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Re: FW: transcription of audio

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Nov 5, 2018 11:24AM

> > During the 508 refresh process we submitted comments pursuant to rule making suggesting that a 508 accessible transcript was as good as if not better than audio description in some instances.
> I have made numerous repeated recommendations for at least the last 12 years that this be considered and addressed...

Let me understand this -- when a blind person sits down to watch a movie with their friends, family, or children they have to pull out a device to read the transcript with a textual description of what is going on visually rather than have audio description of what is happening announced? While I can understand that a transcript may be more useful in something that is self-paced like a video on how to put together furniture or use a software application - audio description in entertainment, education, etc. is a right that people who are blind have worked hard to defend. I'm not saying requiring transcripts are not important or shouldn't be at level AA -- but saying that something is difficult as the reason not to require it has significant implications when there is no other experience that is equivalent for the people who are blind and can hear. A lot of things are hard -- but if people were actively working to solve these issues it would make it easier for everyone. Text ba
sed audio description that is announced by text-to-speech and part of extended audio description is just as easy as captions to create -- you just need a player that supports it.

Jonathan

Jonathan


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2018 1:02 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Cc: <EMAIL REMOVED> ; <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] FW: transcription of audio

> During the 508 refresh process we submitted comments pursuant to rule making suggesting that a 508 accessible transcript was as good as if not better than audio description in some instances.

I have made numerous repeated recommendations for at least the last 12
years that this be considered and addressed...

I sat on the Section 508 Refresh advisory committee from 2006 - 2008
and fought hard to *maintain* transcripts in the updated Section 508
guidelines. During that same period I made several formal requests
that transcripts not be lost in the transition from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0.
Here's a strong, public plea I made in 2007, before WCAG 2.0 was
finalized, that transcripts be moved from AAA to AA -
https://webaim.org/blog/wcag2-last-call/ Unfortunately transcripts
were not required for multimedia in either the Section 508
recommendations (which were eventually tossed in favor of WCAG 2.0) or
WCAG 2.0 AA. The low vision contingency of the working groups demanded
audio descriptions at the purposeful relegation of transcripts.

Here's another post I made in 2012 recommending this change for WCAG
2.1 - https://webaim.org/blog/wcag-next/ Here are my formal
recommendations for improvements to the media success criteria under
WCAG 2.1 documented by the W3C -
https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Post_WCAG_2_Issues_Sorted

Despite these efforts, as near as I can tell there's not been a
formalized discussion or consideration of this by either the WCAG or
Section 508 groups in the last decade.

It is also relevant that the AODA (accessibility law for Ontario)
requires all of WCAG A/AA with the exception of audio descriptions,
yet they do strongly recommend transcripts. WebAIM recommended a
similar deviation from WCAG 2.0 in the potential adoption of ADA
technical guidelines -
https://webaim.org/blog/webaims-sanprm-response/

But that's all the past. What we can do now is advocate that
transcripts be given higher consideration in future guidelines, and
that we all recommend transcripts as best practice, even if not
required in WCAG.

> WCAG 2.0 leave an opening for the argument that transcripts can be use in lieu of audio description under certain circumstances.

Can you explain this more? I see no such flexibility at level AA.

Thanks,

Jared