Disability

Disadvantaged

Digital media and technology:

Accessible gaming

Standards

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Q&A: IAAP’s CEO Chris Peck

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The International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), the body created to promote the development of an accessibility profession, turns one year old this March. Ahead of its first birthday—coinciding with the 30th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN 2015)—Media Access Australia spoke to IAAP’s CEO, Chris Peck, for a look at the organisation’s achievements so far.

Portrait of IAAP CEO, Chris Peck

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ACMA reports on Australians’ online video use

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The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued a report which looks at the different ways that Australians are viewing TV programs, with the catch-up TV services being particularly popular. This highlights the need for captioning on these services.

Man sitting back on couch with hands interlocked behind his head, watching TV. Image credit: D.Reichardt, Flickr

Taxonomy:

TV & video

Web

ACMA, Australian Communications and Media Authority

TV access

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Audio description app trialled in the UK

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The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has commenced a trial of a new app designed to deliver audio description for programs on video-on-demand services.

MovieReading logo

The app was developed by the Italian company Universal Multimedia Access, which also created the MovieReading app. This allows a caption file for a movie to be downloaded to a user’s smartphone or tablet, so that the captions can be watched as the movie screens in a cinema.

Taxonomy:

Audio description

Digital media and technology:

iOS

Android

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Coles web accessibility case settled

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The case against grocery retailer Coles, for the alleged inaccessibility of its online shopping service, has been settled.

Miniature shopping cart resting on a laptop keyboard. Image credit: Tim Reckmann, Flickr

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Solutions

Inclusion

Digital media and technology:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

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Harvard & MIT sued over lack of captions

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Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are being sued for the alleged discrimination against people who are Deaf or hearing impaired by failing to caption the videos they provide online, such as in the universities’ popular Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Exterior shot of Harvard's Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, students walking around nearby

Taxonomy:

Disadvantaged

Inclusion

Digital media and technology:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Techniques

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Senate committee reports on proposed captioning changes

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The Senate committee which reviewed the Government’s proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act, including changes to the captioning provisions, has issued its report. It has supported all but one of the proposed changes, including an end to the requirement that free-to-air networks need to make annual captioning compliance reports. The only amendment it has rejected is the cancellation of a scheduled review by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), although it recommends this be delayed by three years.

Fine tip pen resting on a printed document

Taxonomy:

TV & video

ACMA, Australian Communications and Media Authority

BSA, Broadcasting Services Act 1992

Legislation

TV access

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Read more about Senate committee reports on proposed captioning changes

Think ‘Smart’ – IEP goals for access

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Part of the core work for teachers is to create learning goals for their students, on a class and at times individual basis. It is imperative that teachers include goals for all students in regard to access to media and technology, to ensure access to the curriculum.

Young boy in a classroom pressing down on a tablet device

Taxonomy:

Audio description

Digital media and technology:

Techniques

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YouTube admits automatic captions have a way to go

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Google’s YouTube has admitted that it needs to work harder to provide better quality automatic captions for content uploaded to its video streaming service.

YouTube logo on a frame of a filmstrip

In comments made to the BBC, YouTube said that, while it believed having automatic captioning for video content was better than have no captioning at all, there was still plenty of room for improvement.

Taxonomy:

Web

Digital media and technology:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

YouTube

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YouTube embraces HTML5

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The accessibility of Google’s YouTube video service looks set to improve thanks to the recent decision by the internet giant to abandon Adobe’s Flash technology in favour of the fifth and final version of the Hyper Text Markup Language, HTML5.

HTML 5 logo

In a recent blog post, YouTube Engineering Manager Richard Leider wrote that this was largely due to a maturing of HTML5—a core technology underpinning the web, and as at late 2014, an official Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.

Taxonomy:

Web

Practical web accessibility

Inclusion

Audio description

Digital media and technology: