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Re: Accessible podcasts

for

From: Sandra Andrews
Date: Mar 22, 2006 11:00AM

Please let me recast the original question as well though.

Educators have been distributing podcasts for some time now. As they
move towards using downloadable audio files for instruction and for
dissemination of critical information, accessibility will also become
a critical issue.

It doesn't really matter how people view/hear the information,
although I do realize that there are interesting related questions
with their own ramifications for accessibility.

After the demonstration I attended yesterday, I thought, hmm, the
addition of a few static images, plus closed captioning, might work.

Of course, the addition of a few static images that have text on them
would work as well, would be easier, and actually would be even more
interesting from an educator's standpoint. For some hearing persons,
visual learning works better anyway. Notes could also function as a
review before a test. The images would function as chapter markers.
Etc.

I am looking for practicality, ease of use, affordability, some sort
of standard method that can be made available to instructors and will
function as proof of concept for the ones we would like to convince of
the fact that accessibility is necessary.

When a deaf friend of mine wanted to access a podcast that had to do
with the training of interpreters and that had been created by a noted
educator, there was no transcript available. There was no closed
captioning. The podcast was entirely inaccessible by a member of the
community that the podcast purported to be concerned with.

hope that clarifies my intent,

Sandy

On 3/22/06, John E. Brandt < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Yes, that was the point.
>
> BTW, I define "podcast" and "podcasting" as related to the creation of a
> video element that is intended for viewing on an "iPod" or similar device.
>
> Having recently been in the market for an MP3 player (primarily for music) I
> took a look at pretty much all of the players on the market. Overall, I was
> amazed by the size of the screens on these things and ended up purchasing
> one that had the largest screen I could afford because my 50+ year old eyes
> have some trouble with teeny tiny things these days and I did not feel like
> I wanted to have to put on my reading glasses to change the song.
>
> One could certainly create a video element with and for one of the many
> computer-based media technologies and view it on a nice 17" monitor. And,
> I'm sure reading captioning on a 17" screen is fairly easy to do. But I
> would not use the term "podcast" for that production.
>
> My initial comment was the result of a recent experience when I had a
> colleague take a piece of video programming - which had already been closed
> captioned - and convert it to QuickTime for use on the web. The file was
> placed on a server with streaming capabilities and with the requisite coding
> to allow the server to know what "size" file to serve up depending on the
> connection speed. Despite our best efforts, whenever I viewed the streamed
> content on my computer, the QuickTime client on my PC continued to render
> the image as at the lowest rate with a screen image of about 2 inches. I can
> attest that even with my reading glasses, I could not read the captioning,
> partially because it was so small and partially because the resolution was
> so poor.
>
> I have assumed that this was due to some mis-coding on the part of the
> streaming server, the QT file and or the settings on my QT client. But,
> despite our efforts to solve the problem - including the purchase of the Pro
> edition of QT - the problem of small size continues.
>
> So, my question, albeit intended with some degree of sarcasm, was also an
> honest one. Have any of you, in fact, tried to view a captioned piece of
> video on an iPod or similar small video device? What is the experience like?
> Can you see and read the captioning? Based upon my experience, I am assuming
> that it would be fairly difficult to read the captioning.
>
> Given that this is a list dealing with accessibility, and the initial
> questioner asked about the accessibility of podcasts, I thought it was a
> good question/comment.
>
> ~j
>
>
>
> John E. Brandt
> Augusta, ME USA
> www.jebswebs.com
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
> Kynn Bartlett
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 12:21 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible podcasts
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/21/06, Darrel Austin < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> > > Why would someone read the captioning on a tiny video screen? *curious*
> > I think that was John's point. ;o)
> >
>
> I don't get the point though.
>
> This isn't someone making the assumption that podcasting is only for iPods,
> right?
>
> --Kynn
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
Sandra Sutton Andrews, PhD
IDEAL Director of User Support
http://ideal.azed.gov
University Technology Office
Arizona State University