Audio Description Terrill Thompson Manager IT Accessibility Team

Audio Description Terrill Thompson Manager, IT Accessibility Team tft@uw. edu

#BESTOFUW 2016 Source: http: //uw. edu/president/2016/12/21/best-of-uw/

Agenda • Prioritizing: Determining which videos are most in need of audio description • How to describe: 3 (maybe 4) approaches • Avoiding the need for audio description

What is audio description? • A separate narration track that verbally describes key visual content that is not accessible via audio alone. • Also known as "descriptive video", "description", etc. • "Extended audio description" = audio description that requires a pause (i. e. , if there aren't enough gaps in the audio to insert description)

Prioritizing (1 of 2) • Prioritize the need for accessibility overall • • By audience demographics By traffic By publication date If videos are on You. Tube, use YTCA

Prioritizing (2 of 2) • Does the video need description? • If you watch the video with your eyes closed, are there any important details that you're missing? • High priority = Nothing makes sense with audio alone. • Medium priority = The video is generally understandable, but critical details are lost. • Low priority = Some information is lost, but it isn't critical.

What Priority is This? • Time Lapse of Elwha River Dam Removals (Burke Museum) • IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Have to Say • Teamwork: Making IT Accessible at the UW and Statewide

How to describe: 3 (maybe 4) approaches 1. Hire a traditional audio description service provider 2. Hire a captioning vendor, and get audio description as an add-on service 3. Do it yourself using a timed text file 4. Have students do it

Approach #1 Hire a Traditional Description Provider • Directory of nearly 100 service providers (American Council of the Blind) • Our survey narrowed the list to 7 providers (see our Making Video Accessible page) • Our primary vendor: Audio Eyes • • • $11/minute (slightly more if extended is needed) Longstanding leaders in audio description industry Narrated with professional voiceover talent Professionally mixed A typical deliverable: An audio-described version of the video

Approach #1 Example

Approach #2 Hire a Captioning Vendor • 3 Play. Media and Automatic Sync both provide audio description now. • The cost is slightly less. 3 Play. Media's price: • $7. 50/minute standard • $11/minute extended • Additional costs for expedited requests • However, captioning is required (even if video is already captioned). • The output uses synthesized speech • A typical deliverable: An audio-described version of the video, but many other choices

Approach #2 Example: 3 Play. Media

Lots of options

Lots of choices for output • • MP 4 or OGG - Video with audio description mixed in MP 3, WAV, or OGG – Audio description as audio only 3 Play. Media plugin - See Examples page Web. VTT – see Approach #3

Approach #3: Web. VTT for Audio Description WEBVTT 00: 00. 000 --> 00: 02. 000 Ana Mari Cauce, President, University of Washington 00: 40. 000 --> 00: 44. 000 Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy, Cornell University 00: 01: 22. 000 --> 00: 01: 32. 000 Edward Ray, President, Oregon State University

Advantages of Approach #3 • It's easy! • Create a description file from scratch in any text editor. • Use a caption editor, but enter description text rather than captions (and download Web. VTT file when finished). • It's built into the HTML 5 specification. <track kind="descriptions" src="somefile. vtt"> • Only one video is needed. • "Extended audio description" doesn't require a separate video. The video can automatically pause when description is present.

Disadvantages of Approach #3 • It currently only works in Able Player. • Audio description is an art. • Only DIY if the needs are simple. • Videos with high needs are better left to the pros.

Approach #4 Have Students Do It • What would students do? • Daniel Zhu • Arthur Liu

An opportunity: Washington State Audio Description Project • March – June 2021 • Funding and support available to get high priority videos described • A statewide effort, designed to get more videos described at colleges and universities throughout the state. • Got videos? Interested in participating? Let me know. Terrill, tft@uw. edu