[Blindmath] WGBH Releases Guidelines for Describing STEM Images Within Digital Talking Books and on Web Sites

Fri Sep 25 15:26:59 UTC 2009

Jamal,
Thank you that reminder. You are correct that we have offered previous
guidelines in a single downloadable (or printable) file. I will see if we
can put that together.

Madeleine Rothberg
WGBH National Center for Accessible Media

On 9/24/09 5:02 PM, "Jamal Mazrui" <Jamal.Mazrui at fcc.gov> wrote:

> Is it possible to download the complete set of guidelines as a single
> file (in any format)?  Unlike other publications on your site, I could
> not find a version that combined the individual web pages.
> 
> Regards,
> Jamal
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Mary Watkins
> Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 3:14 PM
> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Blindmath] WGBH Releases Guidelines for Describing STEM Images
> Within Digital Talking Books and on Web Sites
> 
> 
>          September 24, 2009
> 
> WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media Publishes Free Guidelines
> for Describing STEM Images for Use within Digital Talking Books and on
> Web Sites
> 
> Free Webinars Scheduled
> 
> A significant amount of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
> information is presented visually, from graphs and tables to diagrams
> and math equations. Students and professionals in the STEM fields who
> are blind or have low vision must find methods of accessing this data.
> In many cases, they rely on assistants to read and describe images in
> order to stay current with content in their fields of study.
> This creates a dependence that is inefficient, expensive and time
> consuming. Access to text through electronic files and digital talking
> books (DTBs) has created a great deal of independence for these users.
> NCAM's publication of these new guidelines means that presenting
> meaningful information about the images accompanying text can be more
> readily achieved.
> 
> "Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital
> Talking Books" is the result of a seminal 4-year effort encompassing
> multiple surveys with describers and with students and scientists with
> vision loss to research preferred practices for description of visual
> information in textbooks and journals.
> WGBH's Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media
> (NCAM) undertook this research thanks to a grant (# 04535663) from the
> National Science Foundation (NSF).
> 
> WGBH worked in close collaboration with the American Foundation for the
> Blind (AFB), and together they assembled a broader network of
> researchers and experts including Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic,
> Inc. (RFB&D); the American Printing House for the Blind (APH); scientist
> and former NSF program officer Lawrence Scadden, and DAISY (Digital
> Accessible Information System) Consortium Secretary General George
> Kerscher. The DAISY Consortium is the world-wide network of libraries,
> publishers and service organizations that developed the DTB standard.
> All project partners contributed to the DAISY/NISO standard and all
> partners were among the 40 members of the National File Format Panel,
> which produced the National Instructional Materials Accessibility
> Standard (NIMAS).
> 
> Chapters of the new guidelines cover description of a variety of
> information types, including bar charts, line graphs, Venn diagrams,
> tables, pie charts, flow charts and complex diagrams and illustrations.
> A resource section is also included, providing links to many
> organizations, tools and standards which all contribute to generating
> more accessible STEM materials. The guidelines are available online at:
> 
> <http://ncam.wgbh.org/publications/stemdx/intro.html>http://ncam.wgbh.or
> g/publications/stemdx/intro.html
> 
> NCAM staff will provide training for implementing these STEM Description
> Guidelines through free webinars. The dates and times for the webinars,
> which last an hour and a half, appear below.  The same training is
> offered at each webinar; you can register for the time most convenient
> for you by sending an email to
> <stemdescription at wgbh.htm>stemdescription at wgbh.org
> 
> Wednesday, September 30 at 10:00 a.m. EST Monday, October 20 at 1:30
> p.m. EST Thursday, December 3 at Noon EST
> 
> Additional dates will be offered in 2010. These sessions are available
> at no cost thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation (grant
> # 0833608).
> 
> Comment from a recent webinar participant:
> 
> "It was an excellent program and very helpful. I will be using what I
> learned to train my students to create more accessible image
> descriptions. Thank you."
> 
> Donna M. Kachlic
> Disability Support Services Specialist
> The University of Texas at Tyler
> 
> "Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital
> Talking Books" joins several other NCAM publications and tools that
> enable and promote access to media for all users. Among them:
> 
> * "Accessible Digital Media: Design Guidelines for Electronic
> Publications, Multimedia and the Web"
> * "A Developer's Guide to Creating Talking Menus for Set-top Boxes and
> DVDs"
> * "IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications"
> * MAGpie, the Media Access Generator (free, do-it-yourself software for
> creating captions and descriptions for multimedia)
> 
> Links to all these resources are available at NCAM's site,
> <<http://ncam.wgbh.org>http://ncam.wgbh.org>
> 
> About NCAM
> 
> The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at
> WGBH is a research, development and advocacy entity that works to make
> existing and emerging technologies accessible to all audiences. NCAM is
> part of the Media Access Group at WGBH, which also includes The Caption
> Center (est. 1972) and Descriptive Video Service(r) (est. 1990). Follow
> the Media Access Group on Facebook.
> 
> About WGBH
> 
> WGBH Boston
> <<http://www.wgbh.org>http://www.wgbh.org> is America's preeminent
> public broadcaster, producing such celebrated national PBS series as
> Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience,
> Arthur, Curious George and more than a dozen other award-winning
> primetime, lifestyle and children's series. WGBH is the leading producer
> of online content for pbs.org-- one of the most-visited dot-org sites on
> the
> Internet-- a major producer for public radio and a pioneer in developing
> educational multimedia and new technologies that make media accessible
> for people with disabilities. For its efforts, WGBH has been recognized
> with hundreds of honors, including Oscars, Emmys, Peabodys and
> duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards.
> 
> Contact:
> 
> Mary Watkins, WGBH
> <mary_watkins at wgbh.htm>mary_watkins at wgbh.org
> 617 300-3700 voice
> 617 300-2589 TTY
> <http://access.wgbh.org>http://access.wgbh.org
> 
> -end-
> 
> 
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