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Re: multimedia accessibility a specialist skillset?

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From: wendy constantine
Date: Dec 16, 2006 10:30AM

Thank you all for your very thoughtful responses. Within the museum
community, I am finding that very few institutions have an internal
policy to mandate accessibility in multimedia, and only some require
HTML-based accessibility (as it is easy to verify automatically).
Half of the museums I surveyed receive federal funding for multimedia
development. Yet, captions and transcripts for video are infrequently
available and Flash is becoming the most popular tool for educational
media in this industry. At the advice of their developers, text-only
versions are built to accommodate legal accessibility requirements,
and the Flash/video/audio components are rarely altered to comply.

As a flash developer, I can see the tremendous opportunity (and
responsibility) Flash provides if directed appropriately. Very few
developers have been willing to embrace this creative challenge. As
for video and audio formats, providing open (or closed) captions for
web media is not particularly difficult, and aids viewers for whom
English is not their first language, do not have headphones or
speakers, as well as those with hearing loss.

I do realize that my vision for multimedia accessibility is perhaps
idealist and academic, somewhat removed from the realities that
museums (and other industries) face. Yet I would have to argue that
technology in the future will increasingly be driven by user needs
and desires. The ability to provide content in any modality and
format of presentation, for use on multiple device types, will
largely become the users' choice and not the developer/publisher of
the content. In essence, does this shift from fixed to flexible
content ring true to any of you, particularly in regards to
accessibility?

Wendy Constantine



On Dec 14, 2006, at 2:00 PM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Re: multimedia accessibility a specialist skillset?
> (Spruill Kevin)
> 2. Re: multimedia accessibility a specialist skillset?
> (Tim Harshbarger)
> 3. President of NFB says don't change currency (Karl Groves)
> 4. Re: multimedia accessibility a specialist skillset?
> (John Foliot - Stanford Online Accessibility Program)
>
> From: "Spruill Kevin" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Date: December 13, 2006 4:11:58 PM EST
> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] multimedia accessibility a specialist skillset?
> Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
>
> Wendy et al,
>
> First, I second that motion (and emotion) - but also recognize that
> I'm
> in the minority among developers and designers. Not because all are
> "lazy" (easy w/ the blanket statements out there folks), but more
> often
> because no one has taught them how, let alone why.
>
> This reality will not change until that fundamental shift is made
> in the
> education/creation/empowerment of new developers and designers... Come
> on, think about it - it's taken how long for Usability to become a
> consideration... And even now a lot of times it is lacking in scope
> and
> consideration (as noted by the other commentors seminar experience).
>
> 'Course, the flip side is that the resulting specialization can be an
> economic boon for developers such as myself at times. I'd much
> rather be
> out of work because there was no need for "specialists" though.
>
> Just my rambling $.02 - Good thesis topic by the way.
>
>
> Kevin Spruill
> IT Specialist
> Information Resources Accessibility Program
> OS:CIO:ES:BI:CS:IRAP:IT
>
>
>