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I’ve low imaginative and prescient and primarily entry info visually, utilizing methods like massive print, excessive distinction, and different accessibility instruments and settings to make content material simpler to me to see. Regardless that I can use my eyes to have a look at pictures or movies, I don’t all the time know what I’m taking a look at or what to do with this info, or I assume it’s one factor when it’s actually one thing else. Methods like zooming in, altering the colours of a picture, or positioning a display screen near my face will be useful, however isn’t all the time sufficient.
One technique that has actually helped me with accessing visible content material is using media descriptions, which on this case is an umbrella time period inclusive of alt textual content, picture descriptions, video descriptions, and audio descriptions— all of that are used to supply nonvisual entry to visible info. The needs of those instruments are sometimes misunderstood as a result of they aren’t as distinguished as different accessibility instruments like captioning, or they’re considered as one thing that solely a small inhabitants would profit from. Here’s a record of explanation why folks with visible impairments use media descriptions for picture and video content material, and the way media descriptions can improve low-visual accessibility and nonvisual accessibility.
Background: What’s audio description? What’s video description?
Audio description, generally known as descriptive audio or described video, is a further narration monitor designed with nonvisual entry in thoughts, offering particulars for all key visible components of a video in order that audiences with visible impairments (inclusive of blind/low imaginative and prescient) can totally take part and have interaction with content material. Audio description is delivered throughout pure pauses in dialogue or music and might help viewers higher perceive what’s going on. Most audio description content material posted on-line is “open”, which means that it doesn’t require any particular gear or headphones to take heed to the extra description monitor.
On this context, video descriptions present a text-based description of visible components in a video, performing as a transcript or abstract that the viewer can learn both with massive print, a display screen reader, or a braille show. The viewer could use the text-based description to supply extra context for what they’re watching or to assist fill in blanks after watching a video, in the end answering the query “what did I simply watch?” Video descriptions will also be a useful software for making movies simpler to find on social media or with search engine marketing.
The first distinction between audio description and video descriptions on this context is that audio descriptions describe every little thing occurring aside from what’s communicated by sound or verbal description; the main focus is on what isn’t being stated or heard. For video descriptions, the audio could also be talked about on the subject of describing tune selection or writing a transcript of spoken content material, however the main focus remains to be on describing visible components of the video.
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Background: What’s alt textual content? What’s picture description?
Various textual content (alt textual content) and picture descriptions are text-based descriptions of visible particulars in a picture written primarily for people who find themselves visually impaired (inclusive of blind, low imaginative and prescient, and neurological visible impairment). For folks with visible impairments that use assistive expertise akin to display screen readers and braille shows, the alt textual content is displayed in lieu of the picture in order that the consumer can get details about what’s in a picture (clean alt textual content could say “picture”, offering no contextual info).
If a picture fails to load on an internet site, alt textual content might be displayed as a substitute, and alt textual content can be used for search engine marketing and picture search instruments— alt textual content is in any other case invisible to customers who don’t use assistive expertise when they’re accessing a picture.
Picture descriptions are just like alt textual content descriptions which can be utilized by display screen readers to acknowledge pictures, however they’re “uncovered” as a caption or as accompanying textual content to a picture in order that anybody can learn them, together with individuals who use assistive expertise. Picture descriptions are sometimes longer than alt textual content however nonetheless concentrate on offering descriptions of visible content material, just like a text-based video description.
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Media descriptions present context
Studying or listening to a media description typically “units the stage” for understanding visible media, and might help viewers perceive why a specific kind of visible content material is necessary, related, or attention-grabbing. A graph that’s simply labeled “graph” isn’t notably significant and implies that the picture is kind of for ornamental functions or that the viewer doesn’t have to know what is definitely within the picture— the identical goes for a video that mentions an object being “over there.”
That is extremely irritating when the picture in query is used to supply extra context for the textual content content material or is getting used as an instance an idea or to reply a query, because the info wanted to grasp what is going on is lacking or unavailable.
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Media descriptions present instruments for the creation of a psychological picture
Excessive-quality media descriptions are written with the purpose of offering details about important traits (salient options) of a picture so that somebody might perceive what’s in a picture with out ever having to have a look at it. Throughout the academic context, media descriptions play a key function in serving to people to kind psychological fashions of things, and can be utilized alongside different media like high-contrast pictures, tactile fashions/tactile graphics, sonification, motion, and different codecs to kind an understanding of what’s in a picture.
In lots of circumstances, media descriptions alert me to issues that I may not have in any other case seen if I used to be simply taking a look at one thing visually, or they assist me perceive how a number of visible parts match collectively to kind the picture I’m taking a look at.
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Media descriptions present clarification
Each time I take a look at any kind of visible content material, I typically ask myself two questions, and hold asking them till I’m assured that the reply to the second query is sure:
- What am I taking a look at?
- Does that make sense?
To provide an instance, my pal and I had been on a stroll after I seen what regarded like a large rabbit costume on one other a part of the sidewalk. It didn’t make sense for somebody to be dressed like that in the midst of our faculty campus, so I stored looping the query about what I used to be taking a look at in my head, making an attempt to provide you with a extra affordable reply— is it a statue? An indication? A stuffed animal? A extremely huge canine? An attention-grabbing hat and jacket combo? I stored wanting on the merchandise hoping it could turn into clearer and I might determine what it really was.
My pal seen I used to be fixated on taking a look at this merchandise, laughed, after which stated “I do know what you’re pondering— sure, that’s somebody dressed as a rabbit.”
After I’m taking a look at pictures or movies, media descriptions can present clarification or reassurance that I’ve recognized one thing accurately, particularly if it’s one thing that’s surprising or doesn’t “slot in” with different visible info. As an alternative of spending time making an attempt to determine if I used to be taking a look at an individual in a rabbit go well with or not, a media description helps to reduce this guessing recreation by letting me know what’s in a picture so I can concentrate on different traits or comply with together with a storyline.
Simply figuring out it’s a picture or a photograph isn’t essentially useful— I’d have nonetheless been confused if my pal instructed me that the factor I used to be taking a look at was simply an object as a result of that didn’t inform me what I wanted (or wished) to know.
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Media descriptions present a companion for accessing info
Similar to how I used my pal to assist me determine what I used to be taking a look at throughout our stroll, media descriptions will also be used as a companion that may assist customers establish what’s in a picture. Just like a map with areas of curiosity or a information to exploring a specific space, media descriptions are helpful for understanding a picture or visible content material. Some examples of questions that may be answered by media descriptions embrace:
- What are the important thing options that somebody ought to search for in a picture, not less than from the attitude of the particular person writing the outline?
- What attribute(s) ought to somebody discover as they discover a picture or video additional?
- If there may be textual content, what does it say?
- What ought to somebody learn about this picture or different visible content material, and the way does it connect with different info (e.g. accompanying textual content, different scenes/pictures)
These are all questions that I’d ask an precise particular person when getting an outline of one thing, and having this included in a media description makes it simpler for me to entry info independently. Some discover it useful to think about giving media descriptions as in the event that they had been on a cellphone name describing a picture to a pal, whereas others discover it useful to think about they’re describing an merchandise on a podcast the place the listener can’t ask clarifying questions.
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Media descriptions present customization
Media descriptions present choices for customizing how somebody accesses visible content material by guaranteeing they aren’t restricted to simply accessing it visually. Instruments like display screen readers and braille shows will learn text-based descriptions in lieu of displaying pictures, and audio description for video content material can be utilized to supply choices for listening to content material with out having to have a look at it, which will be useful for folks with mild sensitivity.
There are additionally choices for customizing media descriptions totally to suit the wants of the consumer. An instance of rising expertise inside the space of media descriptions is scene description instruments that use image-understanding and/or video-understanding to explain what’s in a picture or video and reply questions on it. These instruments can be utilized alongside present media descriptions to reply questions or present much more detailed descriptions, which might help customers get a greater understanding of what’s in a picture or to find areas of curiosity.
Some examples of instruments that present entry to customization for visible descriptions and answering questions on visible content material embrace:
- Google Lens
- Microsoft Seeing AI, particularly the picture recognition characteristic
- Envision AI
- Be My Eyes (Be My AI/ChatGPT)
- Described and Captioned Media Program scene description software
Whereas this software doesn’t reply questions on what’s in a picture, the JAWS display screen reader additionally has a Image Sensible AI software that can be utilized to generate each brief descriptions and longer detailed descriptions of visible content material.
