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Re: Podcasting and Accessibility

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From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Feb 1, 2006 2:00PM

Karl Groves wrote:

> I might be splitting hairs a little bit, but as I understand it, "podcasts"
> are intended to be viewed/ listened to on portable devices such as i-pods.
> In fact, the OP's post stated "we have growing interest in podcasting and
> other "mobile learning" ventures. " - "mobile" being the operative word
> leading to my question about SMIL support by portable audio devices.

Hang on. If we're talking purely about "portable audio devices", of
course there's no way to make them accessible (to deaf/hard of hearing
users). Also, I'm not suggesting that SMIL should be used exclusively.
The podcast can still remain an MP3 (and be encapsulated via RSS 2.0 or
whatever), but for access reasons a text transcript and/or SMIL should
be made available in parallel to it.

> I think your recommendation of SMIL was an excellent one - IF - the OP also
> places those MP3 files on the web site.

Which he'd have to do anyway, even if providing the podcast in an RSS
2.0 file...as that only references those external files, and they need
to be hosted on a web server...

--
Patrick H. Lauke
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