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Subject:
From:
Catherine Alfieri <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
* EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
Date:
Thu, 21 Aug 2003 11:54:08 -0400
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WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media Publishes
"A Developers Guide to Creating Talking Menus for Set-top Boxes and DVDs"

Guidelines Available to Download Free of Charge at
http://ncam.wgbh.org/resources/talkingmenus/

The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at Boston public broadcaster
WGBH announces the publication of  "A Developer's Guide to Creating Talking
Menus for Set-top Boxes and DVDs."  The models and suggestions presented in
these guidelines reflect lessons learned during development of talking menu
prototypes for electronic program guides. Guidelines also reflect WGBH's
experience in actual product development of accessible DVDs in conjunction
WGBH's Interactive division and with the staff of the PBS series AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE.  

The guidelines are the result of a project, funded by the U.S. Department of
Education, to research and address the barriers for users who are blind or
visually impaired to the growing number of products and services that rely
on navigating on-screen menus via remote controls.

The television set used to be a simple appliance.  Its interface was
mechanical-- a few rotary knobs that clicked from position to position,
providing tactile feedback and thus a form of accessibility to users who
could not see.  Similarly, users who are blind could load a videotape into a
VCR and play a movie by memorizing the functions of a few buttons on the
remote control.

Today, selecting a program or playing a DVD is a far more complex and
interactive experience, one that relies on the ability to navigate through
on-screen menus via one or more remote controls. DVD interfaces present
users with graphics-rich menus that offer many choices-- between chapter
selections of a movie or documentary and a host of bonus materials such as
games, music videos and commentary.  Similarly, digital set-top boxes are
the keys to a kingdom of news, entertainment and other services, all at your
fingertips as long as you can view the options of the electronic program
guides (or EPGs) to make your selections.

Blind and visually impaired users must be able to easily track available
program and service options, and accessibility solutions must anticipate how
users interact with graphic-rich user interfaces.  The integration of
accessibility solutions into this expanding collection of media formats will
offer significant gains to all users in homes, schools, workplaces and on
our travels.

Here are few of the questions developers of talking menus will want to
consider, and which are explored in the publication:

*  How should the talking menu behave on startup?
*  How should the user enable or disable the audio-navigation system?
*  What should the interface do to prevent a user from becoming lost?
*  What kind of audio feedback should the interface provide as the user
moves from selection to selection?
*  Is the menu system a grid?
*  Is the menu system designed to deliver information or make choices to
drive a process?

Chapters such as "Defining the Problem," "Exploring Solutions," "The Art of
Design," "Prompts and Responses: System Concerns for Talking Menus,"
"Speaking of Graphics," "Best Practices for Talking Menus," and separate
how-to sections for developers of set-top boxes and DVDs are included.

"A Developer's Guide to Creating Talking Menus for Set-top Boxes and DVDs"
is available to download at http://ncam.wgbh.org/resources/talkingmenus/.  A
list of fully accessible DVDs, which include closed captioning for deaf and
hard of hearing users, audio descriptions and talking menus for blind and
visually impaired users, is available at
http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/accessible-dvds.html

WGBH's work on talking menus grows out of three decades of experience
pioneering and furthering access solutions to mass media for people with
sensory disabilities.  WGBH developed captioning for television in the early
70s, brought audio description (which describes on-screen action, settings,
costumes and character expressions during pauses in dialogue) to television
and videos in the late '80s.  Throughout the 90s, these services were
applied and integrated into other forms of mass media, including movie
theaters (via WGBH's "MoPix" technology and service), Web sites (via WGBH's
MAGpie, a free software tool that enables do-it-yourself captioning and
description for digitized media) and classrooms (through projects which
utilize captioning and description to increase literacy levels and foster
inclusiveness for all students).  Today, all of WGBH's access initiatives
are gathered in one division, the Media Access Group at WGBH.

Related Projects and Resources:
Access to Digital Television <http://www.dtvaccess.org> - A multi-year
effort to maintain and expand access via captioning and description to
digital television.  Work includes participating on industry committees of
the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Advanced
Television Systems Committee and the Consumer Electronics Association with
the involvement of major consumer organizations representing people with
disabilities.  Funding for these efforts are provided by the Corporate for
Public Broadcasting and the U.S. Department of Education.

Access to Physics Interactive Video Tutor (PIVoT) - A multi-year
collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design
access interfaces for an online physics course.  The resulting guidelines
for creating accessible Web sites and software are now available from NCAM
<http://ncam.wgbh.org/cdrom/guideline/>.  Funding was provided by the
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Access to Rich Media <http://ncam.wgbh.org/richmedia/> - The Access to Rich
Media project is developing captioning and description software tools for
rich media and establishing a Rich Media Accessibility Web site to provide
Web designers, multimedia developers, consumers, and access technology
researchers with a centralized source of information and tools for making
multimedia accessible. Funding is provided by the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of
Education.

Beyond the Text <http://ncam.wgbh.org/ebooks/> - NCAM's Beyond the Text
project is researching ways to make multimedia (images, audio and video)
used in e-books accessible to people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or
visually impaired.  Funding is provided by NIDRR, U.S. Department of
Education. 

About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source
of nearly one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup and companion online content
as well as many public radio favorites. Its production menu is diverse,
including Nova, Frontline, American Experience, Antiques Roadshow,
ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre, Arthur, and Zoom on PBS and The World and
Sound & Spirit on public radio. WGBH is a pioneer in educational multimedia
(including the Web, broadband, and interactive television) and in
technologies and services that make media accessible for people with
disabilities. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys,
Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards… even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored
with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For
more information visit www.wgbh.org.

Contact:  Mary Watkins, Media Access Group at WGBH
617 300-3700 voice, 617 300-2489 TTY
[log in to unmask]
http://access.wgbh.org






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