[Athen] ATHEN's response to the section 508 update

Humbert, Joseph A johumber at iupui.edu
Wed Mar 7 12:48:12 PST 2012


Sean, how do you feel your suggestion compares to mine? Replace, combined, rewrite?

An advisory should be included noting that many video projection systems do not include captioning decoders and that without decoders, captions cannot be shown unless there is a decoder somewhere else in the AV set-up.

An advisory should be included to recommend that as new media is created, accessibility data must be provided based on a specified standard. For example, when DVDs were first developed, captioning was not taken into consideration. This lack of consideration led to multiple implementations of providing textual information on-screen by DVD technology manufacturers, resulting in ambiguity in both the names for these implementations (subtitles, subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, captions, etc.) and the underlying technologies (Line-21 vs. all the digital captioning and subtitle formats available). For the consumer, this resulted in uncertainty of exactly what is being provided when a DVD is labeled as being "captioned", "subtitled", or other. If the Access Board creates or references the above standard, the consumer of the media will have a clear idea of the accessibility data included on it.

- Joe


-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Sean J Keegan
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 3:33 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] ATHEN's response to the section 508 update

Okay - that's what I thought was meant. The sentences "An advisory should be included to recommend that as new media is created, accessibility data must be included," and the concluding sentence "There is no standard" seemed to be speaking to a different issue (and I don't think we want to go down the road of specifying a technical standard).

Suggested alternative:
********
"An advisory should be included noting that video projection systems may not include a captioning decoder and that without such a decoder, captions will not be displayed. For situations in which a video projection system does not include a captioning decoder, a separate decoder must be included in the audio-visual system in order for the caption information to be displayed.

For example, when DVDs were first developed, captioning was not addressed resulting in various captioning formats, including Line-21 formatted captions, subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and subtitle tracks. Even if DVD media included the appropriate accessibility data, it may not have been capable of presenting such information to the user due to limitations in the audio-visual playback system.

********

Thoughts?

Take care,
Sean

On 3/7/12 12:04 PM, Jayme Johnson wrote:

> Hello all, Gaeir is currently en route to another destination. I saw

> this, and thought I might take a chance at adding some clarification...

>

> Gaeir proposed:

>> Page 7, 2nd paragraph:

>> "An advisory should be included to recommend that as new media is

>> created, accessibility data must be included. For example, when DVDs

>> were first developed, captioning was not taken into consideration,

>> and we have ended up with a confusion of Line-21 formatted captions,

>> subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and subtitle tracks.

>> There is no standard."

>

> I believe the main point of the example Gaeir provided is that when

> DVD technology was first developed, captioning was not taken into

> consideration. This lack of consideration led to multiple

> implementations of providing textual information on-screen by DVD

> technology manufacturers, resulting in ambiguity in both the names for

> these implementations (subtitles, subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of

> Hearing, captions, etc.) and the underlying technologies (Line-21 vs.

> all the digital captioning and subtitle formats we've seen). For the

> consumer, this resulted in uncertainty of exactly what is being

> provided when a DVD is labeled as being "captioned", "subtitled", or other.

>

> Bottom line: this is not referring to a deficiency of accessibility in

> the DVD standard, rather it is referring to the problems which can

> arise when accessibility is not taken into consideration during the

> design of electronic information.

>

> Hope that helps (and that I am interpreting correctly)-

>

> Jayme Johnson

> Web Accessibility Instructor

> High Tech Center Training Unit

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman1.u.washington.edu

> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list


--
Sean Keegan
Associate Director, Assistive Technology Office of Accessible Education - Stanford University http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae
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