RE: BarCamp on Accessible Media @ Stanford on November 1

Robin Berjon wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> some of you may be interested in his BarCamp on Accessible Media that
> will take place at Stanford on 2009-11-01, 

Hi Robin,

Slight point of clarification: while we will be using the lose-structure
common at Barcamps in terms of deciding who will present what when (etc.),
this is not a Barcamp per-se but rather a moderated,
'roll-up-your-sleeves' workshop with some loose goals attached.
Interested parties are encouraged to review the write-up attached, or feel
free to contact either myself or David Singer for more details.

Thanks!

JF



> >
> > We plan to hold an informal workshop or two on the subject of
> > Accessibility of Media Elements in HTML 5.  The media elements are
> > audio
> > and video, and their supporting elements such as source.
> >
> > This will be an informal workshop, as we wish to hold it before the
> > November 2009 TPAC and there is not sufficient time to announce a
> > formal
> > workshop (six weeks' notice is required
> > <http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/events.html#GAEvents>).
> >
> >
> > The current specification of Timed Media elements HTML5 takes a fairly
> > hard-nosed approach to what is presented as timed media:  it is
> > inside the
> > timed media files that are selected from the sources.
> > There is currently no provision for linking or synchronizing other
> > material, and there is no discussion of how to manage the media so
> > it's
> > accessible.  This needs addressing.
> >
> > We would like to understand the 'landscape' and put in place good
> > architectural support in general, as well as making sure that specific
> > solutions exist to the more pressing problems.  We anticipate
> > working, in
> > public, to develop proposals for any changes to specifications that
> > might
> > be suggested by the work, and also to develop a cohesive 'best
> > practices'
> > document that shows how those provisions can be used, by authors, by
> > user
> > agents (browsers), and users, to address the issues we identify.
> >
> > We are aware that good accessibility rests on four legs (at least):
> >
> >  1. Proper provision in the specifications and documentation of those
> > provisions and how to use them;
> >
> >  2. Willingness and ability to use those provisions effectively on the
> > part of authors;
> >
> >  3. Provision of the right preferences, tools, and user interfaces in
> > user agents to enable access to the provisions, perhaps
> > automatically; and
> >
> >  4. The ability of those who need the provisions to find, enable or
> > access them, and understand what they get.
> >
> > It's easy to fail on one of these, and good accessibility is not then
> > achieved.
> >
> > Accessibility provisions for Timed Media might themselves be timed
> > (e.g.
> > captions) or un-timed (e.g. a readable screen-play or transcript).  We
> > wish to consider both categories.
> >
> >
> > The questions we would like to address include, but are not limited
> > to the
> > following:
> >
> > # What accessibility issues, and what are the 'classic' provisions for
> > them, in timed media?
> >
> > We are all aware of captioning for those who cannot hear the audio;
> > less
> > common is audio description of video, for those who cannot see.
> > The BBC recently had some content that had optional sign-language
> > overlays.  Issues can also arise with susceptibility (e.g. flashing
> > videos
> > and epilepsy, color vision issues, and so on).
> >
> >
> > # What solution frameworks already exist that would be relevant?
> >
> > We are all aware of the existence, for example, of screen readers and
> > perhaps even Braille output devices.  We've seen tags in other parts
> > of
> > HTML that are there to support accessibility, and frameworks such as
> > ARIA.
> > Are there existing good practices that naturally extend to Timed
> > Media?
> >
> >
> > # Are there solutions that will benefit, be tested and seen by, and
> > more
> > likely authored by, the wider community?
> >
> > There have been ongoing debates about whether 'unique' provision for
> > accessibility (functions with no other purpose) are desirable.  We
> > do not
> > intend to have this philosophical debate, but it would be useful to
> > hear
> > of related problems and opportunities that help make the debate
> > irrelevant.  For example, the provision of a transcript or separately
> > accessible captions, in text form, makes indexing and searching
> > content
> > much easier.  Are there problems like this that we can address that
> > will
> > make it more likely that authors build accessible timed media?
> >
> >
> > # What new problems and new opportunities arise when we use digital
> > media
> > embedded in the world-wide-web?
> >
> > Much of the work and research in this area has been done for isolated,
> > analog, systems (classic television). Instead, we have a digital
> > content
> > presented in a rich context (web content).  What new opportunities and
> > solutions are opened up by this?
> >
> >
> > # What technologies and solutions exist that we should notice?
> >
> > The work of the W3C on a common Timed Text format, and the existence
> > of
> > general frameworks such as ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet
> > Applications),
> > suggest that there are pieces of the solution space we should
> > consider.
> > What are they?
> >
> >
> > # What can be done today, given the structures we have? What
> > experiments
> > and proof-of-concept work should we notice?
> >
> > We are aware that there are a number of pioneering organizations in
> > this
> > area.  The BBC's work with sign-language has already been noted;
> > workflows
> > for captioning content have been developed in a number of places.
> > There
> > have been script-based experiments on captioning.
> > What are some of these systems and experiments, and what can we
> > learn from
> > them?
> >
> >
> > This informal workshop will last one day, and the first one will be
> > held
> > in the Bay Area on November 1st at Stanford University.  To attend the
> > workshop, you must come prepared to present on one of the questions
> > above,
> > or a suitable other question, drawing from your experience or
> > expertise to
> > help inform the discussion and make progress on proposing solutions.
> >
> > We expect the workshop to spend perhaps two-thirds of the time on
> > these
> > presentations, with short Q&A for each.  Then we may have a panel
> > session
> > or two, or moderated discussion, to address focused questions.  As
> > stated
> > in the introduction, we are looking for a framework and solutions with
> > good 'longevity', simplicity, and efficacy, that will be embraced by
> > the
> > standards community, content authors, user agent developers, and end
> > users.  This is ambitious but achievable, we believe, and
> > opportunities
> > such as this to 'get it right from the start' come up all too rarely.
> >
> > We think that at least the following communities and groups might be
> > affected:
> >
> > * HTML 5, the place where the Timed Media tags are specified, and the
> > integration therefore must occur;
> > * PFWG, where much thought has gone into this general problem space;
> > * Media Annotations, who are concerned with metadata for Timed Media;
> > * Timed Text, owners of DFXP, one of the likely text formats;
> > * CSS, who define the styling of text, and also the nature of
> > 'rendering
> > surfaces' (and a presentation where a provision is needed, such as
> > captions, might be seen as a rendering surface of a specific kind).
> >
> >
> > If you feel prepared to attend, present, and work cooperatively on
> > this
> > problem, please contact the workshop organizers as soon as possible.
> > --
> > David Singer
> > Multimedia Standards, Apple Inc.
> > singer@apple.com
> >
> > John Foliot
> > Stanford University Online Accessibility Program
> > jfoliot@stanford.edu
>

Received on Friday, 18 September 2009 16:44:17 UTC