Main Page

Welcome to !
This is version 2.0 of the NEoN Digital Arts Accessibility Strategy, created by Beatrix Livesey-Stephens. In NEoN’s mission to bring digital arts to everyone, considering accessibility is extremely important. This document is a step in making sure NEoN can provide access for disabled individuals and fulfilling that mission. We live in a rapidly changing world, and accessibility is no exception – there are always new accessibility measures being developed, and new technology to create art with. This document is a living document and will continue to evolve with new information and guidance as the state of accessibility and digital art changes. Ongoing conversations are needed every time NEoN considers something new and the state of the intersection of digital art and accessibility changes. Most of what is in this document is from other sources, and I have highlighted these places in the references section. We would especially like to thank Glasgow-based theatre company, Birds of Paradise.

Introduction
This document is mainly focused on accessibility for disabled people (i.e physical accessibility, accessibility for neurodivergent people, web accessibility, and more detailed in this document), but accessibility more broadly includes socio-economic accessibility, digital accessibility (i.e relating to digital poverty), and cultural inclusion. Accessibility is all about inclusion, and this includes everyone. When curating an event, programme of events, or general commission, it is important to keep accessibility at the forefront. Accessibility is something that should be baked in, not added on at the last minute.

By choosing accessible platforms, accessible language, and booking captioners and interpreters in advance, and involving them in the process, you are actually reducing the workload and crunch time involved, and making the programme and experience of accessibility more effective. This includes telling people (i.e coworkers, artists, and anyone else) why a specific thing is needed from them, as it helps to see how every bit of information will fit together in the end, and broadens knowledge of accessibility for everyone involved. So much of accessibility activism ends up trying to reinvent the wheel. If you are unsure whether something has been done before, or how to implement a measure, look it up on the internet. It is likely that someone has done it before you.

No piece of art can be “fully accessible”, and should not be labelled as such. In fact, what makes a piece accessible to some people can make it inaccessible to others. In the words of tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) designer Jay Dragon (paraphrased)

“Please consider conflicting access needs and insert that phrase into your vocabulary. For example, the medium of podcasts [is] not inaccessible in itself — they are an artistic medium. if you struggle to process them (as I do), then you have an access need if you want to engage with them (in my case, transcripts). If you request your access need and the podcaster is unable to provide them, then that podcast is inaccessible for you. (This is a morally neutral statement! There are many reasons why a podcaster might not be able to provide that). This doesn’t mean the podcaster should be writing articles instead of podcasting — long articles can also be inaccessible for people, there is no perfect method of communicating information which everyone can immediately understand.

In some cases, we might have conflicting access needs — maybe you need the text in bright red comic sans for your dyslexia, and my migraines make it impossible for me to process that without getting a headache. Ultimately, access needs are individual and complicated, and pointing to a medium or an artistic work and branding it inaccessible is a distortion of that language’s purpose, and makes it harder to discuss ableism and accessibility.”

Advice for Artists
When commissioning a film, exhibition, game, or other work, the artist will be given accessibility guidelines to work from. Since accessibility is a part of the work, artists are encouraged to think about ‘baking in’ the accessibility measures in an artistic manner, and framing these measures as a part of the art. Importantly, accessibility is a collective effort. Everyone working on the accessibility of a project should have access to all the data, transcripts, alternative text and image descriptions that people have made, and everything else. This makes creating more for access much more streamlined and means that no-one is reinventing the wheel. Access is more than a collective effort, it is a community effort — if you are having trouble finding something specific, or learning how to do something, there is a wealth or resources to help you. Some of these have been linked below in the References and Sources section, and throughout the document.

Signed Language(s) Interpretation
For any language that is used in an audio or audiovisual commission, it should be interpreted in order to provide access for deaf BSL users. The interpretation should be either in British Sign Language (BSL) or another signed language. An artist who is commissioned to create an audio or audiovisual piece of work should consult a (British) Sign Language interpreter directly to interpret the commission. This ensures that the interpreter has a comprehensive knowledge of the lexicon used in the commission, including nuances, and instances when what is said is not meant to be intelligible at all.

The interpreter MUST be registered with the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People (NRCPD) or another national equivalent. The interpreter should be booked as far in advance as possible, ideally even over three months in advance – they book up extremely quickly. Make sure to also set money aside for travel costs of getting the interpreter to and from the venue if you are hiring them for an event they have to travel to. If the live event is over an hour, two interpreters must be hired, otherwise the quality of interpretation decreases dramatically due to fatigue. The interpreter(s) can advise on this, as it depends on the type of event. Lectures and other long talks with specialist material are guaranteed to need two interpreters, since the pace can be very fast and the material is complex.

When hiring an interpreter for a commission, the artist should consider if, how, and why the interpreter should be specifically interwoven with the work instead of being an add-on, primarily for accessibility of the commission, and also for artistic reasons. Accessibility should always be prioritised in this instance – if it isn’t accessible, it isn’t complete. More detailed information about best practice when working with interpreters can be found on the Association of Sign Language Interpreters website and the National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters website, including Interpreter Fee Guidance. You can use the NRCPD site to search for interpreters and captioners throughout the UK. >> This link takes you to a search for English/BSL interpreters in Dundee.

Pre-recorded Audiovisual

 * Where is the interpreter placed on the screen? Are they at the side, the bottom, or the top?
 * Is the interpretation covering up some of the film? Is there black/white space at the side of the film for the interpreter to fit instead (similar to on Zoom)?
 * Does the interpreter have a stylised ‘box’ that they fit into on the screen?
 * Is there an option to view the work/commission with and without the interpreter?
 * Are they cut off or unclear in any way? Make sure they’re not – they should be very visible!

Real-time Audiovisual (events either online or offline)

 * Where in the physical space is the interpreter? Do they move around the space? Do they have room to do this?
 * Have you done a trial run to make sure the interpreter is visible to those who need interpretation?
 * Is the connection/frame rate stable?
 * How many interpreters are needed? The quality of interpretation decreases rapidly after an hour (although this does depend, the interpreter will advise), and it is best practice to hire two or more so they can alternate, ESPECIALLY if there are breakout sessions, and more than one deaf person in the room.
 * Have you vetted the BSL interpreter with the deaf BSL user, if you are booking for a specific person?
 * If you know who in the room is a deaf BSL user, you MUST tell them which interpreter(s) you are planning to book, before you confirm anything. Many deaf BSL users have interpreters they know well and are comfortable with, some that they are strangers to, and some with whom they have worked with before but have not had good experiences with. When it comes down to it, an interpreter is for the deaf BSL user to access the conversation with, and they are there to aid the deaf BSL user.
 * Remember that not all deaf people use BSL, in fact there is a serious issue of language deprivation in the deaf community, meaning that deaf people have never had the opportunity to learn BSL, and most have had to grow up without access to it. If you are booking a BSL interpreter for a specific person, such as a panellist, make sure they actually are a deaf BSL user.

Captioning advice for artists
For any language that is used in an audio or audiovisual commission, it should be captioned for the access of deaf and hard of hearing people and neurodiverse people (captions benefit many different groups). Artists are encouraged to think about captioning holistically as a part of the art. For material that is not live (i.e pre-recorded), the captions can be tailored to the material accordingly. For example, an artist may want to match the captions to the colour scheme of a video, use a font that they believe fits better with the tone, or use NEoN’s signature Avenir font, provided that the font used is easily readable both in style, colour, and background. A background for captions is recommended to aid high colour contrast (e.g black on white or white on black), which makes the captions easier to follow, especially for people with low vision. Never, ever use rolling captions or ‘kinetic captions’ as a genuine accessibility measure. There have been studies done that show that rolling captions impede comprehension and use more brain processing power – they are not helpful to people that need them to access content. When considering virtual reality (VR) there is debate around whether using captions “breaks immersion” since it is meant to reflect reality. However, captions make the difference between someone being able to access a piece of work and someone not being able to access a piece of work. The debate around VR and captions can be closed by making sure the captions are closed captions (CC) and are therefore able to be toggled on and off.

YouTube
If you are hosting a commission on YouTube (and even if you’re not), YouTube is a very helpful platform to caption on. If you go through the process of uploading a video, caption it using YouTube’s captioning and adjustment tools, and then download the SBV file. You can then put the SBV file through an SBV to SRT converter so you can easily burn the captions into the video.

Adobe Premier Pro
NEoN has access to this through the Adobe Creative Suite. You can either type captions manually when captioning a video (see the “Captions” tab), or you can ask Adobe to generate captions for you. Even if you already have a transcript (e.g if you’re the artist you will have written a script before recording a video) Adobe’s caption generation automatically syncs the transcript for you, which is incredibly useful.

Handbrake
Handbrake is very technical at first, but it is common captioning software. Use YouTube functionality to create the SBV file, convert it to SRT through a converter, and go from there.

Best practice for captioning (visuals)



 * Text has high colour contrast with background colour (if appropriate)
 * Large text for maximum visibility
 * Two lines of text or fewer (i.e not much text to read) although this depends on the number of words. One line is preferable, again it depends on the number of words shown in the captions at any one time.
 * Where possible and where appropriate, use the Avenir font (the font associated with NEoN’s brand) or Open Sans.

Best Practice for captioning (taken from Talking Type Captions best practice)
When editing captions manually for use in a commission or other video, make sure that you include ALL relevant dialogue. This can include:
 * Laughter from a speaker, panellist, or audience – captioned as “[Bea laughs]” if the previous speaker was not Bea,
 * “[laughs]” if the previous speaker was Bea,


 * “[audience laughter]/[audience laughs]” if it’s the audience and


 * “[laughter]” if the laughter is from multiple people on a panel.

“[Bea gasps]”, “[gasps in shock]” similar to the guidelines above. Example: These days, we should remember President Kennedy’s words: “My fellow Americans, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Example: JOHN: I went to the library. Example: [PHONE RINGS] Example: [DOG BARKS] [DOG BARKING] Example: [OCEAN SOUNDS] Versus [WAVES CRASHING] or [SEAGULLS CRYING] Narration/voiceover speech (make sure to include a speaker identification) Dialogue from on-screen television or radio When someone (a character, for example) is heard speaking over a phone and is not physically present in the scene Song lyrics Example: I bought five books, so now I have a total of 15. Example: I don’t know… or I am going — Quiet! Example: I-I-I don’t know! He w-was right there! Example: M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I (spelling) Example: FCC (acronym)
 * Gaps of shock/surprise, and anything else similar to this. This can be written as “[gasps]”,
 * Where possible, line breaks and caption breaks should follow the natural rhythm of speech for maximum readability, without breaking up complete clauses/names, separating articles from words.
 * If a speaker is quoting or reading from a book/newspaper/etc., it must be in quotation marks. For quotes extending over multiple captions, each caption starts with an opening mark, and the final caption has only a closing mark.
 * Speaker identification will be required only if necessary for comprehension (Example: when someone is off screen, but it is still apparent who is speaking, speaker identification is not required).
 * When speaker identification is required, the speaker’s name should be in all capital letters, with a colon, and a space.
 * Sound effects are required when relevant and do not interfere with spoken dialogue. When included, sound effects should be bracketed and formatted in all capital letters.
 * The tense of the verb should indicate whether the sound is a singular instance or is continuous.
 * Be as specific as possible.
 * Italicisation is required in the following instances:
 * Captions should be on screen for a minimum of one second, and a maximum of seven seconds. They should NEVER be word by word like how automatic captions sometimes work, this can be very distracting and overwhelming, especially for neurodivergent people.
 * Numerals 1-12 should be written out. All other numbers should be written as digits.
 * When appropriate, you may indicate speaker trailing off with ellipses, abrupt pauses or interruptions with a long dash.
 * Stuttering or stammering should be indicated with hyphens.
 * If a speaker is spelling out a word (unless it’s an acronym), capitalize each letter and put a dash between.

Live-Captioning
For commissions and events that are performed in real-time, such as discussions, should be live-captioned by a professional live-captioner from the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters, The Association of Speech-To-Text Reporters, or Stagetext – as long as the captioner is registered with the NRCPD (above) or an international equivalent. The live-captioner should be booked as far in advance as possible, ideally as soon as the date is confirmed (even if it is a provisional date), or even before if the general time is known (i.e only the day). Live-captioners need as much time as possible to prepare, and they become more and more difficult to find if they are sought at short notice. If an event is over an hour, two captioners must be hired so that the quality of the captioning does not decrease. They will switch over at regular intervals and can advise about how they will do this.

Captioners understand that not everything can be prepared for (e.g responses in a panel discussion) but anything that can be passed on should be passed on. This includes pre-prepared questions, people’s names (names of people speaking and names of people who will be mentioned), and any specialist language and terminology. If someone is going to be speaking from a pre-prepared script or notes, these should also be given to the captioner. However, be wary of overloading the captioner with too much information. If it is necessary to give a captioner lots of information/documents, make sure you provide these weeks in advance, or even months. In general, captioners would much rather have a small amount of comprehensive information, rather than pages and pages of things that might be a little bit relevant. With that said, it does depend on the captioner – definitely do ask them what they prefer and then you can work from there.

It is common practice for live captioners to caption through Streamtext, which most often opens in a separate webpage – if using a platform like Zoom, the captioner posts this link in the chat. However, people viewing the captions through the link will not always be able to see the event and the captions at the same time. If using a platform like Zoom or MS teams for an event, you will give the captioner 3rd party access to type captions (Zoom explains this well). If you are not displaying captions through a meeting platform, captioners are likely to use Streamcast instead. The captioner in question can advise on this, as they all handle assignments differently. Live captioners normally charge up to £200 per hour.

Wherever possible, whether the captions are live, automatic, or pre-written, captions should be closed captions (CC), which means they are able to be toggled on and off. It should be made clear to viewers that captions are available and that toggling them on and off is an option.

Low-Vision and Blind Accessibility
When designing for accessibility specifically for people who are blind or have low vision, it is firstly important to keep in mind that one size does not fit all, as is the case for accessibility as a whole. Some blind people use screen readers, but not all do. In fact, many people use screen readers who aren’t blind, such as people who suffer chronic migraines and cannot always look at computer screens.

Blindness also includes colour blindness such as monochromacy or red-green colour blindness. With respect to this, colour should never convey any information on a website or anywhere else. As a general rule, instead of using colour to denote different elements, use shape, both physically (e.g a piece in a tabletop game) and digitally. Text should be in a sans serif font where possible, and/or have sans serif and large print/text options. Every commission should either have high colour contrast or have a high colour contrast option or version of the work. High contrast means that the text is easily readable against the background, similarly to the guidance for captions above.

When using large print, the type size should be 14pt at the very least, preferably 18pt.

Audio Description
Audio description is one of the most broadly used accessibility measures for blind people to access audiovisual content. The cost of the audio description very much depends on the length of the piece of work. Audio description should always be done by a trained professional or an organisation such as VocalEyes (Audio description services for digital theatre – VocalEyes). Freelance professionals are likely to charge Scottish Artist Union (SAU) rates. You may wish to collaborate with the professional further on specialist language, the feel of the audio, and other factors. This especially depends on whether the audio description in question is to supplement something like an article online, or if it is a reimagining of something audiovisual, like a theatre piece or video commission. See more resources below about what to make sure is included in an audio description for a video commission.

Braille
Braille can be pretty expensive to transliterate, depending on the complexity and length of the material, and if there are diagrams and pictures but here are some resources from a Scottish company. Braille – A2i Transcription Services A2i Transcription Services Price Guide