Accessible Website Content Guidelines for Users with Intellectual Disabilities

Background: The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has issued guidelines for making websites better and easier to access for people with various disabilities (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines 1999). - \ud Method: The usability of two versions of a website (a non-adapted site and a site that was adapted on the basis of easy-to-read guidelines) was tested with two groups of 20 participants. One group had intellectual disabilities but could read, the other group had no identified intellectual disabilities. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, it was investigated whether the easy-to-read website was indeed better accessible and usable for the participants with intellectual disabilities. - \ud Results: The adaptation of the website worked well for participants with intellectual disabilities. Users without identified intellectual disabilities were as effective with the adapted site as they were with the non-adapted site. - \ud Conclusion: The results form an empirical basis for recommendations about applying guidelines for easy-to-read text on websites for people with intellectual disabilities

Time, tide and narrative: adapting chronology in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

This paper is concerned with the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and with the book – or more accurately – books from which it is adapted. The film’s source material comes from novelist Patrick O’Brian who, between 1969 and his death in 2000, wrote 20 completed novels, plus one unfinished work. While no single text manifests a glaring temporal anomaly, taken as a whole it is apparent that numerous factors including the age of characters, aspects of their backstory, and especially the cumulative duration of several epic sea journeys do not cohere. It is not the object of this paper to treat this distortion as a failure. Rather, it is to focus on how the single screen adaptation engages with this aspect of its literary predecessors

Adaptation in the Lowveld : a comparative case study of the live-action to 3D animation filmic adaptation of Duncan MacNeillie's Jock of the Bushveld

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, Digital animation, 2012Duncan MacNeillie’s Jock of the Bushveld is the first feature length 3D animated film to be produced almost exclusively in South Africa. This, coupled with the fact that MacNeillie also produced the live-action version of the film in the mid-1980’s, gives rise to a particularly pertinent question: Given our turbulent history, how is a colonial story adapted to fit and suit modern audiences? Additionally, how close does the adaptation need to adhere to it source text? The canon of adaptation studies hold various definitions; the most commonly accepted debate is that around fidelity discourse. Fidelity states that an adapted film needs to be loyal to its source text (in this case the source text is a live-action film) however, this definition becomes problematic when looking at South Africa’s turbulent and hostile socio-economic and political makeup. Textual fidelity becomes impossible, so different definitions need to be explored. Out of a film to film adaptive comparison I have attempted to use the notion of ‘intertextuality’ as a basis, that is, no text is completely free from its source text. Cultural context and popular understanding will always play a role in understanding societal shifts. Racism has been a part of popular consciousness since the advent of colonialism, how is this addressed in a current context, especially in a children’s story that was originally peppered with many taboos. The aim of this research report is to address the socio-political and cultural shifts that have occurred over the last twenty-five years or so. By using the Jock of the Bushveld films as a comparative vehicle I have attempted to debunk and unpack our difficult and convoluted historical identity, whilst using filmic adaptation studies and the theory of anthropomorphism within the animated feature as a foundation

Iced vovos: a one act play [Play script]

This script was developed through a collaborative process. A work of stream-of-consciousness prose reflecting on Iced VoVos, an iconic Australian confectionery, penned by Janet McDonald constitutes the heart of the script. This piece was adapted to script form by Dallas Baker, who created characters through which Janet's prose could come to life. The explorative questions that emerged when Dallas and Janet began discussing the adaptation of the text focussed on memory and embodied experience. As the collaboratively led inducement of material developed, the period of ‘handing over’ the prose for adaptation engaged ghosting that resisted what Diana Taylor calls ‘the archive’. This is a place relegated in theatre to where performative ideas take concrete form, often as a written script that can be ‘published’, and therefore maintains an emphasis on discourse to manifest creative enterprise, rather than the lived experience of the performance of the work. What emerged from the collaboration was a script that took the prose in a different, unexpected yet intriguing, direction. This research was therefore more about exploring the relational aspects of working together. In this sense the knowledge produced by this research collaboration manifests Taylor's ‘repertoire’ (rather than ‘archive’) of performance and relates to the richness of both collaborative experience and the creative outcomes arising from that experience

Cumulative Step-size Adaptation on Linear Functions

The CSA-ES is an Evolution Strategy with Cumulative Step size Adaptation, where the step size is adapted measuring the length of a so-called cumulative path. The cumulative path is a combination of the previous steps realized by the algorithm, where the importance of each step decreases with time. This article studies the CSA-ES on composites of strictly increasing functions with affine linear functions through the investigation of its underlying Markov chains. Rigorous results on the change and the variation of the step size are derived with and without cumulation. The step-size diverges geometrically fast in most cases. Furthermore, the influence of the cumulation parameter is studied.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1206.120

The sweetheart factor: Tracing translation in Martin Crimp’s writing for theatre

Martin Crimp’s activity as a playwright includes the translation and adaptation of the theatrical works of other writers. This article considers how Crimp’s theoretical and practical engagement with translation is manifested in his writing for the stage. Crimp’s voice on and in translation is analysed: first, from the perspective of translation theory, in particular as it relates to Crimp’s discussions on translation and adaptation; and second, in a study of Crimp’s use of the word ‘sweetheart’ in his various writings, including his translations and adaptations of works by other playwrights. I conclude that Crimp’s authorial presence exists throughout his work, whether self-authored, translated or adapted, while simultaneously operating to recognize the plurality of voices within a translated text

Adaptations in genres with story: From novel to media. “La regenta. Versión teatral libre de la obra homónima de Leopoldo Alas Clarín”, by Marina Bollaín, with the collaboration of Vanessa Montfort

The paper analyses the problems generated by the adaptation of stories between genres: novel, theatre, cinema and TV, focusing on the only adaptations that have been made of Clarín’s La Regenta, and particularly, on the TV version by M. Bollaín. The adaptation process involves two authors, two texts and two ways of reception. The text belongs to different genres, with verbal and non-verbal languages. The adapted text is the effect of a transduction process, which is achieved thanks to the semantic ambiguity and polyvalence of the literary textEl artículo analiza los problemas que suscitan las adaptaciones de relatos entre géneros: novela, teatro, cine y televisión, concretándolos en las que se han hecho de La Regenta de Clarín y en especial la versión televisiva realizada por M. Bollaín. El proceso de adaptación implica dos autores, dos textos y dos modos de recepción. Los textos pertenecen a géneros diferentes, con lenguajes diferentes (verbal y no verbal). El texto adaptado es efecto de un proceso de transducción, que es posible dada la ambigüedad y polivalencia semántica del texto literari

Three Adaptations of the Japanese Comic Book Boys Over Flowers in the Asian Cultural Community: Analyzing Fidelity and Modification from the Perspective of Globalization and Glocalization

A wide variety of cultural products have been adapted into a brand new text in the process of globalization. The three adaptations of the Japanese cartoon, Boys over Flower, in the following countries: Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have very similar storylines. The three storylines, although similar, have several modifications due to the differing audiences and goals of each series. Based on the idea of globalization; fidelity in the adaptation can be understood as emphasizing the shared values and community spirit between cultures while modifications can be interpreted as organizational gatekeeping. This study analyzes how the narratives in the three adapted texts show fidelity and modification. In conclusion, fidelity could be interpreted as presenting the glocalized cultural values or socio-cultural popular memory in the Asian context while modification could be considered as being reflective of a wide variety of different socio-cultural contexts where the series were create