Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management Publications and Research

Mary Poppins, the musical, brought to life through alternative audio description (AD) for blind and low vision (B/LV) theatre goers

Margot Whitfield et al. — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:00:40 PDT

Equitable theatre entertainment experiences for B/LV audiences are a matter of equitable access to sensory stimuli, which has traditionally been accomplished through AD. Sensory stimuli within musicals include music, dialogue, and dance. Traditionally conventional AD has not considered the act of making musicals accessible through AD a creative act.

This paper presents an experienced actor/describers’ observations about her artistic process involved in describing Mary Poppins, the musical, using an integrated live AD approach with an entertainment-focused delivery style. With previous experiences in entertainment-focused AD delivery style, the actor-team developed a timed-cued AD script. Musical elements, such as tempo and rhythm, factored into AD decisions, particularly when audio and visual stimuli simultaneously occurred onstage. Fewer gaps for description required creative choices on the part of the describers.

B/LV participants’ experiences of this AD musical production are also presented, alongside an analysis of one B/LV audience’s e-mail correspondence. This correspondence addresses technical problems and concerns with closed AD, expectations of conventional AD, and enjoyment of entertainment-focused AD delivery style. The B/LV audience reported, for the most part, being entertained by the play and the AD.

Inclusive Design, Audio Description, and Diversity of Theatre Experiences

Margot Whitfield et al. — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:00:37 PDT

The conventional approach to audio description (AD) uses third-person narrative, factual delivery style, post-planning, and third-party delivery, making it incompatible with inclusive design principles and equitable access to sensory stimuli.

This paper discusses Clay & Paper Theatre’s alternative AD approach, involving actors, script writers, musicians and directors. With no previous exposure to inclusive design, the creative team developed the design process: script modification, characters and music integration, and sensory tour presentation. Innovative methodology taught actors and directors to think about accessibility from the start of their creative processes.

Actors found the inclusive design process useful in developing a better understanding of character roles. Audience members enjoyed the play through the role of music and its link to the narrative and characterization. Clay & Paper Theatre’s alternative AD approach exemplifies social innovation in inclusive theatre design for blind and low vision (B/LV) audiences, with an emphasis on process and service outcomes.

The Next Broadband Challenge: Wireless

Catherine A. Middleton et al. — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:15:16 PST

In June 2010, the President of the United States declared that “the next transformation in information technology” was beginning. He called it “the wireless broadband revolution.” National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers called it “the third wave of the internet’s development,” placing the mix of public and private initiative needed to make the most of it alongside 19th century land grants for railways and educational institutions, as an example of the long American history of “government actions to assure the necessary foundational investments for economic growth.” The President announced that 500 MHz of spectrum would be made available for mobile and fixed wireless broadband over the next ten years and that research into spectrum sharing technologies would be strongly supported. In the 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama further reinforced the importance of “connecting every part of America to the digital age”, by enabling businesses to deploy next generation wireless broadband services.

This article explores the role of wireless technologies in providing broadband connectivity, and outlines challenges that arise in enabling wireless broadband development. It begins with a discussion of next generation broadband network initiatives, outlining the centrality of fiber connectivity in current plans. It then makes the case that wireless broadband technologies may be disruptive, and have the potential to displace fiber as an essential future broadband technology. Recognizing the importance of wireless broadband, the paper then explores the role of wireless networking in a next generation broadband environment and articulates policy challenges arising from the promised “wireless broadband revolution” in the United States and elsewhere.

Developing Municipal Wireless Infrastructure

Catherine A. Middleton — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:09:04 PST

Today, the municipal wireless landscape is much different from what it was just a few years ago. The early hype and excitement has been replaced with a much more realistic outlook on what wireless networks can and cannot do for municipalities. There are fewer projects under development, but those that are being planned are now generally based on solid business cases. Project leaders are often willing to share their successes and failures, and it is understood that building municipal networks is not a simple task.

CWIRP Final Report: ICT Infrastructure as Public Infrastructure – Connecting Communities to the Knowledge-based Economy & Society

Catherine A. Middleton — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:09:03 PST

This report provides a summary of findings from the Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project. This research investigated the development of public broadband infrastructure, and was conducted from April 2006 to March 2008 by a team of researchers from Ryerson University, York University and the University of Toronto.

The specific questions that guided our research were as follows:

• What is the rationale for publicly-owned and/or controlled ICT infrastructure?

• What examples of public ICT infrastructure exist in Canada today?

• What are the different models and best practices of public ICT infrastructure in terms of deployment, technology choice and innovation, investment, governance, adoption and use?

• What are the public benefits of community-based/public ICT infrastructure provision?

• What public policies and supports are necessary to promote and sustain public ICT infrastructure?

We addressed these questions through case study work with our research partners (The City of Fredericton, Île Sans Fil in Montreal, K-Net and the Lac Seul Wireless Network in North Western Ontario, and Wireless Nomad in Toronto), as well as through extensive study of the broader context for public ICT infrastructure development.

Gender and Generosity: Does Degree of Anonymity or Group Gender Composition Matter?

C Bram Cadsby et al. — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:52:16 PDT

Employing a two-by-two factorial design that manipulates whether dictator groups are single or mixed-sex and whether procedures are single or double-blind, we examine gender effects in a standard dictator game. No gender effect was found in any of the experimental treatments. Moreover, neither single- versus mixed-sex groups nor level of anonymity had any impact on either male or female behavior.

International Issues in Broadband Deployment and Use

Catherine A. Middleton — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:17:20 PDT

Slides from a talk given to PhD students at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

Open Access Broadband Networks in Alberta, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand

Catherine A. Middleton et al. — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:17:19 PDT

In policy debates about the appropriate regulation of next generation fibre access networks, a good deal of attention has been paid to various forms of ‘separation’ between network, wholesale and retail operations. This discussion is no longer theoretical, because ‘open access’ next generation networks are now operating or being constructed. This paper investigates four different models around the world, each at different stages of deployment:

- Alberta, Canada, where a commercial company Axia has been operating the province-wide ‘SuperNet’ since 2005. This is an optic fibre network connecting 4700 sites (provincial government and municipality offices, health and education sites, libraries) in 27 urban and 402 rural communities. Axia is the government’s service provider across the whole network and the wholesaler of capacity to retail providers in the rural communities.

- Singapore, where a network is under construction taking fibre to 1.12 million residential premises and 152,000 other premises. Separate companies are building the physical infrastructure (‘Net Co’) and installing the electronics and network termination devices in customer premises and operating the network (‘Op Co’).

- Australia, where a national FTTP network is being built to reach 93% of households and businesses. Wireless will be used to deliver download speeds of at least 12 Mbps to the other 7%. Around 200,000 households will get FTTP in Tasmania, where services commenced in mid-2010.

- New Zealand, where the national government has promised ‘superfast broadband’ within six years to all businesses, schools and health services, greenfields developments and some residential users, and to 75% of the population within ten years.

Drawing on interviews conducted in the four territories in 2009 and 2010, the paper will investigate the common, contrasting and unique features of these four models.

From Canada 2.0 to a Digital Nation

Catherine A. Middleton — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:17:18 PDT

This is the text of Catherine Middleton's Big Thinking Lecture to Canada's Federal parliamentarians. See http://www.fedcan.ca/content/en/323/Big_Thinking.html for details of this event.

From the describer's mouth: reflections on creating unconventional audio description for live theatre

JP Udo et al. — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:44:52 PDT

Little published or publicly available research exists on AD within the context of live theatre. Even scarcer are papers which discuss or investigate description from the perspective of the audio describer. Through a thematic analysis of comments made by each describer during separate post-production interviews, we present the describer’s perspective as a lens through which to document the development and execution of two unique AD strategies developed or overseen by the production’s director. Four main themes anchor the discussion: describer’s motivation for participation and background; understanding of AD; self assessment (writing and performing); and working with others.

Designing the Model Human Cochlea: An Ambient Crossmodal Audio-Tactile Display

Maria Karam et al. — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:24:41 PDT

We present a public usability study that provides preliminary results on the effectiveness of a universally designed system that conveys music and other sounds into tactile sensations. The system was displayed at a public science museum as part of a larger multimedia exhibit aimed at presenting a youths’ perspective on global warming and the environment. We compare two approaches to gathering user feedback about the system in a study that we conducted to assess user responses to the inclusion of a tactile display within the larger audio-visual exhibit; in one version, a human researcher administered the study, and in the other version, a touch screen computer was used to obtain responses. Both approaches were used to explore the public’s basic understanding of the tactile display within the context of the larger exhibit. We present a Model Human Cochlea (MHC), a sensory substitution technique and system that translates auditory information into vibrotactile stimuli using an ambient, tactile display. The model is used in the current study to translate music into discrete vibration signals displayed along the back of the body using a chair form factor. Voice coils facilitate the direct translation of auditory information onto the multiple discrete vibrotactile channels, which increases the potential to identify sections of the music that would otherwise be masked by the combined signal. One of the central goals of this work has been to improve accessibility to the emotional information expressed in music for users who are Deaf or hard of hearing. To this end, we present our prototype of the MHC, two models of sensory substitution to support the translation of existing and new music, and some of the design challenges encountered throughout the development process. Results of a series of experiments conducted to assess the effectiveness of the MHC are discussed, followed by an overview of future directions for this research.

Unresolved issues related to the accessibility of telecommunications and broadcasting services to persons with disabilities

JP Udo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:53:08 PST

Transcript of proceedings before the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. Subject: Unresolved issues related to the accessibility of telecomunications and boradcasting services to persons with disabilities. Presenation given by J.P. Udo from Centre for Learning Technologies at Ryerson University.

The Rogue Poster-Children of Universal Design: Closed Captioning and Audio Description

John-Patrick Udo et al. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:46:56 PST

To abide by the tenets of universal design theory, the design of a product or service needs not only to consider the inclusion of as many potential users and uses as possible but also to do so from conception. Control over the creation and adaptation of the design should, therefore, fall under the purview of the original designer. Closed captioning has always been touted as an excellent example of a design or electronic curb-cut because it is a system designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, yet is used by many others for access to television in noisy environments such as gyms or pubs, or to learn a second language. Audio description is poised to have a similar image. In this paper, we will demonstrate how the processes and practices associated with closed captioning and audio description, in their current form, violate some of the main principles of universal design and are thus not such good examples of it. In addition, we will introduce an alternative process and set of practices through which directors of television, film and live events are able to take control of closed captioning and audio description by integrating them into the production process. In doing so, we will demonstrate that closed captioning and audio description are worthy of directorial attention and creative input rather than being tacked on at the very end of the process and usually only to meet regulatory or legislative mandates.

RE-FASHIONING FASHION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF A LIVE AUDIO DESCRIBED FASHION SHOW

JP Udo et al. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:38:41 PDT

We present a process and its analysis for live audio description of a fashion show that contained only music and no dialogue. Our findings suggest that using a con-tent expert with a process that combines conventional audio description techniques with colour commentary techniques to allow emotion and excitement as well as description of the important visual elements is enjoyable and entertaining for blind, low-vision and sighted audiences. In addition, we found that about 60 percent of the content of the live show could be described in a timely manner. Finally, we found that the describer added about three times as many descriptions from a prepared script as were omitted.

"Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action": An Unconventional Approach to Describing Shakespeare's Hamlet

JP Udo et al. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:38:40 PDT

In this paper, we will provide a summary of conventional and alternative AD practices. We will discuss a case account of an alternative AD strategy that was prepared for a live production of Hamlet using the subjective, emotional style proposed by Fels, Udo, Diamond & Diamond (2006a and b) and used by Udo & Fels (in press).

The Development of a New Theatrical Tradition: Sighted Students Audio Describe School Play for a Blind and Low-Vision Audience

JP Udo et al. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:38:38 PDT

In this paper, we discuss our experience of facilitating the development, creation and execution of audio description for an elementary school production of Fiddler on the Roof by three grade eight students. The students were supervised by the production's director, their drama teacher, and assisted by the authors. An actor with experience describing a live theatre event provided some feedback for the students. Qualitative insight is gained through a thematic analysis of the describer's student learning journal and an interview with their drama teacher. The strengths and weaknesses of the project as perceived by the students and their drama teacher are discussed. Participant suggestions and solutions are also highlighted.

Extending and Improving Broadband Infrastructure in Canada: Learning from Australia's National Broadband Network Initiative

Catherine A. Middleton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:30:00 PDT

Are Users Up to Speed? The Demand Side of Sustainable Broadband

Catherine A. Middleton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:29:59 PDT

Broadband Internet Usage Outside the Home: Insights from a Study of Toronto Internet Cafes

Catherine A. Middleton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:29:58 PDT

This paper addresses a simple question. In an environment where more and more people have broadband internet access at home, what is the role of internet cafés? In answering this question, a contribution is made to the limited existing knowledge of how consumers use public internet points, with a specific focus on how broadband services are used. This study is novel because work to date has focused on understanding how consumers use broadband in their homes, with the assumption being that once everyone has residential broadband connectivity, public access points like internet cafés will disappear. This paper offers a description of user behaviours observed in 28 internet cafés and 4 free public access points. The paper documents diversity in users and usage patterns, and suggests that internet cafés continue to offer valuable services to their users. Broadband connectivity is used for gaming, but few other uses that required broadband connectivity were observed.

An Analysis of Canadians’ Scope of Internet Usage

Catherine A. Middleton et al. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:29:57 PDT