RE: Audio Descriptions for Talking Heads

So to summarize this conversation, do you think in the case of a talking
head, I'm in the spirit of WCAG 2, if we added something to the
Understanding that said something like this?

 

--------

 

Title: Is Audio Description necessary when one person is speaking against a
static background?

 

"Audio Descriptions are not necessary when there is one person speaking
against a static background, because there is no timed based visual
information in the video that is 'important' to the understanding of the
content. The general setting is static and therefore can be described in a
static format such as alternative text that is programmatically associated
with the video. 

 

If the video has an opening Title screen (or screens) that contain text,
then this could be Audio Described, or it could be provided as a static text
alternative. If there are significant changes to facial expressions that are
important to the meaning of the information being spoken, that are not
conveyed by the tone of the voice, or other audio cues, Audio Description
could be considered, if there are sufficient pauses in the speech to explain
these.

 

Audio Description should be used if there is more than one speaker in the
video, or if there is text that appears in the video apart from opening
title pages, and if there are sufficient pauses to explain these, because
this would be 'important' visual changes in information that are time
based."

 

Cheers

David MacDonald

 

From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Gregg Vanderheiden
Sent: June-20-11 10:37 PM
To: Loretta Guarino Reid
Cc: David MacDonald; WCAG; Nicholas Reville
Subject: Re: Audio Descriptions for Talking Heads

 

 

 

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





 

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Gregg Vanderheiden <gv@trace.wisc.edu>
wrote:

 

On Jun 20, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:





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


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.









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.

 

I was thinking it would just overlay / mix with the audio there so there
would not be need for retiming. 


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.  

 





 






Wouldn't it suffice to set the stage in text associated with the video?

 

Not really as good.  Doesn't meet guidelines - and won't travel with the
media.  but might work for a particular page.... 


 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.