Content Accessibility (CA11y): Highly Individualised Digital Content for Supporting Diverse Needs

我们的交流越来越多地通过视频、播客和各种形式的社交媒体等数字内容的创建和消费来进行。获取数字内容已成为我们社会和公民参与社会不可或缺的一部分。然而，这种创造和消费的很大一部分并不是所有人都能平等地使用。有可访问性需求的人在访问数字内容时面临几个挑战，因此面临孤立的风险。数字内容的可访问性能力通常通过诸如字幕和音频描述等标准的镜头来查看。虽然这些对一些用户来说是有帮助的，但数字内容仍然给许多有各种不同需求的人带来了挑战。这项提议旨在探索根据特定个人的确切需求设计定制的无障碍解决方案，以支持对数字内容的访问。CA11y(内容可访问性：支持不同需求的高度个性化的数字内容)建议我们改变提供可访问数字内容的方式。CA11y将设想和开发允许高度响应的内容的技术，这些内容是每个人的可访问性需求的独特之处。同时，内容的单独渲染将允许我们探索以前未考虑过的辅助功能解决方案。例如，对于面临语音挑战的用户，我们可能会限制广播剧中的背景噪音，以使演员的声音更清晰。我们可能会放慢新闻的速度，以支持更容易的理解。我们可能会完全重新配置内容，以便删除具有复杂对话或文本描述的场景。或者，最后，我们可能会改变单个屏幕元素(例如图形覆盖)的视觉对比度，以支持观看的简易性。通过互联网分发数字内容以及随附的元数据，意味着内容可以响应最终用户的需求。这可以基于某些规则集或本体来呈现给个人的设备或需求。这个概念被广泛地称为基于对象的媒体(OBM)。至关重要的是，OBM能够为每个最终用户提供完全独立的数字内容呈现。虽然以这种方式分发数字内容已被证明提供了新颖、令人兴奋、响应的数字内容体验，但很少有工作探索这对可访问性意味着什么。由OBM等概念提供的高度个性化的数字内容提供了变革性的潜力，以支持那些具有各种不同无障碍需求的人。CA11y将与这样一个群体合作--失语症患者。失语症是一种语言障碍，三分之一的中风幸存者会受到影响。由于语言方面的特殊挑战，失语症患者通常有一系列复杂的无障碍需求，尤其是听、读、说和写。这意味着他们经常无法再接触数字内容，这意味着他们面临着越来越大的数字鸿沟。上述无障碍标准，如字幕和音频描述，不能满足他们的需要。在CA11y，失语症患者将支持一系列创新的技术原型的共同设计，以通过响应性的、个性化的数字内容来支持他们的访问需求。CA11y将在一个新的研究领域迈出激进的第一步，该领域寻求通过高度个性化的体验来支持那些有各种访问需求的人，失语症用户将成为其他有无障碍需求的人的榜样。

Our communication is increasingly mediated through the creation and consumption of digital content such as videos, podcasts and myriad forms of social media. Access to digital content has become integral to our social and civic participation in society. Much of this creation and consumption, however, is not equally accessed by all. People with accessibility needs face several challenges in accessing digital content and are therefore at risk of isolation. Accessibility capabilities for digital content are typically viewed through the lens of standards such as subtitles and audio description. While these are helpful for some users, digital content still introduces challenges for many with a range of diverse needs. This proposal aims to explore the design of bespoke accessibility solutions, based on a given individual's exact needs, to support access to digital content. CA11y (Content Accessibility: Highly Individualised Digital Content for Supporting Diverse Needs) proposes a shift in how we consider the provision of accessible digital content. CA11y will envision and develop technologies that allow for highly-responsive content, unique to each individual's accessibility needs. Simultaneous, individual renderings of content will allow us to explore previously unconsidered accessibility solutions. For instance, for users who face challenges with speech, we might limit the background noise in a radio drama to make the actor's voice clearer. We might slow a news ticker to support easier comprehension. We might completely reconfigure content so that scenes with complex dialogue or textual descriptions are removed. Or, finally, we might change the visual contrast of individual onscreen elements (e.g. graphic overlays) to support ease of viewing.The distribution of digital content via the internet, with accompanying metadata, means that content can respond to the end-user's requirements. This may be rendered to an individual's devices or needs, based on some rule-set or ontology. This concept is broadly termed Object-Based Media (OBM). Crucially, OBM enables an entirely individual rending of digital content for each end-user. While the distribution of digital content in such a way has been shown to offer novel exciting, responsive digital content experiences, little work has explored what this can mean for accessibility.The highly individualised digital content afforded by concepts such as OBM provides transformative potential to support those with a range of diverse accessibility needs. CA11y will work with one such group - people with aphasia. Aphasia is a language impairment that affects one-third of stroke survivors. People with aphasia often have a range of complex accessibility needs due to specific challenges with language, notably listening, reading, speaking and writing. This means that they often can no longer engage with digital content, meaning they face a growing digital divide. The aforementioned accessibility standards such as subtitles and audio description do not cater to their needs. In CA11y, people with aphasia will support the co-design of an innovative range of technological prototypes to support their access needs through responsive, individualised digital content. CA11y will act as a radical first step in a new research field that seeks to support those with a range of access needs through highly individualised experiences, with users with aphasia acting as an exemplar for others with accessibility needs.