Tools & Guidelines

Software and other bits

• MAGpie, free software for adding captions and video descriptions to QuickTime, Windows Media, Real and Flash multimedia
• CCforFlash, a free Flash component that can be used to display captions of Flash video and audio content
• ccPlayer and ccMP3Player, free players that incorporate CCforFlash components; useful for non-Flash authors who want to add captions to Flash video or audio, respectively
• NCAM QA Favelet, a tool to help developers identify accessibility problems on Web pages
• STEP, the Simple Tool for Error Prioritization for Section 508 compliance
• Caption, description and Web-accessibilty symbols, copyright-free; use to indicate that you have provided these accessibility services

Guidelines, Standards and Recommendations

• Access to Emergency Alerts for People with Disabilities: Recommendations for Accessible Emergency Notification, result of a multi-year project, funded by the U.S Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program
• Accessible Digital Media, general guidelines for making multimedia accessible as well as Web pages and other electronic publications
• Creating Accessible iBooks Textbooks with iBooks Author, guidelines to help you create multi-touch iBooks Textbooks that are as accessible as possible
• Creating Accessible iTunes U Content (links to guidelines on iTunes U site), published by NCAM and Apple. Detailed information about adding captions, audio descriptions and subtitles to iTunes U multimedia. Also contains guidelines on creating accessible PDFs. If you don't have access to iTunes, you can also view and download the guidelines from the NCAM Web site.
• Creating Talking Menus for Set-top Boxes and DVDs, a developer's guide
• Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP), the timed-text format from the W3C
• Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital Talking Books, information on describing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) images
• QuickTime Descriptors, instructions on how to control the appearance of QTText tracks in QuickTime videos
• Section 508 Guidelines, the official guidelines from the U.S. Access Board
• SMIL 3.0, including information on smilText
• Web Accessibility Initiative, the W3C's home for all things related to Web accessibility
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, the latest set of accessibility recommendations from the Web Accessibility Initiative at the W3C

Examples of Rich Media

• Accessible Webcasts from WGBH, captioned and described Web videos from WGBH's TV programs and teacher resources
• Captions and Subtitles in YouTube Videos, instructions on making YouTube videos accessible
• Hulu, where you can watch many captioned videos
• Joe Cocker, captioned for the clear-headed
• Lion King, a demonstration of audio descriptions
• Peep and the Big Wide World, showing captions using NCAM's CCforFlash component
• Masterpiece Theatre: The Wind in the Willows with audio descriptions (downloadable audio clips)
• Perkins School for the Blind Webcasts, a showcase for embedded Flash videos containing both captions and audio descriptions
• Talking MythTV, a demonstration of an open-source TV set-top box platform that incorporates speech synthesis to allow use by people who are blind or visually impaired
• Teachers' Domain, a resource for teachers containing captioned and described video clips
• Ten O'Clock News video gallery, with captions and descriptions
• Walter Lewin lecture, demonstrating Google's new ASR captions and translation
• Whitney Signs, a brief captioned video from the Whitney Museum of American Art