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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Laura Carlson
Date: Thu, May 10 2007 12:40PM
Subject: Help Keep Accessibility and Semantics in HTML
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The following may be of interest to web standards and accessibility
folks who haven't been keeping up with the HTML Working Group and where
HTML 5 is headed:

Help Keep Accessibility and Semantics in HTML
By Roger Johansson.
"This is a call to action directed at all standardistas and
accessibilitistas. If you think accessibility and semantics are
important and should be improved in the next version of HTML, you need
to act. What is currently going on in the W3C HTML Working Group is
very disappointing and something I never expected to see when I joined
it. I was naive enough to think that everybody joining the HTML WG
would be doing so out of a desire to improve the Web. Unfortunately,
that does not seem to be the case...All in all, my impression so far is
that unless things change, the next version of HTML will do nothing to
improve the Web. All it will do is make things easier for browser
vendors and ignorant web developers. The rest of us may be better off
sticking to HTML 4.01 Strict...If you have an interest in improving the
accessibility of HTML, want more semantic and less presentational
markup, and are good at arguing your case, please consider applying for
HTML Working Group membership by following the Instructions for joining
the HTML Working Group. Do it now. The longer you wait, the harder it
will be to change the unfortunate direction things are going in."
http://tinyurl.com/2h6k96

Will HTML 5 Be a Purely Presentational Language?
By Ian Hickson.
"...There are people strongly arguing that HTML should be a purely
presentational language, much, much more presentational than the
proposed WHATWG draft. In fact, unless someone argues against it, it's
likely that the W3C spec will be even less semantic and more
presentational than the WHATWG draft. So if you think the WHATWG draft
is already too presentational, I really encourage you to make your
opinion known in the HTML working group..."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-html/2007Apr/0171.html

Official Instructions For Joining the HTML Working Group
By W3C.
http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/40318/instructions

How You Can Join the W3C HTML5 Working Group in Six Easy Steps
By Ian Hickson.
Ian has posted clearer instructions for joining the HTML working group.
He says, "Taking part in the group is not a big commitment. You can
spend as much or as little time contributing; you don't need to read
every e-mail on subjects you don't care about, you don't need to call
in or attend face-to-face meetings. In fact, the W3C has stated in the
group's charter that no binding decisions will be made at meetings; you
are guaranteed equal say whether you are present or not..."
http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1173385976&;count=1

Laura

From: Jennison Asuncion
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 2:30AM
Subject: accessibility and podcasting
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(*apologies for the cross-posting)

Hello,

Are there any best practices re creating podcasts that are accessible
which folks would be willing to share?

Thanks,
Jennison

From: Tim Beadle
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 3:30AM
Subject: Re: accessibility and podcasting
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On 29/06/07, Jennison Asuncion < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Are there any best practices re creating podcasts that are accessible
> which folks would be willing to share?

"There is another problem, which is that right now audio files can't
be indexed and searched. That problem is secondary to the
accessibility issue but, as with so many accessibility solutions, a
fix will benefit everybody.

I started looking into podcast transcription services. The most
intriguing one I found was a site called Casting Words. It uses
Amazon's Mechanical Turk API to farm out the task of transcribing the
audio content."

http://adactio.com/journal/1120

Tim

From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 3:40AM
Subject: Re: accessibility and podcasting
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> I started looking into podcast transcription services. The most
> intriguing one I found was a site called Casting Words. It uses
> Amazon's Mechanical Turk API to farm out the task of transcribing the
> audio content."

I've used them three times in the past. The quality of the transcript varies, even in different sections of the same transcript. And as soon as you use any kind of jargon etc, the error rate is very high in most cases. Be prepared to do a LOT of proofing and amending once you get the initial transcript back.

P

From: Emma Duke-Williams
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 6:40AM
Subject: Re: accessibility and podcasting
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On 29/06/07, Patrick Lauke < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
Tim wrote:
> > I started looking into podcast transcription services. The most
> > intriguing one I found was a site called Casting Words. It uses
> > Amazon's Mechanical Turk API to farm out the task of transcribing the
> > audio content."
>
> I've used them three times in the past. The quality of the transcript varies, even in different sections of the same transcript. And as soon as you use any kind of jargon etc, the error rate is very high in most cases. Be prepared to do a LOT of proofing and amending once you get the initial transcript back.

The other concern I have, and this would be particularly if you are
looking at the pod cast creators (I'm currently thinking about
students and learning environments) - if they have, say, chosen a pod
cast because they're dyslexic, and so find it a much easier way to
contribute to a class discussion, whose responsibility is it to do
that proofing & amending?

In many ways, podcasts are very useful for students - especially if
you happen to know in a particular cohort that you have several
dyslexic students, and no hearing impaired students - then an audio
discussion board might make good sense - but, the transcripts - which
are useful for searching (and anyone who can't hear for whatever
reason), need creating - and who has to do them?

Emma
--
Blog: http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/

From: Moore, Michael
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 7:00AM
Subject: Re: accessibility and podcasting
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Traditional audio only podcasts should be placed on a page with a link
to a transcript of the podcast, and to a link to a player (accessible)
to listen to the podcast. For guidance on creating transcripts I
suggest looking at the guidance on the WGBH website
<http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt/guidelines/sec5.html>;


Mike
(512) 424-4159

"If you don't have time to do it right,
when will you have time to fix it?"