Many events of significance have either been rescheduled or cancelled due to COVID-19, but Causa, Oregon’s Immigration Rights Organization, planned an innovative May Day rally, hosting it digitally, and naming it ‘Digital May Day Rally’.
This non-profit organization based in Salem, Oregon, hosted a digital rally on International Workers Day, to highlight the rights of essential workers who are risking their lives during the current global pandemic.
Essentially, the digital event was organized as a show of support for immigrant workers who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
The LIVE stream of the event was planned for the 1st of May 2020, with virtual speakers gathering on the ZOOM video conferencing platform.
The gathered speakers spoke in English and Spanish, the organizers approached CaptioningStar to caption and subtitle the LIVE event.
Ideally, the organizers required real time English captions for both English as well as Spanish speakers, meaning English subtitles for Spanish speakers, and English captions for participants speaking in English.
CaptioningStar requisitioned the services of a bilingual captioner with relevant skills of subtitling/captioning LIVE events organized on the ZOOM platform.
The login links were provided to the captioner, and fifteen minutes prior to the event that was scheduled to begin at 11.30 AM PST, a dry run was organised.
After a satisfactory review by the organizers, the captioner ‘got the ball rolling’ , and captions accurately appeared on the screen.
The digital rally continued for two and a half hours, with the LIVE stream of the rally relayed on the FB page of the organizers, with thousands of English and Spanish speaking audiences, watching it from the comfort of their homes.
The organizers thanked CaptioningStar for a job ‘well done’.
