TORONTO – Media Access Canada said today it has published the first chapter in its Accessible Content Best Practices Guide for Digital Environments.
The descriptive video production and presentation best practices guide identifies and explains the many variables involved in describing a television program or movie. The remaining six chapters will be published over the next two years.
The guide was developed “after a four-month international literature review establishing the lack of an open source best practices guide for descriptive video as well as an almost complete absence of work on accessible content for digital environments,” says the group’s release. “The lack of a best practices guide and detailed research on the issue has stalled the development of a healthy accessible content production industry and resulted in huge variations in quality of closed captioning and descriptions during the analogue to digital transition.”
“While Canadian broadcasters participated in the DV working group, we have formally invited the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and its members to work with us, on an on-going basis, with a view to completing the entire best practices guide and updating it on the MAC web site regularly,” said Beverley Milligan, CEO of MAC, in the release.
The publication will be housed permanently on the MAC web site, www.mediac.ca and updated based on comments received.
