User-generated & multi-media content challenges and opportunities for
accessibility
Jonathan Hassell
Head of Audience Experience and Usability
BBC UX&D
AbilityNet Accessibility 2.0 conference 25th April 2008
What I’m going to talk about…
• BBC & accessibility – some history
• Why web 2.0 changes the rules for
accessibility…
• UGC – responsibility and creation
• Multimedia - opportunities and threats
• Beyond Inclusion – inspirational future thinking
Slide 2
BBC & accessibility – a brief history
• BBC long-term commitment to making its output as
accessible as possible to all audiences to fulfil its public
service remit
• Three themes:
•
inclusion, personalisation, and beyond inclusion
• TV/radio:
•
body of experience within the BBC of disability issues
– TV accessibility – subtitles, signing, audio-description [inclusion]
– established programmes and audiences (e.g. See Hear, In Touch),
moving towards mainstream (Desperados) [beyond inclusion]
• Online:
•
•
1998: Betsie – tool for creating text-only personalised web
pages (still used by other sites - e.g. Newcastle City Council)
2002:
– created bbc.co.uk accessibility training course (with AbilityNet) and
set accessibility standards & guidelines for BBC websites
[inclusion]
– BBC disability website – Ouch! – created [beyond inclusion]
•
2005-6:
– created BIMA award winning My Web, My Way accessibility help
site to help users understand how to customise their computers
(with AbilityNet) [beyond inclusion]
– helped write PAS-78 accessibility commissioning guidelines with
BSI
•
2006-8: Huge amount of work on web 2.0 accessibility
– advising and usability-testing core products with disabled people
e.g. iPlayer, BBC homepage etc. [inclusion]
– personalisation leaps ahead with ATK
– researching groundbreaking accessible games on BBC jam
[beyond inclusion]
Slide 3
Recent example - new BBC Homepage
• An example of inclusion and personalisation coming
together to make an accessible ‘web 2.0’ homepage
“… a lot of sites look up to the BBC for
guidance and inspiration. To see such
an important, highly trafficked and well
respected site come out with a valid,
accessible home page shows everyone
that it can be done.”
Source: unintentionallyblank.co.uk
“…let’s talk about the outrageously
AWESOME stuff first. The Beeb has
included accessibility options on the
beta home page – users can choose
between eight different viewing formats
to help them read the website…”
Source: enable-usability.com
• Complexity of accessibility in practice – JavaScript often seen as
accessibility problem, here was a solution…
Slide 4
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC
• AbilityNet have already illuminated the
many problems which face disabled
people getting into social networking
sites…
• unfortunately that’s only the start of the
accessibility challenge…
• what happens when they get to the
content?
• the site owners used to be the people
who created this
• increasingly now it’s their users
creating the content
• how is this going to change things?
• well, this used to be my main
“accessibility evangelism” slide – how it
used to be…
Slide 5
Accessibility is a partnership
to make a website
accessible, all of the
following need to work
together:
 Website creators
 Assistive technology creators (e.g.
Freedom Scientific, ReadPlease)
 Operating system creators (e.g.
Microsoft, Apple)
 Disability assessment agencies
(e.g. AbilityNet, RNIB)
 Browser creators
(e.g. Microsoft, Opera)
 comms via W3C-WAI…
Slide 6
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
• because of the DDA,
the accessibility
community has had
many successes
persuading site owners
to make their content
accessible...
Slide 7
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
• but how do you persuade
the everyday users of
Blogs, MySpace, Bebo, or YouTube
to make their content
accessible?
Slide 8
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
• we’d all agree UGC is important…
• blogs have been identified as
changing election results
(US 2004-6)
• and many sites have a
“have your say…
now with imaging…”
• AbilityNet have an accessibility
channel on YouTube
• the BBC
has just bought an island
in virtual community
Second Life
Slide 9
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
• if disabled users need ‘accessibility support’
in content, how do we enable this?
• split in responsibility between the tools and
the moderation
• responsibility of the site: the tools to enable
it…
• does the content building tool include a
mechanism for enabling users to include
accessibility support?
• link with the lesser-known
WAI-ATAG guidelines
• quick example of current state of play:
• quick survey of simple “site builders”
(Sept-07) – only 1 in 4 of the sites I tried
allowed me to add alt-text to images
Slide 10
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC - creation
• but it’s not all about disabled people
consuming UGC…
• what about contributing it?
• will the tools allow that?
• for all?
• or will disabled people be left without a
voice in web 2.0?
Slide 11
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC - creation
• for many this is easy…
• for others it’s really not…
• some examples
• people with literacy difficulties
• people whose first language is BSL
Slide 12
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
• responsibility of site/content creators – adding
accessibility support to content (moderation)
• will the site owner let the users know accessibility support is
important?
• will they monitor if users are enriching their content with
accessibility support?
• and if those users aren’t doing this…
• will the site owners do that enrichment themselves, through
moderation?
– it can be costly, and it’s very difficult to automate
– should there be a difference in responsibility between social
networking (e.g. Facebook, YouTube) and more general site
creation tools (e.g. blogger, google page creator)?
– the DDA isn’t clear here
(cf. responsibility of ISPs, Napster etc. for content on them)
• the BBC are looking at how we can do this…
• we’re using the “moderator adds the accessibility” approach
• and trying to be strategic - enriching most popular/quality UGC
Slide 13
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC - creation
• people with literacy difficulties…
• they may want to contribute… but words
are the problem
• so they might not want to add to
wikipedia, as they didn’t want to email into
“have your say?”
– Compare the task of “email friends”
in Facebook (for example)
to Outlook (for example)
• but they might if your site’s text entry
mechanism includes a spell-checker…
– you can find AJAX ones on the web if you
try
• and they might win Upstaged if they
upload their video contribution to it…
Slide 14
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC - creation
• people who use BSL…
• may be happy to use written English in a closedforum with their peers, but may feel intimidated if
mainstream users arrive too…
• but they might put BSL video on YouTube…
• they might even add subtitles or transcripts to
make it accessible to non-BSL users…
Slide 15
Accessibility 2.0 & Multimedia
• moving on to rich media/multimedia
• the bulk of web content used to be text + graphics…
• the content now incorporates
–
–
–
–
–
applications
audio (podcasting)
video
animation
games
• how is this going to change things?
• let’s look at that “accessibility evangelism” slide
again...
Slide 16
Accessibility is a partnership
to make a website
accessible, all of the
following need to work
together:
 Website creators
 Assistive technology creators
(e.g. Freedom Scientific,
ReadPlease)
 Operating system creators (e.g.
Microsoft, Apple)
 Disability assessment agencies
(e.g. AbilityNet, RNIB)
 Browser creators
(e.g. Microsoft, Opera)
 comms via W3C-WAI…
Slide 17
Accessibility 2.0 & Multimedia
• Threats:
• the accessibility chain doesn’t work
any more...
• find me the assistive technology that can:
– make video accessible to blind people…
– or podcasts accessible to deaf people…
– or MMOGs fully accessible to either?
• the problem is that current ATs aren’t
able to “crack” the content
– it’s about the content… not just the controls
– “accessible multi-media browsers” are useful,
but how do you do ‘alt-text’ for a video?
• this is why new techniques are necessary
(cf. WCAG 2)
– the web’s less and less about things which ATs
which handle (esp. screenreaders)
• so it’s up to the content creators
- we need to bring in other accessibility professionals
Slide 18
Accessibility 2.0 and Multimedia
• Opportunities:
• these are huge, for many disabled
people who sometimes get forgotten
– WCAG doesn’t say much about
learning difficulties, autism, Deaf…
– but video, for many, is more accessible
than text
» why have “Plain English” when you
can have TV?
• e.g. rich-media can give us great
opportunities to help Deaf people (BBC R&D)
• get rid of the phrase
“it is/isn’t accessible…”
• replace it with “it is/isn’t accessible to
people with this disability”?
• understand that sometimes you can’t
please all of the people with the same
product…
Slide 19
Personalisation of Multimedia
• accessibility isn’t just for blind people
• get rid of the phrase “it is/isn’t accessible…”
• replace it with “it is/isn’t usable by people
with this disability”?
• understanding that sometimes you can’t
please all of the people with the same
product…
• hence personalisation…
• e.g. access services for TV
– subtitling
– audio description
– signing
• or games
– take all of the above
– and add in 3D immersive environments
– who you gonna call…?
• and if this is UGC… back to that slide again…
Slide 20
Accessibility 2.0 & UGC responsibility
•
responsibility of site/content creators – adding accessibility
support to content (moderation)
•
•
•
•
will the site owner let the users know accessibility support is important?
will they monitor if users are enriching their content with accessibility
support?
and if those users aren’t doing this…
will the site owners do that enrichment themselves, through moderation?
–
–
–
•
it can be costly, and it’s very difficult to automate
should there be a difference in responsibility between social networking
(e.g. Facebook, YouTube) and more general site creation tools (e.g.
blogger, google page creator)?
the DDA isn’t clear here
(cf. responsibility of ISPs, Napster etc. for content on them)
the BBC are looking at how we can do this…
•
•
we’re using the “moderator adds the accessibility” approach
and trying to be strategic - enriching most popular/quality UGC
• if alt-text is costly, that goes double for:
• Subtitles, Audio-description, Signing
• ways of doing this…
• the BBC are looking at the “moderator
adds the accessibility” approach
– and trying to be strategic - enriching most
popular/quality UGC
• ask other motivated users to add the
accessibility (very web 2.0)
– e.g. Porn for the Blind’s audio description
Slide 21
Beyond Inclusion – visions of the
future…
• sometimes even personalisation isn’t
enough…
• when a particular audience needs
something specific to their needs, where
those needs differ from the
“mainstream”
• doing something specifically for a
particular audience can reap benefits…
• and suggest new technologies and
techniques which can suggest:
• new ATs (assistive technologies) and
• new AIs (alternative interfaces)…
• a couple of R&D examples from the BBC:
• a ‘create’ for children who are deaf
– a pointer for Deaf-hearing social
networking
• a way of making 3D soundscapes
accessible to blind children
– through 2D and 3D audiogames
Slide 22
Any questions…
?
Contact: [email protected]
Slide 23