Audio description and Australian Television: A position paper

Audio description (AD) – also referred to as video description, video programming or descriptive video – is a track of narration included between the lines of dialogue which describes important visual elements of a television show, movie or performance. It is an essential feature in order to make television accessible to audiences who are blind or vision impaired. As the human rights of people with disability become more prioritised and expanding technologies allow an individualisation of the experience of television, AD is becoming increasingly available across the world. For example, from its rudimentary beginnings in Spain in the 1940s, to date AD is available through terrestrial broadcast television in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Korea, Thailand, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and a number of other European countries. However, it is not available on Australian broadcast television, despite the federally funded agency Screen Australia having created a back catalogue of AD content. Screen Australia is the key funding body for the Australian film industry and according to several policy documents requires funded dramas to create an AD track. While producers may create these tracks, there is no mechanism to broadcast them on television. The Australian government and broadcast industry have stated that they believe it to be too technically complicated and financially prohibitive to offer here. This report outlines an AD position paper based on 5 years of research with Australian audiences with disability conducted by researchers in the Department of Internet Studies and the Critical Disability Research Network at Curtin University Australia. The report focuses in particular on the views of Australians with blindness and vision impairments who have taken part in these projects. The report is divided into three sections. Part 1 considers the broader context of the role of television in facilitating social inclusion, including the idea that television access is a fundamental human right. Part 2 considers the ways AD can be delivered, and begins with a brief history of AD, from its beginnings in the middle part of last century to the modern and innovative formats available today. The Big Access Media (BAM) app is presented as an immediate solution, and we argue the industry, especially the public Audio description position paper • page vii broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), utilise this app to immediately offer AD content to Australians. It will consider how standards, guidelines and legislation have shaped the AD industry worldwide and offer some common guidelines regarding principles, objectivity and voicing. The provision of AD in Australia is also discussed, specifically in relation to a similar accessibility issue – the provision of closed captions. The section concludes by providing case studies on two aspects of Australian media – the two ABC AD trials and the efforts of Screen Australia to increase AD content in this country. While the insights of blind and visually impaired audience members who require AD are featured throughout the report, Part 3 moves on to discuss these observations in more detail. This focuses on feedback from people regarding their access to television which had been carried out in two earlier research projects – this included 13 interview participants with vision impairment and a further 64 who participated in online surveys. Common themes that emerged included: § The importance of the public broadcaster. § Television being a social activity. § The feeling of exclusion – television is considered integral for inclusion. § Issues surrounding cost – the “economics of disability”. § Contradictory approaches to technology – some were willing to try new technology, others preferred older technology and were unwilling to upgrade. § The frustration that Australian content is audio described when exported overseas or released on DVD but is not available on local broadcast television. § Frustration with watching non-AD television content once AD has been experienced. The section concludes by also considering the potential benefits of AD to other audiences, including the elderly, people with intellectual disabilities and people whose first language is not English. The following recommendations are therefore proposed: § AD be made available on Australian free-to-air television either via terrestrial broadcast, catch-up portals or a dedicated app. § Any imported programming with an AD track created for international audiences must be licensed with the AD track for distribution in Australia. Audio description position paper • page viii § Further research is conducted to establish the mainstream benefits of AD and talking electronic programing guides (EPGs). The ways people consume media is constantly changing – if these formats and technologies can be embraced by the mainstream, disability inclusion will improve. § Regulation and standards introduced in the 1990s be brought up to date with the 21st century digital and online television environment: § The Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) 1992 should immediately be expanded to encompass television screened online; § Australian standards should be introduced to ensure set-top boxes can receive and display AD; § The BSA should be expanded to include AD. § The government needs to support people with disability to acquire digital literacy skills. Low income members of this group should also be supported financially to get online. § Innovation and competition in the business sector must be encouraged, for example to develop more apps to facilitate AD. § Screen Australia policy should be expanded to television drama in more explicit terms. § The public broadcasters should be supported to provide AD. § Australian licensing laws be relaxed to allow pubic broadcasters to continue airing shows on their catch-up portals with AD tracks even when they have moved to commercial or subscription channels. § Further audience research into the feasibility of synthetic voice systems be conducted to discover whether this is an acceptable interim or long-term solution to the provision of AD

OLAC Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs, Objects, Streaming Media, and Video Games Using the Original RDA Toolkit and MARC 21

The OLAC Unified Best Practices Guide brings together the current published best practice guides into a single best practices guide that incorporates Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs Using RDA and MARC21, Best Practices for Cataloging Objects Using RDA and MARC 21, Best Practices for Cataloging Streaming Media Using RDA and MARC21, and Best Practices for Cataloging Video Games Using RDA and MARC21

Using Information Communications Technologies to Implement Universal Design for Learning

The purpose of this paper is to assist Ministries of Education, their donors and partners, Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs), and the practitioner community funded by and working with USAID to select, pilot, and (as appropriate) scale up ICT4E solutions to facilitate the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), with a particular emphasis on supporting students with disabilities to acquire literacy and numeracy skills. The paper focuses primarily on how technology can support foundational skills acquisition for students with disabilities, while also explaining when, why, and how technologies that assist students with disabilities can, in some applications, have positive impacts on all students’ basic skills development. In 2018, USAID released the Toolkit for Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read, section 3.1 of which provides basic information on the role of technologies to support UDL principles and classroom learning. This paper expands upon that work and offers more extensive advice on using ICT4E1 to advance equitable access to high quality learning. Like the UDL toolkit, the audience for this guide is mainly Ministries of Education and development agencies working in the area of education, but this resource can also be helpful for DPOs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wishing to pilot or spearhead ICT initiatives. Content for this paper was informed by expert interviews and reviews of field reports during 2018. These included programs associated with United Nations, Zero Project, World Innovation Summit, UNESCO Mobile Learning Awards, and USAID’s All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development. Relevant case studies of select education programs integrating technology to improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities were summarized for this document

By the Book: Interpreting an Intake in a County Jail

Guide to ASL interpreting for the booking of a person into a county jail, including consideration of how to prepare for entering the facility and what to expect in the interpreting situation.https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/asleimats/1010/thumbnail.jp

Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs Using RDA and MARC21

Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-video and Blu-ray Discs Using RDA and MARC21 builds upon the work of the 2008 Guide to Cataloging DVD and Blu-ray Discs Using AACR2r and MARC21, which in turn updated the 2002 Guide to Cataloging DVDs Using AACR2r Chapters 7 and 9 created by the DVD Cataloging Task Force of OLAC. The focus of this new document is to provide a set of “best practice” recommendations rather than a step-by-step instruction manual for cataloging DVD-video and Blu-ray Discs. One reason for this shift is that RDA cataloging practice is far from settled, particularly in regard to special format materials. Best practice recommendations will likely be easier to manage as RDA instructions evolve. This document is intended for use with Resource Description and Access (RDA) and the MARC21 Format for Bibliographic Data. It should not be considered a substitute for the RDA Toolkit. The best practice recommendations and cataloging examples presented in the document are intended only to clarify RDA principles and instructions used in cataloging DVD-video and Blu- ray Disc formats

Accuracy of Sign Interpreting and Real-Time Captioning ofScience Videos for the Delivery of Instruction to Deaf StudentsAccuracy of Sign Interpreting and Real-Time Captioning ofScience Videos for the Delivery of Instruction to Deaf StudentsAccuracy of Sign Interpreting and Real-Time Captioning of Science Videos for the Delivery of Instruction to Deaf Students

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the impact of third-party support service providers on the quality of science information available to deaf students in regular science classrooms. Three different videotapes that were developed by NASA for high school science classrooms were selected for the study, allowing for different concepts and vocabulary to be examined. The focus was on the accuracy of translation as measured by the number of key science words included in the transcripts (captions) or videos (interpreted).Data were collected via transcripts completed by CART (computer assisted real-time captionists) or through videos of sign language interpreters. All participants were required to listen to and translate these NASA educational videos with no prior experience with this information so as not to influence their delivery. CART personnel using captions were found to be significantly more accurate in the delivery of science words as compared to the sign language interpreters in this study

Interactive local augmentation of television programming

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: leaves 43-45.While a videocassette recorder allows a television viewer to decouple the viewing of a television program from its broadcast, its use would be much more rewarding were it able to "understand" what it had recorded and to utilize this information to vary the presentation of broadcast television programs in a personalized manner. A hardware/software system is developed which uses closed-captioning information as a data input and allows variation in the presentation of television newscasts, with results applicable to the locally-intelligent recording and personalized presentation of other sorts of programming as well. The research described in this thesis has been supported in part by the International Business Machines Corporation.by Victor Michael Bove, Jr.M.S.V.S

Can integrated titles improve the viewing experience? Investigating the impact of subtitling on the reception and enjoyment of film using eye tracking and questionnaire data

Historically a dubbing country, Germany is not well-known for subtitled productions. But while dubbing is predominant in Germany, more and more German viewers prefer original and subtitled versions of their favourite shows and films. Conventional subtitling, however, can be seen as a strong intrusion into the original image that can not only disrupt but also destroy the director’s intended shot composition and focus points. Long eye movements between focus points and subtitles decrease the viewer’s information intake, and especially German audiences, who are often not used to subtitles, seem to prefer to wait for the next subtitle instead of looking back up again. Furthermore, not only the placement, but also the overall design of conventional subtitles can disturb the image composition – for instance titles with a weak contrast, inappropriate typeface or irritating colour system. So should it not, despite the translation process, be possible to preserve both image and sound as far as possible? Especially given today’s numerous artistic and technical possibilities and the huge amount of work that goes into the visual aspects of a film, taking into account not only special effects, but also typefaces, opening credits and text-image compositions. A further development of existing subtitling guidelines would not only express respect towards the original film version but also the translator’s work.   The presented study shows how integrated titles can increase information intake while maintaining the intended image composition and focus points as well as the aesthetics of the shot compositions. During a three-stage experiment, the specifically for this purpose created integrated titles in the documentary “Joining the Dots” by director Pablo Romero-Fresco were analysed with the help of eye movement data from more than 45 participants. Titles were placed based on the gaze behaviour of English native speakers and then rated by German viewers dependant on a German translation. The results show that a reduction of the distance between intended focus points and titles allow the viewers more time to explore the image and connect the titles to the plot. The integrated titles were rated as more aesthetically pleasing and reading durations were shorter than with conventional subtitles. Based on the analysis of graphic design and filmmaking rules as well as conventional subtitling standards, a first workflow and set of placement strategies for integrated titles were created in order to allow a more respectful handling of film material as well as the preservation of the original image composition and typographic film identity

The Museum as an Inclusive Community: A Blueprint for Moving Forward

The focus of this study is museum accessibility for patrons with disabilities. The history of museums and their evolution into institutions that strive to create an inclusive community means that many aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as well as the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 are applicable. Developing a tool for assessing museum compliance with the law was key to gathering data to use for improving compliance with the law. Using this data and comparing current compliance in four museums to three major legal cases against museums showed common areas for improvement in accessibility in all facilities involved in this study. Technical solutions for creating an inclusive museum are pulled from legal settlements as well as accessibility websites and presented here