E-mail List Archives
Thread: Ady Barkan and deep fake of his words
Number of posts in this thread: 2 (In chronological order)
From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Wed, Sep 02 2020 12:11PM
Subject: Ady Barkan and deep fake of his words
No previous message | Next message →
I have no intention of getting into a political debate on this forum, but I
have to bring up a disgraceful insult that a political cadre made toward
someone with ALS.
Ady Barkan is a prominent lawyer with ALS who uses a speech synthesizer. The
audio transcript of an interview he conducted was altered so that it appears
he said things that he claims he never did say.
You can read his editorial in Today's Washington Post online at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/02/ady-barkan-op-ed-scalise-
video
What I'm concerned about is how easy it was to take the audio file of his
synthesized words, locate the same synthesizer, and change what he said.
Ok, I'm not naive. Political hacks and forgeries have been the mainstay of
campaigns for longer than I've been in Washington DC. But at least with a
photo or video clip, there are telltale forensic signs when something has
been altered.
But what has me concerned are:
1. Incredible life-saving technology, designed for someone with a
disability, was used against him.
2. The public couldn't tell that the version aired on TV was faked and
altered. It's literally Ady's word today, against his altered words in the
digital audio clip.
Maybe there's an ADA lawsuit in there somewhere? About how an assistive
technology was used to malign someone with a disability?
Such a sad reflection on our society.
- - -
Bevi Chagnon | Designer, Accessibility Technician | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
<mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
- - -
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/ <http://www.pubcom.com/classes>; classes
- - -
Latest blog-newsletter
<https://mailchi.mp/e694edcdfadd/class-discount-3266574> - Simple Guide to
Writing Alt-Text
<https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2020_07-20/alt-text_part-1.shtml>
From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Wed, Sep 02 2020 12:34PM
Subject: Re: Ady Barkan and deep fake of his words
← Previous message | No next message
If the original interview was a public event it should have had live
captions (per WCAG 1.2.4).
Those could have been archived and presented as evidence when his
words were altered.
I mean, this goes much deeper than a WCAG violation, and this sort of
behavior should leave any decent human being (and most human beings
that are only semi decent) speechless.
But if one were to claim ADA/accessibility having an effect, this is
the one scenario I can think of.
On 9/2/20, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I have no intention of getting into a political debate on this forum, but I
> have to bring up a disgraceful insult that a political cadre made toward
> someone with ALS.
>
> Ady Barkan is a prominent lawyer with ALS who uses a speech synthesizer.
> The
> audio transcript of an interview he conducted was altered so that it
> appears
> he said things that he claims he never did say.
>
> You can read his editorial in Today's Washington Post online at
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/02/ady-barkan-op-ed-scalise-
> video
>
> What I'm concerned about is how easy it was to take the audio file of his
> synthesized words, locate the same synthesizer, and change what he said.
>
> Ok, I'm not naive. Political hacks and forgeries have been the mainstay of
> campaigns for longer than I've been in Washington DC. But at least with a
> photo or video clip, there are telltale forensic signs when something has
> been altered.
>
> But what has me concerned are:
>
> 1. Incredible life-saving technology, designed for someone with a
> disability, was used against him.
> 2. The public couldn't tell that the version aired on TV was faked and
> altered. It's literally Ady's word today, against his altered words in the
> digital audio clip.
>
> Maybe there's an ADA lawsuit in there somewhere? About how an assistive
> technology was used to malign someone with a disability?
>
> Such a sad reflection on our society.
>
> - - -
>
> Bevi Chagnon | Designer, Accessibility Technician | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>
> - - -
>
> PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
>
> consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services
>
> Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/ <http://www.pubcom.com/classes>; classes
>
>
> - - -
>
> Latest blog-newsletter
> <https://mailchi.mp/e694edcdfadd/class-discount-3266574> - Simple Guide to
> Writing Alt-Text
> <https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2020_07-20/alt-text_part-1.shtml>
>
>
>
> > > > >
--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.