Multimedia Accessibility 101

Jesús PulidoAMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center

College of DesignGeorgia Institute of Technology

Agenda

After this webinar, you’ll be able to answer these six questions.

1. How can I caption something myself?2. What exactly is audio description?3. How can I view accessible Hollywood movies?4. What laws require accessibility compliance?5. What’s the worst that could happen if I don’t plan for

accessibility?6. How can I avoid having to ”retrofit” my multimedia?

DIY CaptionsHow do I caption my own videos?

DIY Captions• YouTube

• Amara

• Magpie

• Camtasia

• CaptionMaker and MacCaption

YouTube Help (Home)

https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/3014331?hl=en&ref_topic=4355241

YouTube CC Help

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en&ref_topic=3014331

YouTube Warning• Auto-transcribe feature is NOT predictable and is NOT

accurate enough for the educational setting.

• However, feeding it an accurate transcript will allow it tosynchronize the text with the speech, i.e., captions madeeasy!

Amara

https://amara.org/

Camtasia

https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

CaptionMaker & MacCaption

http://telestream.net/captioning/overview.htm?__c=1

MAGpie2

http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines/magpie2-captioning

WGBH Media Access Group

http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/captioning/faq/sugg-styles-conv-faq.html

DCMP Captioning Key

http://www.captioningkey.org/quality_captioning.html

Audio DescriptionWhat exactly is “audio description”?What do these little symbols mean?

Audio Description “Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images oftheater, television, movies, and other art forms for people who areblind, have low vision, or who are otherwise visually impaired.

It is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the patron)that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted—those images that a person who is blind or visually impaired formerlycould only experience through the whispered asides from a sightedcompanion.”

– American Council of the Blind

http://www.acb.org/adp/ad.html

Audio Description Benefits

• 285 million people are estimated to bevisually impaired worldwide.

• 39 million are blind and 246 million havelow vision

• 82% of people living with blindness areaged 50 and above (WHO, 2014).

With an increasing elderly population in manycountries, more people will be at risk of visualimpairment due to chronic eye diseases andaging processes.

Recommendation: The Visual Made Verbal

http://www.thevisualmadeverbal.net/

Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD)

http://education.kennedy-center.org/education/accessibility/lead/

Hollywood Access Where can I find accessible Hollywood

movies?

The Audio Description Project

http://acb.org/adp/

Netflix (Home)

https://www.netflix.com/browse

Netflix (AD)

https://www.netflix.com/browse/audio-description

Regal and Sony

http://www.regmovies.com/sony-access-systems

.com• Provides showtimes of local theaters with closed

captioning and/or audio description (descriptive video)• Headsets can usually be picked up at the box office or

manager’s office.

.com

http://www.captionfish.com/

Hover over the little orange boxes tothe left of each listing for details onaccessibility options provided.

Tommy Edison, Blind Film Critic

https://www.youtube.com/user/BlindFilmCritic

Rikki Poynter

https://www.youtube.com/user/rikkipoynter

Laws and PoliciesWhat laws and policies cover media

accessibility?

W3C’s WCAG Guidelines

https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag

ICT “Refresh”

https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh

21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/21st-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act-cvaa

Caption “Fails”What’s the worst that could happen?

YouTube Automatic Caption Fails

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/youtube-automatic-caption-fail

Closed Captioning Fails

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/closed-captioning-fails

“Jamaican Vacation”: Auto-Caption Experiment

https://youtu.be/23H8IdaS3tk

Who can vouch for your interpreters?

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/mandela-service-sign-language-interpreter-failed-2012-self-invented-gestures-v21887836

Accessibility “Baked In”

Does accessibility have to be an after-thought?

Curb Cuts

Designed primarily to allow wheelchair access

Could also benefit people with• Bicycles• Strollers• Shopping carts• Luggage• Skateboards

Plan from the Beginning

Having to “retrofit” your multimedia content is like adding a ramp where you should have had one to begin with.

Avoid Retrofits

By having a clever, descriptive narrator, you can avoid needing audio description.

Captioning is made much easier when you start with a script.

Questions? Comments?

Slides and Resources available at https://