Audio Notes and Guidelines

AUDIO ACCESS

This is a first pass at capturing ideas for access to AUDIO information.

Everyone, feel free to comment and critique.

Gregg




TYPES OF AUDIO USE (SIMPLE MODEL)
Remember it is not what the graphic is but how it is used that determines which category it falls in.  (These categories are NOT necessarily EXCLUSIVE)


1)  as DECORATION -  Something with no particular information value in understanding the intent and content of the page but which someone may want to know the description of.   This may occur when a page is entered, when the mouse passes over an item on the screen or when something is done to the screen.
        Examples: background music for a page, talking or sonic icons (earcons), or auditory feedback on a button press.  
        NOTE:  If the sound is more than decorative and provides useful information that is not already presented visually then it does not fall in this category.


2)  as AUDITORY PRESENTATION OF INFORMATION - this is information which is presented in auditory form.  
        Examples:
             - speech or informative sounds that play when a page is opened 
             - an icon that talks when you move the cursor to it
             - a sound file that is called up from an anchor on the page   


 3)  as AUDITORY PORTION OF AN AUDIO-VISUAL PRESENTATION  (MOVIE OR ANIMATION) - a sound track that is time synched to a visual presentation of some kind.  This could be the audio track of a movie or it could be audio that is time synched to animation on the page.


 4)  as AUDIO THAT IS TIME SYNCHED TO SELECTIONS - this is any audio that is time synched with opportunities or selections.  For example, narration that calls for the user to act at certain times to cause a particular effect or result.  





ROUGH DRAFT SET OF COOPERATIVE ACCESS GUIDELINES (FOR BOTH WEB PAGE CREATORS AND BROWSER DESIGNERS)

PAGE CREATOR GUIDELINES

P1) AUDIO TEXT NOTIFICATION - All pages with autoplay audio should have a notice providing alerting the user to the presence of the audio.  If the audio is decorative then the notice would usually be at the bottom of the page.  If the audio provides directions or is otherwise important to the use of the page then the notice should be at the top of the page.  This notice can also act as the anchor for a description or transcription of the audio.


P2)  AUDIO DESCRIPTION/TRANSCRIPTION -  All audio files should have a SEPARATE TEXT DESCRIPTION or TRANSCRIPTION of the audio.  This audio text should be in a form that can be easily displayed in a browser. (we will need a standard for this).  


P3) TIME SYNCH FILE  - All transcription files should be accompanied by a text synchronization file that can be used to synchronize the transcript with the original audio presentation.  (this will need a standard too).  This is most important for Movies, Animation with Audio, and other Time Synched audio.   It is useful for all audio to allow simultaneous listening to audio by people with or without hearing.   


NOTE: Using separate audio, text and synch files allows you to add captions to any audio file, any movie, etc. It also has the ability to allow multiple sets of captions to be used to allow captions to be matched to the reading skills of the user. (e.g. exact transcription captions or simpler version captions)


P4) Pages should provide a link to the transcription file next to any links to audio files (until such time that all browsers allow access to transcriptions from the audio file link).   They should also provide references to the transcription (?TEXT=) and the synch file (?SYNCH=) within the audio file or movie link (for those browsers that do support synched text).



BROWSER DESIGN GUIDELINES

B1) BROWSERS & VIEWERS SUPPORT AUDIO CAPTION FILES
All MOVIE VIEWERS and AUDIO PLAYERS should support time synched text (caption) files.  Browsers should provide the necessary support to link the 3 files to the viewers/players.  


B2) ABILITY TO PULL UP TEXT ONLY 
All browser should have a command that could be issued (while the user is on a link to an audio file or movie), to cause the text transcription/description file (see P2 above) to be fetched and put into the displayed document at the location of the link (with square brackets around it).  If there was not a text translation/description of the audio file available for the graphic then the browser would signal the user (a visual indicator).


B3) AUDIO ALERT
All browsers should have an indicator that shows when a sound is being played.  If the device has a ShowSounds/Captions feature then this indicator could be tied to the ShowSounds/Caption Flag in the system. 


B4) ShowSounds/Captions SUPPORT
All browsers should support the ShowSounds/Captions feature if it is provided on the platform.  This includes providing a visual equivalent for all sounds, and captions for all browser speech.  It would also cause all audio and movie files to show the synched text (captions) when they are played.
  







Gregg

-- ------------------------------
Gregg C. Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Professor - Dept of Industrial Engineering
Director - Trace R & D Center, Waisman Center
University of Wisconsin- Madison
gv@trace.wisc.edu,    WWW&FTP at  Trace.Wisc.Edu
for a list of our Listserves send "index" to listproc@trace.wisc.edu



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Received on Thursday, 17 July 1997 01:59:00 UTC