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Thread: Audio description in gapless movie
Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)
From: Lynn Holdsworth
Date: Thu, Jun 18 2015 7:41AM
Subject: Audio description in gapless movie
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Hi all,
I'm auditing an hour-long Flash movie comprising scores of very old
movies and interviews. The scene changes every minute or so. Mostly
the scene isn't important - it's often no more than a generic image to
accompany some audio. There's a couple of wartime vignetts with
exploding bombs and casualties and that type of thing. In those, the
tone of the interview sets the scene, and audio description here,
although definitely a nice-to-have, doesn't seem essential.
There are very few gaps in the audio track where descriptions could be
slotted in.
Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for
all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
I suppose it's technically a fail, since there's no description track.
The audio could be paused and the descriptions slotted in, but as a
user I think I'd find this intensely annoying, and anyhow it would be
a triple A rather than double A requirement.
I'm wondering if SMIL could be used to write the descriptions in text
on a specific control on the movie stage. Perhaps the control could
serve as a pause button so users could pause the track and read the
description only if they chose to. Is this overkill? Is it too much of
an ask?
Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
Cheers, Lynn
From: Robert Fentress
Date: Thu, Jun 18 2015 2:47PM
Subject: Re: Audio description in gapless movie
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Hi, Lynn.
The Understanding WCAG section dealing with this standard (
http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/media-equiv-audio-desc-only.html)
says
"audio description provides information about actions, characters, scene
changes, and on-screen text *that are important* [emphasis mine] and are
not described or spoken in the main sound track." So I guess I'd ask, "Are
they important?"
The folks at the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) provide some
additional guidance with their Description Tip Sheet (
https://www.dcmp.org/public_content/ai/227/) about what to describe and how.
Are you familiar with YouDescribe (http://youdescribe.org/)? That site
allows you to easily add extended (or regular) audio descriptions to
YouTube videos. If you are concerned that the descriptions could be
distracting, then could you make two versions available, one with audio
descriptions using YouDescribe's custom player and then the original one on
YouTube itself? Is YouTube an option for you?
If YouTube is not possible as a permanent means of delivering the video,
you could also use it temporarily just to add the descriptions in
YouDescribe. Then, you could do a screencast of the video with the audio
descriptions enabled and make that video available in the player of your
choice. Of course, that could result in a degradation in quality and you
could just add the descriptions in a video editing program if you have that
skill set. YouDescribe does make it really easy to add the descriptions,
though.
The downside of using the YouDescribe player is that, since it is
Flash-based, it leaves out the iOS users, which is why two separate videos,
one with the descriptions embedded in the video itself seems like the most
accessible option to me. The last time I checked, it didn't seem like
there was any web-based video player that worked on iOS that supported a
separate track for the descriptions that could be enabled and disabled--at
least not one that used an HTML5 video player that could work on other
platforms.
Its been a while since I last checked though. Perhaps things have
changed. I'd be interested in what other folks are doing.
Best,
Rob
On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Lynn Holdsworth < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm auditing an hour-long Flash movie comprising scores of very old
> movies and interviews. The scene changes every minute or so. Mostly
> the scene isn't important - it's often no more than a generic image to
> accompany some audio. There's a couple of wartime vignetts with
> exploding bombs and casualties and that type of thing. In those, the
> tone of the interview sets the scene, and audio description here,
> although definitely a nice-to-have, doesn't seem essential.
>
> There are very few gaps in the audio track where descriptions could be
> slotted in.
>
> Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for
> all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
>
> I suppose it's technically a fail, since there's no description track.
>
> The audio could be paused and the descriptions slotted in, but as a
> user I think I'd find this intensely annoying, and anyhow it would be
> a triple A rather than double A requirement.
>
> I'm wondering if SMIL could be used to write the descriptions in text
> on a specific control on the movie stage. Perhaps the control could
> serve as a pause button so users could pause the track and read the
> description only if they chose to. Is this overkill? Is it too much of
> an ask?
>
> Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
>
> Cheers, Lynn
> > > > >
--
Robert Fentress
Senior Accessibility Solutions Designer
540.231.1255
Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies
Assistive Technologies
1180 Torgersen Hall
620 Drillfield Drive (0434)
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Mon, Jun 22 2015 7:24PM
Subject: Re: Audio description in gapless movie
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> Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
If the narration describes all of the non-decorative visual information - no specific audio description is required.
If audio description is required but you can't fit it in -- then it's possible you could not meet SC 1.2.5. The way the extended audio description success criteria is listed as AAA means it can't be used to meet SC 1.2.5. This is frustrating to me but I haven't found a better answer.
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
703-637-8957 (o)
Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Newsletter
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Lynn Holdsworth
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:42 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] Audio description in gapless movie
Hi all,
I'm auditing an hour-long Flash movie comprising scores of very old movies and interviews. The scene changes every minute or so. Mostly the scene isn't important - it's often no more than a generic image to accompany some audio. There's a couple of wartime vignetts with exploding bombs and casualties and that type of thing. In those, the tone of the interview sets the scene, and audio description here, although definitely a nice-to-have, doesn't seem essential.
There are very few gaps in the audio track where descriptions could be slotted in.
Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
I suppose it's technically a fail, since there's no description track.
The audio could be paused and the descriptions slotted in, but as a user I think I'd find this intensely annoying, and anyhow it would be a triple A rather than double A requirement.
I'm wondering if SMIL could be used to write the descriptions in text on a specific control on the movie stage. Perhaps the control could serve as a pause button so users could pause the track and read the description only if they chose to. Is this overkill? Is it too much of an ask?
Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
Cheers, Lynn
From: Lynn Holdsworth
Date: Mon, Jun 22 2015 11:45PM
Subject: Re: Audio description in gapless movie
← Previous message | Next message →
Thanks for your thoughts guys. The information was borderline decorative so I wrote it up as a recommendation rather than a fail.
On 23 Jun 2015, at 02:24, Jonathan Avila < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
>
> If the narration describes all of the non-decorative visual information - no specific audio description is required.
>
> If audio description is required but you can't fit it in -- then it's possible you could not meet SC 1.2.5. The way the extended audio description success criteria is listed as AAA means it can't be used to meet SC 1.2.5. This is frustrating to me but I haven't found a better answer.
>
> Jonathan
>
> --
> Jonathan Avila
> Chief Accessibility Officer
> SSB BART Group
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>
> 703-637-8957 (o)
> Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Newsletter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Lynn Holdsworth
> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:42 AM
> To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Subject: [WebAIM] Audio description in gapless movie
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm auditing an hour-long Flash movie comprising scores of very old movies and interviews. The scene changes every minute or so. Mostly the scene isn't important - it's often no more than a generic image to accompany some audio. There's a couple of wartime vignetts with exploding bombs and casualties and that type of thing. In those, the tone of the interview sets the scene, and audio description here, although definitely a nice-to-have, doesn't seem essential.
>
> There are very few gaps in the audio track where descriptions could be slotted in.
>
> Do I need to fail this under 1.2.5 (Audio description is provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media.)?
>
> I suppose it's technically a fail, since there's no description track.
>
> The audio could be paused and the descriptions slotted in, but as a user I think I'd find this intensely annoying, and anyhow it would be a triple A rather than double A requirement.
>
> I'm wondering if SMIL could be used to write the descriptions in text on a specific control on the movie stage. Perhaps the control could serve as a pause button so users could pause the track and read the description only if they chose to. Is this overkill? Is it too much of an ask?
>
> Would really appreciate your thoughts on this.
>
> Cheers, Lynn
> > > > > > >
From: Jonathan H
Date: Tue, Jun 23 2015 1:10AM
Subject: Re: Audio description in gapless movie
← Previous message | No next message
On 18 June 2015 at 21:47, Robert Fentress < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> The downside of using the YouDescribe player is that, since it is
> Flash-based, it leaves out the iOS users,
I contacted them about using http://popcornjs.org/ and it turns out
they're already on the case :)