The only known way to make movies accessible to people with disabilities is to embed the accessibility information in the data stream so that it is time-synched with the other information.

Two types of alternate format information are needed to make video accessible:

Audio: Captions or other visual representations of all important information in the sound track should be provided. (Some data structures such as QuickTime movies already have a mechanism for adding captions to the data structures.)

Video: For people who are blind or who have low vision, a technique called Descriptive Video is used which provides an additional narrator describing what is happening, in between the regular dialog of the movie.

Text transcripts should be provided for both Audio and Video for users with text-based browsers and/or no helper apps.

Solution strategies in the future

Eventually, all data structures should allow captions and audio or text descriptions of movies to be embedded in the data storage and transport formats.

Servers should allow any combination of video, audio, caption, or description to be fetched on command.

Viewers or players (helper applications) should allow users to specify and display any combination of the above.

Solutions today

Captions (for those who do not have access to sound)

Approach 4-1: (Recommended)
If the external viewer being used will display "closed" or embedded captions (e.g. Quicktime) , captions can be embedded in the data structure of the movie.

Approach 4-2: (Good Alternate)
A strategy which works for all movie viewers today is to have an alternate version of the movie available with open (permanent) captions which a user can choose instead of the uncaptioned version if they wish.

Approach 4-3: (Good as supplement)
In addition to providing captions in the movie, it is also useful to provide a separate transcript of the audio track of the movie. It usually takes quite a while to download a movie file, and a text transcript of the audio can usually be downloaded quickly and allow one to prescreen the item before deciding whether to take the time to download it.

Descriptive Video: (For those who cannot see the video portion of the movie)

Approach 4-4: If the movie format allows alternate audio tracks (e.g.Quicktime) you can provide an alternate track which includes the descriptive narration.

Approach 4-5: If your movie format does not, you can provide an alternate form of the movie with the descriptive narration included in the audio track.

Approach 4-6:

In addition to providing a transcript of the basic audio track of the movie, it is also useful to include the text of the Descriptive Video in the transcript.

Example - Quicktime

In Quicktime you can add as many Audio or Video Tracks as you wish. The user can then select as few or many of the tracks as desired when they view the Quicktime Clip.

Tracks could include

• The regular Video Track

• The regular Audio Track

• A text Track with captions

• An Audio Track with Video Descriptions Added

• An additional Video Track with American Sign Language Translation

• Additional Text or Audio or Video Tracks to provide other languages

Other Advantages

In addition to the access advantages of these approaches, there are also other benefits as well.

1. Movies with captions can be indexed based on their captions and found using text searches of the net.
   

2. You can search for words within the captions of a movie and jump to that position in the movie.
   

3. If descriptions are provided in text mode as well, you can index and search for any VIDEO information which is contained in the descriptions.
   

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