Media Use Case--My (late) action

A certain gentleman has always enjoyed going to the movies with friends every
now and then. Unfortunately, as he's grown older, he has lost more and more of
his hearing, so that understanding movie dialog amidst all the other sounds
present in movies has become more and more difficult for him. Some days he
simply can't understand the dialog at all and must rely on captions. This is
OK, but he'd really like to continue to use his remaining hearing whenever possible.

His hearing therapist recently showed him that some television programs provide an alternative audio track called "Clean Audio."[1] His therapist has further helped him set up an app on his mobile phone that allows him to select this alternate environment. Most valuable of all is that this app allowed his therapist to equalize the audio in a way that emphasizes the frequencies where his hearing works well, and de-emphasize those where it doesn't work well.Now, he's able to listen to this alternative audio track on his mobile, on a headphone attached to his mobile, or even on his living room speakers by sending this alternative audio to his TV's speakers.

Imagine his delight and surprise when he reads in the newspaper that this same
alternative "Clean Audio" is now available for certain movies presented in his
neighborhood movie house, and that he can select that alternative track for
listening over headphones connected to his mobile phone using the same app that
he uses at home while at the movies! Now, going to the movies can once again be
a delightful social occasion, as it always was when his hearing was good.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/media-accessibility-reqs/#clean-audio

-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina@rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,	Protocols & Formats	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
	Indie UI			http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/

Received on Wednesday, 11 June 2014 13:27:55 UTC