MALT Wiki Techshare 2009

Multi-media Accessibility Are we nearly there yet?
Nick Freear, Web Developer
Wendy Porch , Research Fellow
Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University
Techshare 2009

I have a stammer
Ask me to repeat if you miss something.

And please ask questions!
stammering.org

Agenda
What problems are we trying to solve?
Existing research and issues
How can we solve the existing problems?
Outline of project proposal
Key project principles
Some initial evaluations
Examples/demonstrations
Round-up, next steps & discussion

Definitions
Captions
Also known as "sub-titles" in UK
Text synchronised with video, timed text
Prefer styling to indicate speaker - position, colour
For deaf/hard of hearing
Closed captions
"Captioning you have to turn on", broadcast
Transcript
Text, often without synchronisation

Definitions (2)
Audio description
Descriptions of the video inserted into spaces in the audio track i.e. what’s happening on screen?
For blind/ low vision people
Can get it for some TV programs, videos, DVDs, live events
Hard to find for online videos

Context
" Basic web accessibility is a known commodity now...

But nearly ten years after specifications first required it, online captioning still pretty much does not exist."

Joe Clark, A List Apart , November 2008.

More context! ( Gratuitous logos ) iTunes U

Doesn’t YouTube do Captions?
Yes, captions and annotations, since August 2008. However:
Only the video owner can upload/ author
No editor
(Not portable/ embeddable)
Captions can not be styled
Not open content
Only approximately 0.5% of YouTube videos are captioned (automated analysis on small corpus of 34 words - more work).

What's the state of play?
At the Open University:
Course media is routinely transcribed (OU/iTunes U 95%)
It is not routinely captioned or audio described.

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines:
WCAG 1.0, 1999 - 1.4 : Level A - transcript is sufficient.
WCAG 2.0, Dec 2008 - Level A requires captions, not audio description.

Vimler: annotation.
Moodle et al :
No easy way to integrate captions
Some R&D projects are looking at content personalisation in E-Learning

Accessible Multimedia in E-Learning (1)
TILE Project: Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto ( http://inclusivelearning.ca )
Early implementation of content personalisation standards that map user preferences to content served .
Not held in a learning management system
Reusable Learning Object Repository for Educators
Videos provided with captions and audio descriptions

Mars Rover Mission Video
Audio Descriptions provide an overview of the onscreen action, particularly that which is not mentioned in the narrative of the video.
(insert Mars rover example here)

Accessible Multimedia in E-Learning (2)
EU4ALL Project. UKOU, UNED, Atos Origin, York University (amongst many others!)
www.eu4all-project.eu
Content personalisation based on evolved standards related to user preferences. i.e. I'd prefer the video with the audio descriptions please!
Process for providing matching developed for dotLRN and Moodle learning environments
Alternatives for videos in the standards include captions, audio description, sign language interpretations, transcripts

Moodle video with Audio Description
( http://eu4all.open.ac.uk/eu4all/mod/resource/view.php?id=75 )

Other Accessible Multimedia Fun!
Stretch Project (ATRC, University of Toronto) http://stretch.atrc.utoronto.ca
Project 'stretched' perceptions of artists & art students to be more inclusive of people with disabilities
Participants produced numerous examples of cultural works that include multiple sensory modalities & a gallery of works on the theme of inclusion
Provided tools to new media artists for adding descriptions, captions & alternative video

Tools for Adding Captions and/or Audio Descriptions
CapScribe: capscribe.snow.utoronto.ca
NCAM's Magpie ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie
LiveDescribe: www.livedescribe.com
MovCaptioner: www.synchrimedia.com
YouTube CC: www.youtubecc.com
CaptionTube: captiontube.appspot.com
Accessify's YouTube Caption Creator: accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/... – http://is.gd/1yiVU
DotSub: dotsub.com

How can we address the lack of captions & audio descriptions online?
Multimedia Alternatives
the MALT Wiki Project
Collaborative production of alternative content
Web services to ease use

Big Principles
Accessibility/usability
Data portability/ content as a service/ connections
Quality & learning design *
Open content
Software as a service
Free (open-source) software
Social production/ co-creation/ crowd-sourcing
Perpetual beta, hacking the Web, agile

Media player evaluation

dotSUB.com - transcribing

dotSUB.com "any video any language"
+ Transcription/ translation can be collaborative - Wiki-like
+ Captions are portable (W3C TT XML, Subrip SRT)
+ Ajax-based editor or import captions
+ Powerful search, including in RSS
+ Rich meta-data, including caption attribution
+ Creative Commons licenses are encouraged
- Uploader must be owner/ permission of owner of video *
- Connections with eg. YouTube not explicit
- Captions don't indicate person - TT styling - retrofit?
- Meta-data not exposed in RSS search or TT - YET
- No comments, rating, user profile - not "social" YET

Social production
Wikipedia, Geocaching, Open street map, Project Gutenberg, Librivox, talking newspapers, open source …
What motivates? User scenarios ...
Preece, Jennifer & Shneiderman, Ben (2009)
"The Reader-to-Leader Framework: Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation "
4 stages – reader, commenter, contributor, leader

View 'in-situ' - client-side (OLnet)

View 'in-situ' - server-side

A new player – uses oEmbed, HTML / Javascript

YT player modified – user Javascript

Next Steps
Explore internal/ external funding
Conversations
Work on player + personalisation
Caption/ AD editing/ discovery functions
A workshop ("Scripting Enabled")
Build a community – please help!

N.D.Freear@open.ac.uk – @nfreear
W.Porch@open.ac.uk
maltwiki.org

We didn't have time for...

Flash 'wmode' is harmful
wmode = 'window' (default) - OK.
<object data="player.swf">
<param name=" wmode " value=" window " />
...
wmode = 'opaque' or 'transparent' – inaccessible.
<param name=" wmode " value=" opaque " />
Answer - don't set wmode.

Next steps detail
Roadmap: no money, no timescale!
Testing - <iframe>, screen readers, high contrast...
"Complete" the MALT/Flow player - volume, progress bars, theme, language (research Flow controlbar custom.)
Do MALT/YouTube/JS player - matching UI.
Personalization demo,
Plug-ins: Wordpress, Moodle, Drupal...
Audio Description - CapScribe, Java Web Start/JNLP?
Captioning – online/ desktop/ import/ export
Developer documentation.
Translation/ Localization, player - French, Chinese...
Wiki features, community building, talk talk...?

Wordle - project keywords

MALT Wiki Techshare 2009

by Nick Freear

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