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Re: Best Practice for interaction between Closed Captioning and Audio

for

From: smithj7
Date: Sep 23, 2008 2:00PM

I agree that captions are available together with audio, rather than each on
its own. Folks like my daughter that has a centeral audiotory process
disorder benefit from both not one or the other.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zdenek, Sean" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Best Practice for interaction between Closed
Captioning and Audio


> Becky,
>
> Re: #1. I'd go with the standard practice of leaving the audio rolling
> even when captions are activated. Hearing/Deaf is not a binary opposition
> in which people who are hearing can't benefit from captions and people who
> are d/Deaf can't benefit from audio. Instead, there are a range of subject
> positions with varying preferences and needs: hearing, audiologically deaf
> (with varying degrees from profound to severe hearing loss),
> hard-of-hearing (with varying degrees from mild to moderate hearing loss),
> Culturally Deaf (i.e. but also able to pass for hearing).
>
> Just as we double up when color is involved (Ensure that all information
> conveyed with color is also available without color -- WCAG 1.0, Guideline
> 2.1 & Section 508, section 1194.22c), we should do the same for captions
> (i.e. captions are available together with audio, rather than each on its
> own).
>
> Re: #2. Whatever you do, it should not be a surprise to the user (like a
> pop-up window that a screen reader user doesn't know about).
>
> Sean
> ---------------------------
> Sean Zdenek, PhD
> Assistant Professor
> Technical Communication & Rhetoric
> Department of English
> Texas Tech University
> 806.742.2500 x284
> Office: 472 English Building
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> http://cms.english.ttu.edu/zdenek
> http://seanzdenek.com
>