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Top 12 of 12 #8 – the captioning grant

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The captioning grant, funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and administered by Media Access Australia, has seen many hundreds of hours of videos captioned since it began in the 1990s. 2012 has been another big year for the grant, with over 170 hours of video captioned for 16 organisations.

When the grant began, it was used to fund the captioning of entertainment videos, but it has evolved over the years and is now used to caption DVDs and online videos with an education or community focus. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the grant this year was Education Services Australia, which provides online videos that can be accessed by schools and used as curriculum material. This was mostly in the form of short film clips, including newsreels and other historical material from the National Film and Sound Archive.


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Can machines make audio description easier?

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The question of whether automated tools help or hinder the production of access services, such as audio description, was a much discussed topic at the Languages and the Media conference held in Berlin in November.

The main issue is the effect of replacing a human voice with a synthetic one on the experience for the viewer. This and a number of other potential issues are discussed in more detail below.


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A Charlie Chaplin classic gets the audio description treatment

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Canadian access company Descriptive Video Works has audio described the vintage silent film The Gold Rush to bring to life one of Charlie Chaplin’s most famous works for the blind and vision impaired.

Audio description is normally provided for content that has a range of other aural elements, such as dialogue, sound effects and music, all of which play important roles in storytelling. The challenge presented by a silent film for audio describers is that apart from music, all elements of the movie must be described, as there is no dialogue or sound effects.


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Access to social media can save lives

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When Hurricane Sandy bore down on the USA’s east coast, people turned to social media such as Twitter for the latest information. Sadly, due to the lack of social media accessibility, many couldn’t make use of these potentially life-saving tools. To rectify this, volunteers have come together to create the Emergency 2.0 Wiki Accessibility Toolkit.

The online toolkit provides tips, resources and apps to assist people with a disability to overcome the accessibility challenges of social media. The kit also includes guidelines for emergency agencies and government.

The author of our social media guide, Dr Scott Hollier, assisted on the project.


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