Specifications

Legal Opinion M 02-22 20 August 2, 2002
students during the same timeframe in which they are accessible to students that are not
disabled).
Check online database collections to identify captioned audiovisual material. Some resources
include:
• U.S. Department of Education, National Association of the Deaf, Captioned Media
Program at http://www.cfv.org/;
• High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU) Alternate Media Exchange at
http://exchange.htctu.fhda.edu:591/intro.html;
• Cabrillo College Closed Captioned Video Collection at
http://libwww.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/html/about/closed-caption.html;
Option 4
Provide an Alternate Selection of Instructional Material
More rarely, the copyright holder may be unavailable, unknown, or unwilling to provide
permission to caption. Under these circumstances, colleges may wish to select an alternate video
for use by all students.
It would not normally be permissible to continue using an inaccessible video for nondisabled
students and to have deaf students watch a different video which is available in captioned format.
This is because, if the alternative video is truly equivalent from an educational standpoint, then it
would be appropriate for use by nondisabled students and it will generally be best for all students
to have the same experience so they can share and learn from each other.
The person(s) at the college responsible for making such a decision should meet with both
faculty and the librarian to coordinate the selection (or substitution) of instructional (or resource)
materials.
Option 5
Caption Audiovisual Material Without Permission
If all other options have been exhausted, a college may be faced with the question of whether to
proceed with captioning the video without written permission from the copyright holder. In this
situation, you should discuss with legal counsel for your district whether the doctrine of "fair
use" might apply. The fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act are contained in 17 United
States Code, at section 107. Whether or not the captioning of a video is protected under the
doctrine of fair use must be considered on a case-by-case basis. The courts have issued a number
of complicated and often confusing decisions on how the fair use provisions apply to specific
factual situations. A discussion of the fair use doctrine is beyond the scope of this advisory.
Regarding materials that are in DVD or any other digital format, it is important to note that
pursuant to section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 1201), it is a
criminal offense to circumvent copyright protection technology for any use, including otherwise-
legal fair use. Efforts are currently being made to address this issue in federal legislation. (H.R.
2100 (Boucher) and S. 487 (Hatch).)
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