Re: Video Descriptions

Smylers wrote:
> Also, DVDs available for purchase have high production costs, and so
> tend to be produced by studios who have equipment for putting in the
> features you mention.  Many videos on the web are created by one person
> with a cheap webcam who probably doesn't have a way of adding in these
> accessibility features.
> 
> Whereas such a person probably would be able to provide alternative
> non-video content.

I made a similar argument once.  See Joe Clark's response.

http://blog.fawny.org/2006/06/08/lachy/#WCAGSamuraiMovement:8:li-95

Realistically, no-one is expecting someone with a cheap webcam to 
provide captions and audio descriptions, but such videos could also not 
be classified as accessible.

However, creating captions is really not that difficult.  You just need 
the right tool to make them.  Lots of video editing software provides 
the ability to add subtitles.  I believe even something as basic as 
iMovie does.

There's also a variety of freely downloadable software, such as Subtitle 
Workshop and VisualSubSync that can create subtitles and captions.  It 
doesn't take a professional, it just takes a little bit of motivation 
and effort.

My main point is basically that if a longdesc mechanism is to be 
provided for video, it probably shouldn't be classified as an 
accessibility mechanism.  If such a description is still useful for 
authors and users in general, great!  But lets not pretend we're really 
solving an accessibility issue.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/

Received on Thursday, 28 June 2007 13:31:27 UTC