In this MOOC we will introduce you to various aspects of media accessibility.

This course has been created as part of the Hbb4All project, which deals with the new ecosystem where media content is distributed in hybrid ways, such as broadcast and broadband. Course promoters are the European Commission – cofounder of this project - as well as Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Vsonix GmbH. This last company, based in Darmstadt (Germany), has developed the Access Guide which allows accessible access to the contents of this course, as well as produced the course contents.   The course involves videos content as well as some questions which you will have to answer.

The course is structured in four units, which are: Accessibility, Subtitling/Captioning, Audio Description and Sign Language. Regarding the first unit, accessibility, we will go through all the issues related to: why and for whom is it accessibility important or necessary, laws and regulations, rights and duties, etc. The second unit deals with the topic of Subtitling/Captioning. Here we will be going through the different aspects to consider when subtitling, such as translation, timing, scrolling, etc. Units one and three will be tutored by Pilar Orero. Thirdly, we will talk about Audio Description. In this third unit we will highlight the importance of a qualitative description and how to achieve this. This third unit will be tutored by Pablo Romero-Fresco. Lastly, in the four unit, we will talk about Sign Language. This topic involves many different issues, due to the fact that sign language it’s a language itself, so there are many things to take into account. This last unit will be tutored by Marta Bosch-Baliarda.

Each of this four units includes several different videos. First one will introduce the service, then you will have three more videos which will go more into details about the topic and at the end we will have a last video including a conclusion.

The course is addressed to everyone: from users to policy makers, accessibility managers, broadcasters, access service providers or just anyone interested in the topic. There are some learning outcomes which we want to address with this course, such as:

• Making students familiar with the basic concepts and services of media access services

• Exploring fundamental techniques in the process of audio description, subtitling/captioning/sign language

• Introducing the professional to the process of audio description, subtitling/captioning/sign language

• Teaching the use of language technologies for accessibility services

• Guide of good practice for accessibility services.