UC Berkeley Decision Results in Universal Inaccessibility
The University of California at Berkeley recently decided to withdraw 20,000 public videos and lectures rather than caption them. They will be restricted to their campus community, where the need for captions can be more closely monitored and delivered. We understand that this complex decision was driven, in part, by a Department of Justice finding.
Considering that captioning requirements long predate this content (the videos are 3-10 years old), this is disappointing. Other UC campuses have long had captioning efforts in place. That Berkeley created no plan to provide captions in a stepwise way is infuriating. It should not have required a Department of Justice finding for them to consider this. Their response of making the content inaccessible to everyone is appalling. And it has, unfortunately, resulted in an outcry against students with disabilities who simply seek equal access to their peers.
Berkeley, America’s number one public university, a pioneer in social justice, civil rights, and disability rights, has little excuse for these careless decisions.
Captioning is difficult and has become a major pain point in education. However, Berkeley should have anticipated [...]