Re: dhtml, layers, and all that

        Reply to:   RE>dhtml, layers, and all that 

> ... something like "descriptive video" - about
> which our participants from the Boston PBS place know a great deal since
> they receive very high marks for their work from its intended audience
> of blind folks.

I appreciate the compliment and will pass it on to our excellent "describers."


> So if Larry Goldberg could codify what it is that makes for good
> practice in video descriptive art it might provide us with some talking
> points.

Codifying ain't so easy, though we've attempted to do so for years.
We have certainly been applying these description techniques to GBH's
own web site (www.wgbh.org) through the use of D-tags throughout.

You may want to check out the site associated with the children's program "Arthur"
to see how we deal with cartoons, drawings, etc.:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/arthur/

click on the standalone "D's" and you will at least see how we describe and
what we describe.

Some rules of thumb (actually, just plain common sense):
- describe "key visual elements" - that which is needed for understanding and no more.
Yes, this requires a human judgement call, but not everything can be automated :-)
In TV, we don't have the luxury of unlimited time and space for our descriptions, so
less is always more.  The same should hold true for web surfers.

- don't make judgements about meanings of images and people, just describe what they
look like; i.e. don't say "picture of an angry man" say instead "picture of a man with
bulging eyes and veins standing out in his neck" (an extreme example).

- I'll see if I can dig up any other "rules" that may help.

- Larry

Larry Goldberg, Director
Media Access
WGBH Educational Foundation
125 Western Ave.
Boston, MA  02134
617-492-9258 (voice/TTY)
fax 617-782-2155
Internet:  Larry_Goldberg@WGBH.org

Received on Thursday, 12 February 1998 15:37:15 UTC