I realize the transcript of this short film is available below the film but shouldn't a film on universal design be captioned!?

A separate transcript does not give the same access to the visual input of the film as would a captioned version of the film. Viewers who are deaf/hard-of-hearing have to access this film via a "ramp"/transcript. I would encourage you to go just one more short step and caption the film.

Debbie Kamm nailed it when she said "a separate transcript does not give the same access...as would a captioned version..."

I agree that the film's producers should have this captioned immediately. Incidentally, I work for the U.S. Dept. of Education-funded Described and Captioned Media Program that provides free-loan accessible (described and captioned) educational video to teachers and families of K-12 students with hearing or vision loss, and we're quite familiar with the importance of making educational content accessible.

I would disagree with Debbie that this video needs accessibility more than any of the other videos featured on this site (or on the web) "just because" it's about universal design. ALL films need to be accessible, especially those intended to teach (or assist in teaching).

If the video's producers would like, I would be happy to caption and describe it (open captions and open description for ease of use) for no charge--I volunteer such work in my spare time @ home. If interested, I can be reached at thomaslohman (at) gmail (dot) com.

You're both absolutely right. We've been wanting to close caption all of our videos for quite some time now, but haven't had the resources to do so yet with all the other projects we're juggling.

We've recently started exploring the possibility of crowd-sourcing the production of the close captions, so our community can help us stay up to date. Thom, I'll email you off-list to pick your brain on your experience with this.

Thanks,

Ray Hill
Edutopia.org Product Manager