Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2021 Immersive Accessibility Showcase and Launching of MAP’s stable version
Thursday May 20th 2021
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an event that is celebrated every year around the world and aims to raise awareness about the importance of digital accessibility in an increasingly diverse and inclusive society, leaving no one behind. The 10th Annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day will take place as scheduled on Thursday May 20th, 2021.
This will be the third year that TransMedia Catalonia participates in this international initiative. In 2019, the TransMedia Catalonia opened the doors of its laboratory to the public to demonstrate the different accessibility services and modalities in which the group works. In 2020, the research group contributed online in the form of a playlist of accessible videos explaining the group’s various projects with integrated audio description and captions.
Media accessibility has become a key issue on the global agenda at the UN Sustainable Development Group towards social and cultural inclusion. With the rapid advancement and popularity of immersive content in recent years, accessibility remains a major challenge. With this in mind, TransMedia Catalonia are celebrating GAAD 2021 with an immersive experience to showcase accessibility in immersive environments.
Through the FADER platform developed as part of the research activities within the EU funded project MediaVerse, the experience aims to transport the viewer to a series of 360 degree cultural heritage locations in nature near the city of Banyoles. In each scene; closed captions, audio description and sign language interpretation have been integrated to offer content that is accessible to all citizens.
Click here to start the experience
This work is a continuation of research previously conducted as part of the ImAc project .
TransMedia Catalonia will also contribute to the launching of the stable version of MAP, the Media Accessibility Platform.
Relevant Publications:
- Hughes, CJ , Zapata, MB, Johnston, M and Orero, P 2020, Immersive captioning : developing a framework for evaluating user needs, in: IEEE AIVR 2020 : 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality 2020, 14th-18th December 2020, Online. (In Press)
- Brescia-Zapata, M. (forthcoming). The present and future of accessibility services in vr360 players. inTRAlinea.
- Hughes, C. J., Brescia-Zapata, M., Johnston, M., & Orero, P. (2020). Immersive captioning: Developing a framework for evaluating user needs. IEEE AIVR 2020:3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality 2020.
- Orero, P., Hughes, C. J., & Brescia-Zapata, M. (2020). Evaluating subtitle readability in media immersive environments. DSAI 2020, the 9th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion., 2nd-4th December 2020, Online. (In Press)