WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Accessible podcasts

for

From: John E. Brandt
Date: Mar 22, 2006 11:10AM

Please insert "video" in front of all of my references to "podcasting." As
the original questioner had asked about the accessibility of "video
podcasting," I was referring to that form.

Oh, and as to my definition...thank you for the reference. Very
enlightening. However, if you read on in the wikipedia definition I found
this statement:

"The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary declared "podcasting" the
2005 word of the year, defining the term as "a digital recording of a radio
broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading
to a personal audio player".[2]"

And as that reference also points out, the term has evolved much over its
short life span and continues. Heck, it might mean something different
tomorrow.

But, back to my question about the legibility of closed captioning on video
podcasts viewed on portable players. Has anyone viewed a video podcast -
with captioning - on a small player? Can you read the captioning without a
magnifying glass?

Answering the original question: I guessing that the pure answer about
accessibility and any kind of "videocast" is that there probably has to be a
text version/transcript/description for any of these media whether because a
deaf person may not be able to make use of the audio or the effective use of
the close captioning and the blind or visually impaired user may not be able
to rely on the audio portion of the video for complete content.

John E. Brandt
Augusta, ME USA
www.jebswebs.com
<EMAIL REMOVED>