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Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

reason.com

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Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#21

Post by draw_down »

skywhopper wrote: post #7

Assuming that Reason.com presented the facts of this case fairly (a rather generous assumption), rather than framing it as the DOJ forcing Berkeley to take the videos down, I think the fairer way is to say that Berkeley is refusing to make the videos accessible to the hearing impaired. Captioning the videos would be hugely beneficial to all users of the videos, not just those with hearing problems. I am skeptical tha…

Aha, I see. And so it gets spun by a libertarian outlet as an outrageous government-regulations-run-amok thing.

FWIW I agree with your aside regarding "Reason".

Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#24

Post by jacquesm »

So to go against the grain: this is a bad thing. Those videos not being accessible to the deaf is unfortunate. What is even more unfortunate is that those videos are now also no longer available to lots of people who would never in a lifetime stand a chance of attending Berkeley, many of them outside of the reach of that particular law.

I'm all for accessibility but this 'reset' causes a lot of good content to disappear for reasons that are suspiciously close to spite, and spite that has far wider ranging consequences than for those that have access to alternatives.

A blind person in the USA has more options available to them than almost any person somewhere in the developing world and those were the biggest beneficiaries of these videos. Principles are great, looking beyond your own interest is even greater.

Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#25

Post by jacquesm »

haswell wrote: post #20
draw_down wrote: post #10

Seems like a better course of action would have been to make the videos accessible rather than force them down.

In a perfect world where captioning 20,000 videos was an easy and free task, sure. But since this is not that world, it's an unfortunate and inevitable result.

This is that world. Lots of subtitles are added to all kinds of content for $0. All you need to do is provide the means.

Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#26

Post by maxerickson »

jacquesm wrote: post #24

So to go against the grain: this is a bad thing. Those videos not being accessible to the deaf is unfortunate. What is even more unfortunate is that those videos are now also no longer available to lots of people who would never in a lifetime stand a chance of attending Berkeley, many of them outside of the reach of that particular law. I'm all for accessibility but this 'reset' causes a lot of good content to disapp…

You aren't going against the grain.

Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#28

Post by fellellor »

guelo wrote: post #4

This makes no sense. The courses are up on youtube with closed captioning. https://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley I hope someone is downloading these all and putting up a torrent.

The page says all content will be unavailable after March 15th. This is extremely unfortunate, and also in my case infuriating.

Re: Berkeley Removes 20,000 Free Online Videos to Comply with DOJ Ruling

#29

Post by ruleabidinguser »

brothercolor wrote: post #16
velodrome wrote: post #5

The complaint was put forward by two employees of Gallaudet University - not students. Gallaudet University is a private university for the deaf. I would like to point out that their videos are not friendly to those with visual impairments and they should have their videos removed for the same reason UC Berkeley has to remove theirs. Here are a few such examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffqU3mT4k1o https://ww…

There have been debates among those in the Deaf community on how best to make their videos accessible. Many in the Deaf community routinely add image descriptions and other kinds of captioning/access to their videos and images, usually on Facebook or other social media. I have yet to see the greater hearing community routinely engage in this kind of universal thinking in access; thinking about people in terms of capa…

This zealotry needs to stop.
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