Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New White Paper discusses accessible online programming

From AbledBody:

The French Chef Still Waits for The Annoying Orange:
Making online programming accessible to people with disabilities

By Suzanne Robitaille and Michael Janger
abledbody
December 16, 2010

Download the white paper here.

Synopsis

The new Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will make it easier for people with disabilities to access TV programs over the Internet. While the law is a tremendous step in the right direction, a surge in new types of online programming, such as Webisodes and streaming movies, are still not captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. This issue has drawn the attention of federal law enforcers, including the Department of Justice, which is considering the possibility of revising the Americans with Disabilities Act to address accessible web information and services, movie captioning and video descriptions.

This white paper lays out the current online programming landscape and attempts to analyze:

- What the law covers, and what content is not covered
- Why all emerging programming delivered online should be accessible
- The business case for making online programming more accessible
- What we can expect from the industry going forward

This paper is designed as an up-to-date resource for law enforcers and policymakers; companies and organizations that create multimedia content; web producers and developers; and people with disabilities and others dealing with physical or mental conditions.

Contact information:

Suzanne Robitaille
203-832-4107
suzanne@abledbody.com

Megan McDonnell
203-249-3438
megan@abledbody.com