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In support to its members' efforts to promote ICT Accessibility, the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), through its European Regional Initiative on Accessibilty, is organizing the National Workshop on "Executive Training for ICT Professionals in Producing and Distributing Content Accessible for Persons with Disabilities". This training is co-organized together with ProForma, a non-governmental organization in Serbia, as well as Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia, and Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia. It is a follow up to the outcomes of the international conference for Europe on "The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in the Development of Inclusive Society" that was held on 8-9 October 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia. Similar trainings are planned to be held in other countries upon their request.
The Workshop will take place on 9th and 10th November 2016 in Belgrade, with the aim to promote, inform and educate national experts about the international standards and practices in line with ITU-D guidelines, ITU Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report, available good practices and challenges and assistive technologies in Serbia and the Region. This executive training aims at addressing challenge of alarmingly low level of accessible programs for persons with disabilities in the TV programmes throughout the Region.
The Workshop consists of three sessions which will discuss the importance of the accessibility of TV/video content, international standards, principles and guidelines, the technical and technological solutions that can be applied without significant financial investment, but will also present the case of the Public radio-television service of the Republic of Serbia (RTS) in the area of TV accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Session I: "What is TV accessibility and why is it important?"/"International standards and practices, in line with the guidelines of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)"
The session will provide answers to the following questions:
- What is the accessibility of TV/video programs for persons with disabilities?
- What are the international standards and practices?
- What do the guidelines of the International Union for Telecommunications prescribe?
- Who are the stakeholders in the process of enabling affordable and accessible TV/video programs?
SESSIONS II and III: Technical and technological solutions for enabling the accessibility of TV program content for persons with disabilities/Practical application of information and communication technologies in the provision of accessible information to persons with disabilities
The sessions aim to provide answers to the following questions:
- What are the technical and technological solutions that allow the accessibility of TV program content for people with disabilities?
- What are the technical solutions that allow accessibility to TV/video program content?
- What are the applications and symbols that indicate the accessibility?
- What are the rules of subtitling? /Television and film subtitles (difference and procedures)?
- Is free software for subtitling effective (example)?
- What is "picture in picture" and what are the framing rules for its use?
- Which software can be used to create this effect (example) easily?
- What is an audio description and how to record the narrator and import sound into the video?
