Re: SMIL text and audio

To follow up on what both Al and Larry have said:
To me it would be important for the producer to package as both sound and
text with the graphics, but it is equally important to for the consumer to
be able to choose what they want.  This is a pretty general rule that is
being forgotten by many in the marketplace.  The consumer is still king and
those who cater to that will always be more successful.  If you can let the
consumer choose whether they want sound or text you will be better off.
This could go for translations into various languages as well.  In general
it is my feeling that good customer service rules should apply in this area
as well as any other area where you are presenting information to people.
After all they can always go somewhere else.

Sincerely,

Michael R. Burks

The opinions expressed here are my own, not necessarily those of my
employer.
-----Original Message-----
From: Al Gilman <asgilman@access.digex.net>
To: Larry Goldberg <Larry_Goldberg@wgbh.org>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Date: Thursday, March 05, 1998 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: SMIL text and audio


>to follow up on what Larry Goldberg said:
>
>> Regarding sending text or sending audio - this is not an
>> either/or proposition - these alternate modes of presenting
>> information in synchronization with moving audio or video or
>> just graphics are useful for people with various disabilities
>> as well as for translation purposes.  Some people prefer movies
>> audio-dubbed into their own language and some prefer subtitles
>> - SMIL should allow either at the producers' option.
>
>Yes, whatever the producer wants, SMIL allows for either.  You
>can even do both with a SWITCH wrapping them so that the consumer
>can choose among alternatives the producer has provided.
>
>Other things things that are not so nailed down are
>transformations that the producer didn't anticipate.
>Text-to-speech is the most common of these, but what if the the
>consumer has a speech recognition plug-in.  Should they be able
>to bring up a subtitle window with what it guesses?
>
>Al
>

Received on Thursday, 5 March 1998 16:20:53 UTC