Multimedia

1.1.1, 1.1.5, and all of 1.2 would benefit from the clarification that
would come from getting rid of the term "multimedia".

Here's what I think would be better:
Guideline 1.2 Provide synchronized alternatives for multimedia.
change to
Guideline 1.2 Provide synchronized alternatives for time-based media (I
know I complained about this term recently - retracted!)

1.2.1 Captions are provided for prerecorded audio. (the SC would
indicate that this means stand alone audio as well as audio in a
combined presentation with other media)
1.2.2 Audio descriptions are provided for prerecorded video.

Level 2 Success Criteria for Guideline 1.2
1.2.3 Real-time captions are provided for live audio. [How to meet
1.2.3]

Level 3 Success Criteria for Guideline 1.2
1.2.4 Sign language interpretation is provided for audio [How to meet
1.2.4]
1.2.5 Extended audio descriptions are provided for prerecorded video.
[How to meet 1.2.5]  

I'd love to see the term 'multimedia' extracted completely from this
document.  It means too much and too little, and given that the real
issue is equivalents for specific, well-defined media types, we should
sharpen the focus on those media types instead of trying to encompass
everything under an umbrella term.

The current definition defines multimedia as sound or video plus
interaction.  This can get tricky depending on what the unit is - is a
web page with a background sound of a person talking and that has links
multimedia?  Does the same sound and links all together in a flash movie
become multimedia? The focus sould be on what needs to be given an
equivalent, and the fuzzy term "multimedia" is not helpful in this
effort.

AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Accessibility Engineer
Adobe Systems
akirkpatrick@macromedia.com

Received on Wednesday, 21 December 2005 05:40:04 UTC