Making a SMIL presentation accessible is a matter either of learning
the basics of the SMIL language together with an authoring tool
such as GRiNS (intermediate developers) or learning to code SMIL
by hand. For experienced web designers, learning SMIL is not exceptionally
difficult because of its structural similarities to HTML. In fact,
because it supports such a broad range of media types, SMIL offers
its own solutions to many of the problems facing developers working
toward accessibility. We recommend that anyone heavily involved
in accessibility become familiar with SMIL and its uses. Below
are some common types of SMIL presentations together with options
for making them accessible:
- A presentation synching audio narration with pictures or Power-Point-type
slides.
NOTE: RealPresenter is an application created in the late '90's
by RealNetworks specifically for this task. It's most common
use has been converting PowerPoint presentations for the Web.
A basic accessibility need for such presentations is a text
transcription of the audio. As of 5/2002 RealPresenter is no
longer supported by RealNetworks, and is now called PresenterOne
by Accordent. Its new, significantly higher, price is approximately
$400.00)
Option 1
MAGpie offers the simplest option in most cases for generating
text transcriptions for audio and video. See our material on
video for information about how
to use MAGpie to create these captions together with information
on Required Hardware, Software, and/or Other Tools, Costs,
Required Skills, Required Time Needed for Development, Degree
Compliance Can Be Part of Initial Production, Special Problems
& Issues, and Examples.
Option 2
The more challenging option is to code the text captions by
hand. MAGpie works by creating a RealText (.rt) file that contains
timecode references to specific captions, allowing RealPlayer
to display them at the appropriate times while the audio or
video is playing. Creating this file by hand is simply a matter
of determining the time when each caption should appear, and
then inserting the caption together with its timecode into the
.rt file. The overall SMIL file can be written by hand or created
with an editor such as GRiNS (recommended) or Fluition (not
recommended). See below for more information about GRiNS and
Fluition.
Required Hardware, Software, and/or Other Tools:
Any text editor will do, but a SMIL editor, such as SMILGen
(free) is recommended if extensive authoring of SMIL will be
required.
Costs:
Cost of authoring program if text editor not sufficient.
Current Authoring Programs:
Required Skills:
A familiarity with HTML or other markup language is needed.
A basic knowledge of XML document syntax would help.
Required Time Needed for Development:
Hand coding for beginners will take approximately one minute
per line of caption on the screen once the main SMIL file and
the proper RealText file template are written.
Degree Compliance Can Be Part of Initial Production:
Not much time is saved if SMIL is created initially or afterwards.
Time is saved when using a SMIL template that the creator understands
and has developed a confortable way of manipulating.
Special Problems & Issues:
Older versions of Quicktime do not support SMIL.
Examples:
RealVideo Example
- A RealSlideShow-style presentation
(images with written and/or spoken captions)
This type of presentation is similar to #1 above, but makes
the images the main focus instead of the audio narration. RealSlideShow,
also by RealNetworks, is an application specifically designed
for this purpose, offering the ability to synchronize pictures
with text captions and audio commentary. For low vision users,
a detailed audio description of each picture is necessary. (Note:
As of 5/2002 RealSlideShow is considered a legacy application,
which means it is no longer supported by RealNetworks other
than through documentation archived on their site.)
Option 1
The descriptions could be included as an audio file (RealSlideshow
makes creating and attaching audio to slides very easy), or as
text captions that will be read by a screen reader. Normally,
captions in RealSlideShow presentations offer short identifiers
such as a the title of a photograph or where it was taken, so
developers would need to re-think how the captions are written.
The captions should offer as close an alternative to the visuals
as possible, perhaps the greatest challenge involved in this process.
In RealSlideshow, the caption window can be re-sized to accommodate
the space required for the longer descriptions.
Required Hardware, Software, and/or Other Tools:
RealSlideShow (no longer available from RealNetworks—users
would need to already own a copy)
Costs:
N/A (this application was offered in a fully functional
free version)
Required Skills:
An understanding of RealSlideshow (no knowledge of SMIL
is required)
Required Time Needed for Development:
New users can become familiar with this program within a
matter of a few hours, as it operates according to an intuitive
timeline-based interface. Some of the controls, such as how
to adjust the overall dimensions of the presentation, are hard
to find at first, but for the most part RealSlideshow is easy
to learn.
Degree Compliance Can Be Part of Initial Production:
If the audio descriptions are included during initial production,
a great amount of time can be saved. Also, since adding the
descriptions usually entails resizing the overall presentation,
users can save time by conceptualizing the presentation to meet
accessibility requirements from the beginning.
Special Problems & Issues:
Lack of availability of RealSlideshow
Option 2
Users can purchase the SMIL authoring application GRiNS
(available from RealNetworks at http://www.realnetworks.com/products/editorpro/index.html
).
Required Hardware, Software, and/or Other Tools:
GRiNS
Costs:
approximately $400.00 (no educational discount is currently
available, but inquire before purchasing in case the policy
has changed)
Required Skills:
basic knowledge of SMIL together with knowledge of
how to use GRiNS
Required Time Needed for Development:
Depends on the developer's skills and the length of the
presentation. A developer who knows basic SMIL can become familiar
with GRiNS in a couple of hours or less.
Degree Compliance Can Be Part of Initial Production:
Initial development of a template used to create a series
of similar presentations would save substantial amounts of time
Special Problems & Issues:
High cost of GRiNS
Option 3
More advanced users can code the text descriptions by hand.
See our discussion of hand-coding SMIL above
for information on Required Hardware, Software, and/or Other
Tools, Costs, Required Skills, Required Time Needed for Development,
Degree Compliance Can Be Part of Initial Production, Special
Problems & Issues
- A presentation synching video with slides.
This type of presentation will need to incorporate captions
for the video for hearing impaired users, and audio descriptions
for visually impaired users. See our discussions of captioning
with MagPie (in our documentation covering video) and
of creating audio descriptions (#1
above) for more information on Required Hardware, Software,
and/or Other Tools, Costs, Required Skills, Required Time
Needed for Development, Degree Compliance Can Be Part of Initial
Production, Special Problems & Issues
