Re: Audio Descriptions for Talking Heads

On Jun 20, 2011, at 7:13 PM, Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:

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> On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Gregg Vanderheiden <gv@trace.wisc.edu> wrote:
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> On Jun 20, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:
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>> It sure seems to me that this kind of information doesn't need to be synchronized.
> right -but if not in the video - it is unlikely to travel with the video
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> Yes, but this is a different issue than whether the page meets WCAG requirements. 

You are correct it is.     I mention it because a person creating page who is told that item is accessible on this page --  is likely to move it and assume it is accessible elsewhere.  Or model their use on another page not realizing the text on the page was an essential component.

So -- not needed for conformance to WCAG -- but a good idea.

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>> And a tool that added it to the beginning of a video would need to be very careful that it fixed up all the timestamps in any captions for the video.
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> I was thinking it would just overlay / mix with the audio there so there would not be need for retiming. 
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> Then it will need to be added to the captions, right? Either way, you'll need to be careful of the captions.

Actually it wouldn't.  You never need to caption descriptions.   Nor describe captions.   If they are alternatives to the visual information  then it is already visual.      There are times when I think it would be useful-- but it is never required.  


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>> Wouldn't it suffice to set the stage in text associated with the video?
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> Not really as good.  Doesn’t meet guidelines - and won't travel with the media.  but might work for a particular page.... 
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>  I'm inclined to agree with David that a solution like this should meet WCAG for talking heads type videos. If all the visual information needed about a video is contained in the descriptive identification required by SC 1.1.1, and no synchronization is required, I think the Audio Description shouldn't be necessary. No?

You are correct.  It would meet WCAG for the video on that page. And all evaluations are done on a page basis. 


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