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Guidelines for Creating Accessible Digital Media Publishedby WGBH

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From: geoff freed
Date: Jul 10, 2006 1:30PM


Guidelines for Creating Accessible Digital Media Published by WGBH


Boston, MA (June 2006) The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media
(NCAM), a division of public broadcaster and access technology
pioneer WGBH Boston, announces publication of "Accessible Digital
Media: Design Guidelines for Electronic Publications, Multimedia and
the Web."

These guidelines, providing step-by-step solutions for making a
variety of electronic media accessible to users with sensory
disabilities, are now available free of charge at http://
ncam.wgbh.org/publications/adm/ . A free CD containing the
guidelines is also available; e-mail <EMAIL REMOVED> to order single
or multiple copies.

These guidelines are the culmination of the "Beyond the Text" project
(http://ncam.wgbh.org/ebooks), conducted by NCAM and funded by the
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)
of the U.S. Department of Education (2003-2006; award #H133G020091).
Project staff studied methods for integrating accessible multimedia
into e-books and digital talking books (DTBs), and the results of
this research have been incorporated into the guidelines. The
document is a greatly expanded version of recommendations first
published in 2000 and revised in 2003, under projects funded by the
National Science Foundation (awards #HRD-PPD-9906159 and #HRD-
PPD-9623958, respectively).

"Accessible Digital Media: Design Guidelines for Electronic
Publications, Multimedia and the Web" presents solutions to
accessibility obstacles in a format designed to educate and assist
digital publishers as well as Web and content developers. As with
tools previously created by NCAM, including MAGpie (free, do-it-
yourself captioning and audio description software) and CaptionKeeper
(a tool for migrating captions created for analog video to digital
formats), NCAM anticipates that the ready availability of these
guidelines will help accelerate the creation of e-books, DTBs,
software and Web sites with accessible images, multimedia,
interactivity, data tables, graphs, and mathematical and scientific
expressions.

Geoff Freed, project manager for "Beyond the Text," comments, "While
the guidelines focus largely on content creation for educational
materials, the solutions and recommendations are not restricted to
academic settings. Lifelong learning is expected of every individual
in the 21st century and advancement in the workplace is often tied to
learning new skills and concepts. Corporate trainers and knowledge-
management experts in all fields utilize interactive and Web-based
content for professional development, and learning materials of all
types now include multimedia- movies and audio clips and a variety of
interactive elements."

Those interested in building accessibility into digital materials may
also want to review the results of another NCAM initiative which
promotes the design of accessible learning management systems, used
by many schools, universities and workplaces. NCAM's Specifications
for Accessible Learning Technologies (SALT) Partnership established
an accessibility working group within the IMS Global Learning
Consortium (IMS). This work, producing specifications for a
universally designed infrastructure for adaptable learning systems,
will result in an international standard from the International
Organization on Standardization (ISO).

Please contact NCAM if you have comments about these guidelines or
suggestions for future revisions. We also encourage you to visit
NCAM's Web site (http://ncam.wgbh.org) to explore other ongoing
access initiatives.

About NCAM
NCAM is part of the Media Access Group at WGBH, which also includes:
-- The Caption Center, which first developed captioning for TV in the
early '70s and,
-- Descriptive Video Service(r), a TV access service launched in 1990
to offer description of on-screen action, settings, costumes and
character expressions to people who are blind and visually impaired.

Since its founding in 1993, the National Center for Accessible Media
has been the R&D pioneer in the field of media access, advancing the
accessibility of all forms of media in a wide range of venues,
including movie theaters, the Internet, digital television and mobile
media in the home, classroom, workplace and community.

For additional information about all of NCAM's activities and the
projects, please visit http://ncam.wgbh.org.

CONTACT:
Mary Watkins
National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)
<EMAIL REMOVED>
phone: 617 300-3700 voice
617 300-2489 TTY