MAGpie Multimedia Authoring System
Editor: One of my real concerns with the growing popularity of the
internet has been the inaccessibility of certain products to people with
hearing loss. As connections get faster, more information will be
provided in the form of streaming audio and video. The audio is
inaccessible to people with hearing loss, as is the audio portion of a
multimedia video clip.
WGBH recently announced a newly developed tool called the Media
Access Generator (MAGpie). It addresses the accessibility problem by
providing the capability to caption three of the most popular video
formats. WGBH is making this development tool available as a free
download. Now we need to get multimedia developers to use it!
Contact information for WGBH and MAGpie are available on the WGBH
Page in our Resource Directory
Here are portions of the MAGpie press release.
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Multimedia clips are becoming more popular on Web sites and CD-ROMs,
but most are not accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually
impaired users. Developers of Web- and CD-ROM-based multimedia need an
authoring application for making their materials accessible to persons
with disabilities.
The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) has
developed such an application, the Media Access Generator (MAGpie), now
available free of charge on the Web. Using MAGpie, authors can add
captions to three popular multimedia formats: Apple's QuickTime, the
World Wide Web Consortium's Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
(SMIL) and Microsoft's Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI)
format. MAGpie can also integrate audio descriptions into SMIL
presentations.
For complete details on downloading MAGpie, visit NCAM's Web site.
According to Geoff Freed, manager of NCAM's Web Access Project,
"While creating accessible multimedia has been possible for a few
years, it isn't exactly easy or intuitive. We developed MAGpie, and are
distributing it free of charge, in order to simplify the authoring
process and therefore encourage the inclusion of captions and audio
descriptions in various multimedia formats."
MAGpie is the ideal authoring environment for multimedia specialists,
publishing companies or service providers who want to add captions,
subtitles and audio descriptions to their work. However, others will
also benefit from its use. Research performed by WGBH has demonstrated
that caption authoring is a valuable classroom activity.
Children who produce caption files for short video clips tend to
write more, and their writing skills improve rapidly. MAGpie is friendly
to those who are new to multimedia, educators and even to young users.
Funding for MAGpie comes from the Trace Research and Development
Center at the University of Wisconsin, as part of its Information
Technology Access Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center which
itself is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).
Geoff Freed will present information on MAGpie at this year's
Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference sponsored by the
California State University at Northridge (CSUN). The presentation,
Advances in Accessible Web-based Multimedia, will take place at 8am on
Thursday, March 23 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott.
NCAM staff also makes presentations about MAGpie at various Web
design conferences around the country, promoting the inclusion of
captions and descriptions for Web sites and CD-ROMs to multimedia
developers, and alerting this rapidly growing industry to the enormous
and eager market for accessible sites and products.
WGBH Boston
WGBH Boston is the preeminent public broadcasting producer in
America. More than one-third of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
prime-time lineup and companion Web content is produced by WGBH, along
with programming for public radio stations, educational services and
outreach activities. WGBH informs, inspires, and entertains audiences
around the world.
WGBH's Media Access Division- The CPB/WGBH National Center for
Accessible Media, The Caption Center and Descriptive Video Service-
works to make technology, multimedia, the Web, movie theaters, digital
television (DTV) and convergent media accessible to all by supporting
national policy decisions that increase access to media, participating
in industry standards efforts, developing technical solutions,
conducting research and providing captioning and description to
broadcast and cable networks, movie studios and multimedia producers.
NCAM is a participant in the World Wide Web Consortium's Web
Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI). The WAI's mission is to lead the Web
to its full potential, including promoting a high degree of usability
for people with disabilities. The WAI, in coordination with NCAM and
other organizations around the world, is pursuing accessibility of the
Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools,
education & outreach, and research & development.
