Beyond the Text
January 2003 - December 2006

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NCAM's Beyond the Text project studied ways to make multimedia (images, audio and video) used in e-books and digital talking books (DTBs) accessible to people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or visually impaired. Project activities included:

• analyzing barriers to identification, navigation, display and manipulation of captions and video descriptions within various e-book and DTB formats and hardware devices.
• identifying a wide range of caption and audio-description solutions for images, audio and video.
• researching and evaluating alternate solutions for access to multimedia.
• participating in DAISY and OeB/IDPF working groups, and working with DAISY and OEBF/IDPF to develop models of accessible e-book and DTB multimedia.
• participating in the National File Format, hosted by the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC).
• writing recommended practices for authoring and delivering accessible e-book and DTB multimedia.

The recommended practices, "Accessible Digital Media: Design Guidelines for Electronic Publications, Multimedia and the Web," are now available.

Resources

• "Accessible Digital Media: Design Guidelines for Electronic Publications, Multimedia and the Web"
• E-book prototypes with accessible multimedia
• Survey of e-book and DTB hardware and software
• The DAISY Consortium
• The International Digital Publishing Forum (OEBF)
• Making Educational Software and Web Sites Accessible: Design Guidelines Including Math and Science Solutions

Funders

The Beyond the Text Project was funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education, under grant number H133G020091. However, the conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.