Re: Audio formats

It sounds like you are considering producing audio books. You may be interested in the Digital Talking Book specification, which provides a way to mark up an audio book to have navigation within it. If the audio is combined with the full text of the book, then you have full text searching as well as audio playback.

More info from DAISY at:
http://www.daisy.org

-Madeleine

-- 
Madeleine Rothberg
The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media
madeleine_rothberg@wgbh.org
http://ncam.wgbh.org
(617) 300-2492

On Friday, February 7, 2003 1:04 PM, Webmaster@EDD <web@edd.ca.gov> wrote:
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>I have questions related to the presentation of audio files (.mpg, .wav,
>etc) as an assistive technology for the visually impaired user.  Does anyone
>have experience using audio files with respect to improving accessibility
>for the visually impaired community?
>
>My department is working on ways to increase accessibility of our web
>content.  My advice has stressed the importance of document formatting and
>tagging that will ensure navigability/usability in conjunction with screen
>reader browsing software.  I never considered audio files to be a
>particularly effective format for improving accessibility of content for the
>visually impaired user.
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>One program are would like to deploy audio versions of their departmental
>forms and manuals (some of which are 50+ pages in length), with the
>rationale that visually impaired users can then "listen" to the forms.  I
>don't consider this to be an effective use of audio technology, however I
>have also never seen it used in that way.
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>I'm curious to know whether or not others have found a way to use audio
>effectively in the context described.
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>Thanks.
>
>Sean Blackburn
>Webmaster
>State of California
>Employment Development Department
>800 Capitol Mall, MIC 79-5, Sacramento, CA 95814-7735 
>

Received on Friday, 7 February 2003 13:39:13 UTC