| system | User Sambhavi Chandrashekar has logged in. |
| system | User Jennison Asuncion has logged in. |
| system | User Jan Richards has logged in. |
| Jan Richards | Hi Sam and Jennison |
| system | User Smriti Dev has logged in. |
| system | User Anastasia Cheetham has logged in. |
| Jennison Asuncion | Hey, I think I'm getting used to this interface now ;-) |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Hello everyone, and welcome Anastasia |
| system | User Vera Roberts has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | hello, and thanks, Sam |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Good to hear that, Jenn |
| system | User Christine Staddon has logged in. |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Hi Christine |
| Christine Staddon | Hi Sam and everyone else |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Anastasia, shall we get started and let others join as they can? |
| system | User Faisal Anwar has logged in. |
| Smriti Dev | Hi Sam and everyone |
| Anastasia Cheetham | ok, that sounds good |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Hi Smriti |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Can we start with some introductions? |
| Faisal Anwar | hey guys |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I know most of the people online, but some I don't know |
| system | User Owen Milburn has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Perhaps we can share what organization we're with, and what our involvement with CulturAll is |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I'm the technical lead on the TransformAble project |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I'm a software designer with the ATRC, at UofT |
| Vera Roberts | I'm with ATRC and coordinate the artist's as innovators project |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Jennison, you next? |
| Faisal Anwar | I am from action pact |
| system | User Chris Wemigwans has logged in. |
| Owen Milburn | Hi. I'm working with CFC and UofT in the Artists as Innovators part of culturall |
| Anastasia Cheetham | thanks, owen and jaisal |
| system | User David Osawabine has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | sorry - faisal |
| Jennison Asuncion | Together with Catherine Fichten and Maria Barile, I co-direct the Adaptech Research Network http://www.adaptech.org. I work out of Toronto, while our office is at Dawson college in Montreal. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | forgive my typing |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | I am involved with Owen in his very interesting work |
| Anastasia Cheetham | thanks, jennison |
| Anastasia Cheetham |
| system | User Cindy Schatkoski has logged in. |
| Christine Staddon | Hi, I work for the Canadian Abilities Foundation and we are a partner in the artist as innovators project |
| Anastasia Cheetham | thanks, christine |
| Cindy Schatkoski | Hello from the Banff New Media Institute |
| system | User Joe Osawabine has logged in. |
| Smriti Dev | Hi, I work at the ATRC and am helping to coordinate Collaboration and Accessibility of Live Content |
| Joe Osawabine | hello Ron Berti is here with me as well from Debajehmujig |
| Anastasia Cheetham | would anyone else like to introduce themselves? |
| Jan Richards | I'm a user interface designer also at the ATRC. I am the ATRC lead in the Interventions project - working with Chris and Ron at Debaj. |
| system | User Deborah Hession has logged in. |
| Chris Wemigwans | Hello Bruce is also with me, we are animators for Debajehmujig theatre group |
| Anastasia Cheetham | thanks jan and chris |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Has everyone had a chance to look at the materials that were posted? |
| David Osawabine | Hello everybody. I'm an animator with Debajehmujig |
| Owen Milburn | yes |
| Faisal Anwar | yes |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Should I start with an overview of the project? |
| system | User David Osawabine has logged out. |
| system | User Faisal Anwar has logged in. |
| system | User Catherine Fichten has logged in. |
| Christine Staddon | That would be great |
| Joe Osawabine | okay yes that would be great |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Yes, Anastasia |
| Jennison Asuncion | I did as well, and an outline of the project would be great. |
| Deborah Hession | sure |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The TransformAble project deals with how web content can be transformed to provide customized delivery |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Hi Catherin, we're just starting. |
| system | User David Osawabine has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The idea is that the content and its presentation is adjusted to each individual site visitor |
| Anastasia Cheetham | At a simple level, the colours and size of the text can be adjusted |
| Anastasia Cheetham | At the most complex level, the content itself can be adjusted |
| Faisal Anwar | web content include, audio, video __ text?? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | For example, text caption or audio descriptions can be added to a video |
| Anastasia Cheetham | A text description can be added to an image |
| Anastasia Cheetham | an image or symbol-based representation can be substituted for text |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We (the ATRC) developed a prototype of this sytem, called The Inclusive Learning Exchange (TILE) |
| Anastasia Cheetham | There is a link to the site with the posted materials |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The same technology is used on the Stretch site, which is also referenced in the materials |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Has anyone ever visited either of these sites? |
| Deborah Hession | yes |
| David Osawabine | yes |
| Vera Roberts | yes |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | yes |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Deborah, were you able to try out any of the transformation? |
| Christine Staddon | yes |
| Owen Milburn | yes |
| Deborah Hession | I attempted, but am unsure if I was successful |
| Jennison Asuncion | Indeed, I checked out the Mars landing video. Was I supposed to do something in order to have the described video work, or should there have been description? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Jennison, normally the descriptions are not played |
| Anastasia Cheetham | There is a link to edit your preferences |
| Anastasia Cheetham | There, you can request descriptions |
| Deborah Hession | I went to the Tile site and tried to select preferences |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Once you save your preferences, when you return to the video, the descriptions will automatically be played |
| Deborah Hession | hmmmm |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Deborah, what happened? |
| Jennison Asuncion | got it. I figured as much, however I thought I read elsewhere that the 'described' functionality was automatically on. I'll try it again. |
| Cindy Schatkoski | i selected preferences, but i couldn't really notice how they had been implemented. |
| Deborah Hession | I did this, I'll try it again |
| Deborah Hession | I felt the same |
| Deborah Hession | is there a demo somewhere that has a split screen |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | It is worth looking at the video "Unheard Voices by Gael Hannon" on the Stretch site under Independent artists without and with captions |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We appreciate any comments you have on the system |
| Deborah Hession | Showing a before and after? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The stretch site does have a more simple interface |
| Faisal Anwar | i tried it too, but interface is not telling me if its done or not.. so i am not sure |
| Owen Milburn | i found the stretch site a lot easier to naviate and customize |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, what preferences did you try to set |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Anastasia, I wonder that the content preferences will work only if the captions are available. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Yes, asking for captions or descriptions will only work if there are captions or descriptions |
| Faisal Anwar | Captions, Audio descriptions , text size |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I'm sensing that it would be useful for us to provide some feedback if they were requested but not available |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Do you store them as separate parts - the video, captions and descriptions? |
| Deborah Hession | I was trying for visual |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, did the text size not change? and did the captions/descriptions not come? |
| Cindy Schatkoski | i also asked for audio descriptions |
| Cindy Schatkoski | nothing seemed to happen |
| Faisal Anwar | yeah |
| Anastasia Cheetham | All of the videos in the NASA content do have captions and descriptions |
| Deborah Hession | same here |
| Anastasia Cheetham | That's very strange! |
| Jennison Asuncion | In the intro, you talk about how your web services can be used by any "suitable" web application. Can you talk a bit about how you are defining "suitable?" |
| Deborah Hession | works on all platforms? |
| Faisal Anwar | now i am able to add captions |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I'm sorry it didn't work for you - I tested it just recently, and it worked for me |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Faisal, Did you click on Save to enable the text preferences? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Jennison, regarding "suitable" : |
| Faisal Anwar | or see them under the video |
| Anastasia Cheetham | In order for the system to decide whether or not captions can be added to a video (for example) all of the content must have metadata attached to it |
| Anastasia Cheetham | It is the metadata that informs the system that the video contains audio content that would need captions |
| Anastasia Cheetham | and it is the metadata that informs the system where the captions are |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Most content systems have some form of metadata |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | So the system will not be suitable if the captions are hardcoded? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Any system which wishes to incorporate the TransformAble technologies would need to be able to add this particular metadata to the content |
| Jennison Asuncion | got it. |
| Faisal Anwar | who is the possible user(s)?? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We are currently developing the software into a set of open-source java libraries |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Any content repository could incorporate the software into their system |
| Deborah Hession | public libraries or university setting? |
| Cindy Schatkoski | have you done any user testing? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The source code will be open-source, so anyone can use it |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Cindy, we did some user testing on the TILE system near the completion of that project |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We will be doing more testing on the new version we are currently working on |
| Deborah Hession | what was your test audience? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Vera might be able to answer that question better than me - she conducted the studies |
| Faisal Anwar | i think its interesting to observes the user ability to understand interfaces on web.. i feel the interface is not so clear to get the steps |
| Christine Staddon | Faisal, an article in the Fall 2006 issue of Abilities magazine written by Jutta discussed how technology has impacted the way people learn and teach. |
| Christine Staddon | Jutta discussed matching unique learners’ needs and there was a paragraph at the end that specifically referenced how TransformAble could be used to do this |
| Vera Roberts | TILE was tested with a variety of users: individuals with low vision, individuals who are blind, individuals who are hard of hearing and individuals with learning disabilities |
| Vera Roberts | In an earlier version, we also had feedback from individuals who were deaf ASL users. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Christine, thanks for the reference to the Abilities article |
| system | User Lindsay MacDonald has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, yes, the interface in the TILE system is rather complex |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We are working on simplifying it |
| system | User Catherine Fichten has logged in. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | There are actually a great number of settings which could be set |
| Anastasia Cheetham | so simplifying the interface is a challenge |
| Deborah Hession | I think its a usability issue, not functionality |
| Vera Roberts | One helpful aspect of setting preferences is that once set they need never be reset until the individual has a different need to meet. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, would you be interested in participating in user trials, to help us improve the usability? |
| Faisal Anwar | yeah, i think we are dealing here with 2 different challanges, web interface and making it accessable... |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Here's the link to the article Christine mentioned: http://www.abilities.ca/abilities/archive.html?article=2222 |
| Owen Milburn | i agree |
| Faisal Anwar | sure. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Sam, thanks for the link |
| Faisal Anwar | i would love too! |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Vera, yes, within TILE, preferences only have to be set once |
| Jennison Asuncion | It would be useful, I think, for a novice person to have descriptions of what is meant by "enhancing structure" and "enhancing navigation" in the settings area. |
| Christine Staddon | Thank Sam |
| Anastasia Cheetham | This is also the case on the Stretch site |
| Anastasia Cheetham | When the user returns next time and logs in to their account, their preferneces are automatically loaded again |
| Cindy Schatkoski | yes, i agree: some description might be helpful |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Jennison, yes, that is one of the things we're working on - a better description of what the things mean |
| Vera Roberts | Jennison, you are right. Technical language was a problem identified frequently by our usability participants. |
| Jennison Asuncion | One of the other complexities is the fact that some assistive technologies, such as JAWS create their own user experience for web pages, which is, more often than not, different from what the visual - |
| Christine Staddon | I agree. I wasn't sure what things meant |
| Jennison Asuncion | user experiences is. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Jennison, would you be interested in participating in user trials? |
| Deborah Hession | The language----this is why I asked about your intended library, public or university |
| Jennison Asuncion | Did this come out at all during the testing with the screen reding audience members? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Deborah, with my tongue in cheek, I say that the intended audience is the whole world |
| Jennison Asuncion | sure ;-) |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Anastasia, do the TransformAble services do only what TILE did or have you enhanced some aspects? |
| Faisal Anwar | how you come up with the technology soultion? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Our initial focus was university institutions |
| Deborah Hession | Good to think big |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The TransformAble focus is on libraries of cultural content |
| Vera Roberts | Jennison, I'm not sure if I can answer your question well. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Sam, the TransformAble services do essentially the same transformations as the TILE systems |
| Anastasia Cheetham | There have been some improvements to the specifications, but functionally, they are pretty similar |
| Vera Roberts | Screen reader users seemed to navigate in the same way that sited participants would navigate. |
| Faisal Anwar | what do you mean by cultural content? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Well, the Stretch site is a good example |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Also, artistic content |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | How easy would it be for a website administrator to add the code? Do we provide the service? |
| Vera Roberts | (continued response to Jennsion) What we did find was that there were some grating aspects of the way the preferences were set up that really come out when a screen reader is used. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Sam, we're working out those issues |
| Faisal Anwar | good question sam |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We will be creating documentation of how to incorporate the software |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Faisal, cultural content could cover online museums, film archives, music libraries, etc., perhaps |
| Jennison Asuncion | Vera, that's good news. I was thinking specifically about the "enhancing the structure of the content" setting and whether the intended outcome was trumped by how JAWS renders the page. Basically, --- |
| Anastasia Cheetham | but we would actually love it if some of the CulturAll partners would be willing to work with us to add the technology to their sites |
| Faisal Anwar | and is it going to be only online or can run through DVD? |
| Jennison Asuncion | did the JAWS user notice a difference when they changed settings? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, it is designed for on-line purposes |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The expectation is a repository of content that can be accessed |
| Anastasia Cheetham | but if a DVD essentially contained such a repository, that could be possible |
| Faisal Anwar | ok |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We are currently working to incorporate the services into Sakai |
| Vera Roberts | Jennsion, I honestly do not recall if the structure of content setting made a difference (I did testing quite a while ago now) |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Is anyone familiar with the Sakai project? |
| Faisal Anwar | it would be neat to combine online with DVD based content for more possibillties, just a thought |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, that would be possible |
| Vera Roberts | Jennison, I'm noting your question for our next testing round though :) |
| Jennison Asuncion | no problem. |
| Christine Staddon | I am not familar with Sakai |
| Owen Milburn | I'm not familiar with Sakai |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Sakai is an open-source "collaboration and learning environment" |
| Vera Roberts | Anasatasia, could you do a quick SAKAI blurb? |
| David Osawabine | Dont know from Sakai |
| Anastasia Cheetham | it is being developed - and used - by a number of large educational institutions |
| Faisal Anwar | whats sakai? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The main partners included UMichigan, Stanford, Berkeley, and a couple of others |
| Anastasia Cheetham | It is a kind of course management, content management system |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Anyone can write new tools for it and plug them in |
| Anastasia Cheetham | for example, calendar tools, testing, grading, etc. |
| Faisal Anwar | right |
| Anastasia Cheetham | it is a very large project that is gaining in popularity |
| Anastasia Cheetham | You can learn more from the project site: http://sakaiproject.org |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | And you are putting TransformAble into Sakai? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Next month, we will be releasing the first version of two of the services at the Sakai conference |
| Anastasia Cheetham | we are working right now to incorporate those services into Sakai |
| Owen Milburn | i'm there right now. looks similat to a Course anagament System we used at SFU |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The first two services are the preferences creation, and the appearance styling |
| Anastasia Cheetham | In the spring, we will finish incorporating the content transformation service |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Because Sakai is, itself, an open source project, we have been working with the community to incorporate the software ourselves |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I will be demonstrating it at the face-to-face summit on Dec. 1 |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Will anyone here be attending that event? |
| Jan Richards | I'll be there. |
| Joe Osawabine | a number of us from debajehmujig will be in attendance |
| Cindy Schatkoski | no, unfortunately i can't go |
| Jennison Asuncion | Catherine fichten,, Christopher gaulin and I will be there Friday. |
| David Osawabine | i will |
| Christine Staddon | I will be attending |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Well, after the Sakai conference, we will be posting more information about how the software is being released. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | So for those of you who are not able to attend, there will be information available |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Is anyone who is currently online involved with any content repositories? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We're interested in working with partners who would like to incorporate the services into their sites |
| Faisal Anwar | thats great |
| Deborah Hession | The work Faisal and I are doing is for kids, are you considering versions for different audience than university, in the near future |
| Anastasia Cheetham | oh, yes - what we're developing can be incorporated into any system |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The user interface for the preferneces creation can be customized to the audience |
| Deborah Hession | Great |
| Anastasia Cheetham | but the idea of transforming the site is applicable to anyone |
| Christine Staddon | I will definately mention its availablility to my co-workers. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Deborah, Faisal, can you tell me anything about what you're working on? |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Even without video content, the ability to change text size, colours, etc. should be useful for many websites. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | yes, I would think so |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Is that part of the code available separately? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | yes - the three services are all independent |
| Anastasia Cheetham | The idea is to create a toolkit that can be used as needed |
| Deborah Hession | We are working on story-based interactive content for kids, that incorporates physical computing as well |
| Anastasia Cheetham | sounds interesting |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Do you have further plans in this direction, Anastasia? |
| Anastasia Cheetham | what do you mean by "physical computing?" |
| Deborah Hession | Kids use their bodies as controllers to advance the story |
| Deborah Hession | sensors, switches, etc |
| Anastasia Cheetham | oh, neat!! That sounds fascinating! |
| Deborah Hession | Its fun |
| Faisal Anwar | screen and non screen based soultions. where you dont use convestional computer mouse etc and there are other means options to explore the content |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Do you include any haptics? Tactile feedback? |
| Deborah Hession | Yes we have some tactile sonics embedded, we are in prototype stage |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Deborah and Faisal, this sounds like a fascinating place to explore some of the possibilities of content transformation... |
| Jennison Asuncion | Have the tools been tested with Flash-based pages and pages that generate dynamic content? Both of these web applications continue to cause some level of accessibility challenges |
| Anastasia Cheetham | it's a very different environment than we usually think about |
| Deborah Hession | And are currently working on, CulturAll, accessible version |
| Anastasia Cheetham | no, we have not tested directly with flash-based content |
| Anastasia Cheetham | although if an alternative to flash-based content is available, it could be substitiuted |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We would like to investigate Flash, though |
| Deborah Hession | Anastasia, we can talk some more in December |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Yes, I would like that |
| Deborah Hession | Super |
| Jennison Asuncion | I know that Flash is a popular application for eLearning, so it will be interesting to look at that I think. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | yes, jennison, it's probably important since it is popular |
| Faisal Anwar | and its effective and easy to handle |
| Deborah Hession | Flash is everywhere, good to tackle this challenge |
| Jennison Asuncion | as are the use of pages whose content is dynamically generated. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | regarding dynamically generated content, we see the transformations as fitting in with that generation process |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Does anyone have any questions about the services, or the project? |
| Jennison Asuncion | I've got to take off. Sam has my contact info re following-up for future testing. I also look forward to meeting up on Dec 1. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Thanks for coming, Jennison |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | We'll keep in touch with you, Jenn |
| Anastasia Cheetham | We appreciate your feedback |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I look forward to meeting you in persion |
| Faisal Anwar | ok, i have to go too, |
| Faisal Anwar | thanks, we are looking forward to talk more some day |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Faisal, thanks for your input |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | I guess some interesting connections were made today, Anastasia |
| Deborah Hession | Yes we'll chat more in December, get in touch with us thru Sam also |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Sure, Debbie |
| Deborah Hession | bye |
| Anastasia Cheetham | yes, sam, I look forward to following up on them |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | I am waiting for an update from you after you return from Banff |
| Joe Osawabine | good-bye everyone, see you in Toronto |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Just so interested |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Bye, Joe - thanks for joining |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Yes, Joe, waiting to meet all of you from Debaj again on Dec 1st |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Bye, Deborah, I look forward to talking more with you about your work |
| Christine Staddon | Thanks for the information Anastasia. I look forward to seeing more about it on the 1st. |
| David Osawabine | nahow bamampii kawabmin |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Thanks for joining, Christine |
| Chris Wemigwans | ciao, see ya later |
| Joe Osawabine | ron says bye as well |
| Joe Osawabine | kawaapmin |
| Chris Wemigwans | was great being here, kaawaabmin |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Thanks, Joe and Ron |
| Christine Staddon | Bye everyone |
| system | User Joe Osawabine has logged out. |
| system | User Christine Staddon has logged out. |
| David Osawabine | kawabminn = see you later |
| Jan Richards | Bye Chris |
| system | User Chris Wemigwans has logged out. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | David, thanks for the translation :-) |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Thank you very much, Anastasia, for the wonderful session |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | I liked the pace and the content |
| system | User David Osawabine has logged out. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | well, I hope people got something out of it |
| Anastasia Cheetham | I appreciate the input, and the feedback |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Sure |
| Jan Richards | Thanks Anastasia - there was a good discussion. |
| Owen Milburn | it was quite interesting. i wish you luck with it. and i'd be interested in implementing these tools |
| system | User Jan Richards has logged out. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Owen, I will get in touch with you about working with you on that |
| Owen Milburn | great! thanks. |
| Owen Milburn | i must be on my way as well. thanks again |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Bye Owen |
| Anastasia Cheetham | thanks, owen |
| system | User Owen Milburn has logged out. |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | I thank you once again, Anastasia, and we could close today's session if you want to. |
| Anastasia Cheetham | If there are no more questions or comments, then I'd like to thank everyone for joining |
| Anastasia Cheetham | It's great to get input from people on the project |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Speaking for all, it was our pleasure |
| Anastasia Cheetham | And I appreciate teh contacts |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | More people will read the transcript |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Thanks, everyone, for joining! |
| system | User Cindy Schatkoski has logged out. |
| Sambhavi Chandrashekar | Thanks and bye, Anastasia |
| Anastasia Cheetham | Bye, everyone! |
