News roundup
- Support a truly free and robust BBC Creative Archive
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Last August, Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, announced that the BBC would soon launch its “Creative Archive” – a project to put much of the Beeb’s programs on the Internet, so that the licence-paying British public could have access to it….
Here are some of the elements critical to the creation of a real, useful, relevant Creative Archive:
- It must be accessible: files must be made available in open, standards-defined formats without “digital rights management” or other technology locks that will keep Britons from creatively re-using the BBC’s offerings.
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Well, yes, but indeed DRM has implications for accessibility. And in any event, when I hear the word “accessible,” I take out my screen reader.
Is the BBC quite aware of the work involved in captioning and describing decades’ worth of video?
- Don’t get bitten by Jaws
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“Hmm, $40 for a 60-day evaluation of Jaws. OK, I’ll get it, learn it, and then I’ll be able to test for accessibility by people with poor vision.” Wrong. Very, very wrong. As a sighted person, I found it exceptionally difficult to make any sense at all of web pages using Jaws, even those that had been thoughtfully designed for accessibility. There was just too much information coming at me….
A person using a Jaws is actually using three applications at once: the web site or web application, the browser, and the screen reader. If you’ve tried to teach a complete web novice such as an older relative then you may be familiar with the issues this creates, trying to help them understand when they should be looking at the grey bar at the top and when to concentrate on the meat of the page. Now add in a third thing to concentrate on, and remember that you can’t see any of it.
- Webcredible boosts UK postal watchdog Web site accessibility
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The new website aims to conform to level AAA of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines…. The usability needs of non-disabled visitors were also a major consideration in the design. When a site visitor prints a page from the website navigation, formatting and images disappear and the page prints perfectly on paper. Page download time has additionally been improved.
Postwatch was keen to avoid creating a separate text-only version and used the expertise of accessibility and usability specialists Webcredible. “Creating a separate text-only version is the worst thing a company can do when it designs a website,” said a representative of Webcredible. “Not only does it marginalise blind and disabled web users by segregating them from non-disabled users but it can also be costly and time-consuming to implement.
“Web accessibility is not rocket science. It is far easier to implement than most organisations believe and needn’t place any limitations on the design of a website,” he added.
- Duocom Receives Two International Awards of Excellence
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The Best Overall Staging for a Corporate Event, Large Venue award is considered the “Best Picture Oscar” of the AV Rental & Staging industry and was awarded for Duocom’s work on the 14th World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, held in Montreal…. Simultaneous Interpretation of three visual sign languages (French, American and International SL [which does not exist]) [and] numerous spoken languages, as well as closed captioning into French and English[, were] required.
- Kodak Demos E-Cinema Solutions at CineExpo
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The Kodak system will handle multi-language audio tracks, subtitling, and closed captioning.
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Oh? How? And will audio description be deemed a “multi-language audio track”?
- Alan Spencer comments on lack of captioning
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However, in all my fights to get a release that would satisfy each and every fan. it appears I’ve let a sizable quotient of you down. The reason I didn’t service your needs is because I was unaware I even had to: Sledge Hammer: Season One has not been closed-captioned. I apologize to all fans of “Sledge Hammer!” who are hearing impaired; as I was under the false assumption that closed captioning was mandatory….
The good folks at Anchor Bay, the majority of whom have been lobbying for captioning all along, certainly didn’t set this precedent. They’ve been fighting it. This shameful policy was established by their previous parent company because it saved to few dollars…. There is a bit of good news: Anchor Bay has new owners. Key people, many of who have been on the receiving end of complaints regarding this policy they weren’t responsible for, are attempting to ensure that all their titles are made available to the hearing impaired from now on.
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(Cf. Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere; Neverwhere commentary.)
- With Cabbie, all’s fair
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Some of what they’re saying is anybody’s guess, a mixture of hip-hop
slang and God-knows-what-else. What is clear is that Martinez is ragging on the interviewer about his singing voice and his taste in clothing….The interviewer is Cabral (Cabbie) Richards and getting pro athletes to let down their guards is what he does…
As for the Cabbie-speak that obviously appeals to the players and to Sportsnet’s target audience, even Sanderson doesn’t understand it. “We got a call from our closed-captioning people one time asking for a script. They couldn’t figure out what he was saying. But there is no script, it’s just Cabbie.”
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I always find it amusing when Sportsnet claims to give a shit about captioning.
- Narration lets blind enjoy films
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[T]he theaters are also looking at installing a $5,000 “rear-window captioning” system for hearing-impaired moviegoers…. [Dave] Sarle had written letters to every movie chain in Utah before he got an OK from the Megaplex 12 Theatres at the Gateway to install the DVS. [T]he sister theaters at Jordan Commons might also install DVS “if we get enough call for it.” Already, he says, The Gateway theater has attracted at least one blind patron who had never been to a movie before.
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Great: Another blind person agitating to get his needs served at the expense of deaf people’s.
Is Dave Sarle a hero or a hypocrite?
Good on yez, Dave, for fixing things up for blind people. But whatever possessed you to even suggest that only description should be installed?
And what possessed WGBH to sell them such a system? You’re actively excluding deaf people. Actively including blind people does not excuse it!
- Subtitle expert has £20m float in view
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“It may not be high profile but it’s a great business,” says Ms Sheridan, who starts marketing IMS today for a planned flotation on the Alternative Investment Market, valuing it at up to £20 million.
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(Another story claims IMS “made profits of £800,000 on turnover of £6.5 [million].”)