Week 8 - Activity 1.1 Alternative Formats

Make a list of at least five alternative formats in your blog. Use your own experience and any relevant notes from previous weeks to make brief notes for each format about its positive features, its negative features, the technical resources that might be needed to create it, the human resources that might be needed to create it.
Audio Format

• Converting text to audio format by having the content narrated and recorded is a good way of making material accessible to visually imparied people.
• If the audio file is not broken down into chunks it may be difficult for the listener to find the information they are looking for e.g. to skip to a certain chapter in a book. If information is only provided in audio format it would be inaccessible to hearing impared people.
• Most computers can be used to record sound using software included as standard and a microphone. Basic microphones for PCs are inexpensive. Professional sound recording equipment does cost more. The quality of the sound recording will be linked to the quality of the equipment and the environment in which it is recorded
• Depending on the scale of the project there may be need to employ one or more narrators. For professional sound recording and editing a specialist may be required to operate the equipment and to produce the finished audio.

Braille and Tactile Graphics

• Helps deaf-blind people read text and access computers. Electronic text can be converted to braille using braille display hardware. Can help to reduce the bulk of long text.
• Braille will be inaccessible to most other students and tutors unless thay have had special training.
• Braille display hardware can be expensive.
• Specially trained staff will be required for the production of braille materials. They can be produced fairly easily and inexpensively but unless the producer understands how to read the braille they will not be able to check for errors and quality control.

Captioned Videos

• Also called subtitles, captioning makes video accessible to hearing impared people.
• Although they are relatively easy to implement for new projects it may be time consuming to revisit archived videos that are not captioned to make them accessible.
• Most commercially produced DVDs will contain captioning and can be accessed using a standard DVD player.
• Staff trained in using video editing software will be required to produce captioned video material.

Large Print Materials

• It is easy to create large copies of digital material withough losing quality in the reproduction. The can be produced inexpensively.
• If materials are only available in hard copy and not digital format it may be more difficult and time consuming to produce large format alternatives. When whole books are reproduced in large print they may be cumbersome for the user.
• Most digital materials can just be printed using a large format printer. These are probably available in most institutions. Printed materials may be blown up on a photocopier although the quality of the material will deteriorate if copies are made of copies.
• Reprographics staff can print or copy materials in large format without additional training. It may be beneficial to make content producers within the institution aware of best practices for formatting large print materials.