1.3 Accessibility as a process
The two-senses principle – that it must be possible to understand any information via at least two senses – is relevant to accessibility. We have decided on visual and audio presentation: any spoken information should also be accessible visually in written form and the appropriate sign language; any visual content should also be explained in speech and/or made accessibly available in written form.
Reflecting on your own teaching practice, identifying assumptions and barriers and consequently adapting your didactic methods and the materials used is an ongoing process. Even if the goal is accessibility, to begin with the process often ends with removal of barriers. Of course, each barrier that is removed is a step in the right direction towards structuring your teaching accessibly, and thereby enabling accessibility for all.
- Find out which aspects of accessibility need to be considered in your national context and which standards have to be met (see 1.2 Legal requirements and accessibility components in video recordings).
- Arrange participation before start of the project. Deaf, hearing impaired, blind and visually impaired people should be involved on an equal footing from the start and throughout the entire project.
- Choose the technical systems on which the videos will be used and what technical requirements the videos have to meet (see 2.1.2 Digital infrastructure and technical equipment).
- Decide whether the project will be developed entirely internally or if part of it is outsourced (see 2.1.1 Finance, personnel and time).
- Good equipment and/or a professional (in-house) studio are crucial to good image and sound quality (see 2.1.1 Finance, personnel and time).
- Establish feedback cycles from each team member. This can help to structure the individual tasks and firm up the organisation of work and the arrangement of content (see 2.1.3 Content and layout).
- A storyboard with key details about verbal and visual information can make decisions about realising accessibility easier (see 2.1.3 Content and layout).
- When designing slides, you must remember to leave sufficient space for subtitling and a sign language interpreter (for general information about sign language interpreting see Benner & Herrmann 2020), as they should not obscure the content of the slides (see 2.1.3 Content and layout).
- Writing a manuscript makes realisation easier: it can be used as a basis for subtitling, for translation into sign language, and for transcription; it also makes it clear where audio description is necessary (see 2.1.3 Content and layout).
