- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 16:02:38 -0700
- To: love26@gorge.net (William Loughborough)
- Cc: "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
At 03:44 PM 9/6/2000 , you wrote: >AS:: "1.2 Provide a transcript for audio content." >WL: I worry that "audio" content might require some really weird >"transcript". Music, sound effects, etc. often beggar descriptions, let >alone "transcripts". While it's probably OK to assume that most users can >deal with text (although that's not even universally accepted), it would be >very hard to require that a musical score be furnished. >I think we'd best talk this one through a bit more. Here's some thought. Audio is not a form of content. Audio is a _medium_ by which content can be conveyed. If the audio medium is used, the content must be conveyed in a manner appropriate for the medium -- e.g., a "good" soundtrack may include musical interludes. However, that music might _not_ be the content. (In some cases it will be. In some cases it will not, and is merely part of the presentation.) The _content_ must be expressed in a way that does not tie it solely to the audio medium. The "audio" adjective on the word content is both unnecessary -and confusing- as it seems to imply that ALL audio presentation must somehow be transcribed into text, and that should not be the case. Our general rule should be to provide alternate representation (i.e. marked up text) for all content which is provided in an audio format. Let's say I have a web site which plays the opening theme song from the Voyager tv show to people with sound enabled. I don't need to reproduce that theme song in a musical markup language; it's _decorative_, although it may be considered "audio content" by some. However, it is not the -content- of the site. If I put a speech online, the _content_ is what was said, and how it was said. It is likely -not- the audio recording of the speech, _even though the speech contains the content_; they are not one and the same. Likewise, a transcript may contain the content, but the content is an abstract beast and it is not the transcript any more than it is the recording. This is not a pipe. -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://kynn.com/ Director of Accessibility, Edapta http://www.edapta.com/ Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet http://www.idyllmtn.com/ AWARE Center Director http://www.awarecenter.org/ Vote for Liz for N. Am. ICANN Nominee! http://www.khyri.com/icann/
Received on Wednesday, 6 September 2000 19:15:54 UTC