22frames

Online information is being delivered by video more than ever. YouTube and other sites are incredibly popular for everything from music videos to Nursing exam test prep. The City of Santa Fe has a number of instructional videos posted for its residents. However, the unmentioned piece of video is audio. You need a sound card for your computer, and usually either speakers or headphones to fully enjoy a video. But what if you're just learning English and want to watch a newscast? What if you're hearing impaired or deaf?

22frames is a new project that scours the web for videos that are either closed-captioned or English as a Second Language (ESL) -enriched. You can search videos by keyword, browse by subject category, translate the page into dozens of different languages, and limit the videos by Closed Captioned or English Learning Activities. I was impressed by the text captions that pop up as you rollover all the featured videos. They're succinct and detailed, and give you enough information about the video before clicking through. They also have separate links to learn idioms and common mispronunciations.

As multimedia gets more complex on the web, and as we seek to make both the physical and virtual worlds more inclusive, 22frames is a fantastic step in that direction. For a town that hosts New Mexico School for the Deaf and a sizable population of English-language learners, I'm certain that Santa Fe will have a lot to gain from it, and hopefully a lot to contribute.