPhone just for this?
CloudyBeep 2 points 3y ago
Even an iPad or iPod Touch would be fine. I should warn you that I have had the issue of it not being possible to read captions that extend over more than one line of braille without missing the next caption, but it's better than nothing.
zersiax 2 points 3y ago
My first response would be to find a screen reader to read you the subtitles. However, you have audio processing issues which might make that very difficult to parse...
I don't have a short-term solution , I'm afraid. The only thing I can think of is to learn braille and use a braille display to ahve the subtitles under your fingers, but that might take quite some time to master :(
I don't have a short-term solution , I'm afraid. The only thing I can think of is to learn braille and use a braille display to ahve the subtitles under your fingers, but that might take quite some time to master :(
Stick81 2 points 3y ago
I use Gom player, there is an audio setting that can isolate voice tracks in movies, I find that helpful in movies where the spoken language is one I'm proficient in.
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