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Re: Secondary audio description formats...

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Jan 9, 2003 9:53AM

Graham,
You can provide these three things for almost any media type you can think
of, although for some there is not as clear of a development pathway.

Text transcripts are usually separate text-based files, so it doesn't matter
which player you are using.

Captions can be added to QuickTime, Real, WindowsMedia, Flash, Authorware,
and Shockwave content.

Audio descriptions are more tricky, but are possible to deliver for the same
players mentioned above. In some cases it is necessary to create a separate
version of the audio track from a video presentation and add descriptions to
it. Real (via SMIL) allows developers to add audio description files to a
presentation and their playback in the presentation is controlled by a
preference in the player (RealONE only). For others, it may be necessary or
even advantageous to offer a separate version of the presentation with
description. For example, in QuickTime you can include an audio description
track, but you can only turn that track on and off if you own QuickTime Pro
or if the developer uses a tool live LiveStage to provide a "widget" to turn
descriptions on or off (that widget is, by the way probably going to require
that the user uses the mouse to access it). It is pretty easy to provide an
additional link to a described version and if done this way the user not
needing audio descriptions doesn't need to download the additional bits.

Does this answer your question?

AWK




On 1/9/03 10:35 AM, "MacKay, Graham (JUS)" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> Hi everyone, I have a quick question for you. It appears that the W3C
> requires the following to be present when producing a multimedia/video
> presentation:
>
> * Text transcript
> * Closed captioning
> * Secondary audio descriptions
>
> The only format I have found that supports all three of these requirements
> is Apple's QuickTime video. It seems to be the secondary audio
> descriptions/track that is the feature missing from many players (including
> Windows Media Player).
>
> What has everyone else done when producing an accessible multimedia/video
> presentation/file.
>
>
> Thanks,
> GM
>
>
> --
> Graham MacKay
> Web Developer (OIP I&IT Intern)
> Enterprise Application Services
> Justice Technology Services
> Ministry of Public Safety and Security
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>
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>
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--
Andrew Kirkpatrick
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