Transcriptions/Close Captioning

i. Making video accessible takes several steps. According to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG), there must be a text equivalent for all non-text content and there must be synchronized media equivalents for time-dependent presentations To clarify, there must be captions for audio and audio descriptions for the video.
1. Captions are text equivalents of auditory information from speech, sound effects, and ambient sounds that are synchronized with the multimedia presentation.
2. Audio descriptions are equivalents of visual information from actions, body language, graphics, and scene changes that are voiced (either by a human or a speech synthesizer) and synchronized with the multimedia presentation.
3. MAGpie, created by the WGBH, is a freeware captioning/audio description tool. It is the only available captioning program for video on the web right now. MAGpie outputs the necessary files to play in RealPlayer (SMIL, .rt), QuickTime (SMIL, .txt), or Windows Player (SAMI).
ii. Alt Text
1. The alt-text attribute provides a description phrase for each image. Short for alternative text, alt-text is simply a way to provide text equivalents to non-text elements on a page. This includes images, graphical representations of text including symbols, image map regions, animations, scripts, and images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, etc.
a. Keep the wording simple.
b. Sometimes it is easier to describe what the function of the graphic is rather than what it is or looks like.
(e.g., The function of a navigation button is more important than what it looks like)
c. Imagine that you are describing this image or its function to a friend over the telephone. This technique will work well for constructing proper alt-text.
2. Adding alt-text to an image in Macromedia Dreamweaver is done through the Image Properties palette. To add alt-text inside Dreamweaver, select the image by clicking once on it. Enter a short description (up to 256 characters) of the image in the Alt box inside the Image Properties palette
iii. Descriptive Link
1. There are instances where alt-text just can't convey enough information about an image. A d-link can be used to more clearly convey information about an image
2. A D-link is used to provide longer descriptions or an in-depth description of something the author of the page wants to include more details about. The D-link, is only a small, very unobtrusive D (lower or upper case is the choice of the designer) on the graphical page. This is the only instance where the graphical version of the page will be altered.
3. Creation of a D-link takes several steps:
a. The letter "d" is placed next to an image.
b. The designer creates a new web page and types the detailed description of the image. This page is saved with an appropriate name.
c. Make the "d" into a link connecting the user to the descriptive file created in step #2.