RE: Captions and audio descriptions

Gregg wrote:
> Hmm interesting
> The alternative would have to be synchronized or it doesn't 
> fit under this guideline.
>    
> 
> How about  
> 
> <proposal>
> At level 1:
> 1. For prerecorded multimedia, one of the following is provided:
> * captions, or
> * a collated text alternative that conveys the same 
> information as both the audio and video tracks of the multimedia.
> 
> 2. For prerecorded multimedia, one of the following is provided:
> * audio descriptions, or
> * a collated text alternative that conveys the same 
> information as both the audio and video tracks of the multimedia.
> 
> At level 2:
> 1. Captions are provided for multimedia.
> 
> 2. Audio descriptions of video are provided for prerecorded 
> multimedia.
> </proposal>
> 
> 
> I think this may work for audio description - in that it would provide
> roughly the same information.   However for Captions it would 
> be much less
> unless much more information about visual track than is 
> usually provided in audio descriptions was required. 

I don't like this. The whole reason we chose to use 'text alternatives' is
to allow more abstract versions like a textual description that doesn't
necessarily capture all the dialogue and visual information but does convey
the same information as the multimedia. Requiring a collated text
alternative would put more of a burden on the author than I would like at
level 1. Also, I think the whole concept of "collated text alternative" is
hard to understand, 'collated' is a rather technical term that many people
(including people like me) wouldn't understand right away.

As an alternative, I would rather change the guideline text from:

<current> Guideline 1.2 Provide synchronized alternatives for
multimedia.</current>

To

<proposed> Guideline 1.2 Provide alternatives for multimedia.</proposed>
When they need to be synchronized and when not will be explained in the
success criteria.

Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl