In publica commoda

2.1 Preparation

Production of accessible teaching materials demands that the routine approach to work is abandoned and a new perspective on preparing and presenting content adopted. Although it calls for additional effort at first, this diminishes rapidly as experience grows.

2.1.1 Finances, personnel and time

Planning for time, personnel and finance is closely related: for example, if there are substantial personnel resources, well-structured planning can make the production time shorter as a whole. If, on the other hand, there is a greater funding budget available, various tasks can be assigned externally and student assistance may also be called on for support.

First of all, you need to define the organisational framework, i.e. the time, personnel and finance available:

  • Who is available and for how many hours? What expertise does each person have? Is it possible to draw on student assistance?
  • Is there a budget, for e.g. outsourcing specific tasks or purchasing technology?
  • Is it possible to obtain funds for accessible aspects such as sign language translation, audio description and subtitling or professional video recording from the university’s budget or external grants?


Finances

If you have a budget at your disposal, you can commission certain tasks. Outsourcing tasks minimises use of personnel, and can increase the quality of the video, particularly if your technical expertise or materials are limited, for example.
Video recordings by a professional video team (e.g. the university’s video team) are generally noticeably higher quality than “home-made” recordings. They deliver excellent picture and sound quality and improve the consistency of the video. The latter is particularly important if videos are part of a series. Features such as the lighting and arrangement of the section of the picture featuring the speaker or signer and the position of the superimposed presentation in the video image are critical. In addition, the work may also cover technical post-production aspects, such as editing, recording and inserting audio description (AD) and subtitling.
For professional translation of the spoken video into German Sign Language (DGS), specialist service providers such as yomma and ZFK can be called on.

Personnel

When planning personnel, time resources should be considered as much as the expertise on the team. It is crucial that stakeholders – including deaf people and blind people – play an equal part on the team, and are included in quality control and assurance. The principle is “Nothing about us without us!” as only in this way can you ensure that needs are appropriately addressed and the realisation of this is of a suitable quality.
Depending on the number of colleagues, it may be advisable to form smaller work groups with responsibility for a specific area suited to their personal expertise, e.g. coordination, preparation of content, AD or translation into the relevant sign language. This spreads responsibility so that the participants do not all have to acquire equal expertise in every field.
For other tasks, such as proofreading and revising the script, slides or subtitles, it is advisable for the entire team to tackle the content in coordinated feedback cycles. Such a process of multiple checks is better at identifying and remedying errors. Regular project meetings help to support the production process as a whole and offer opportunities to discuss upcoming tasks and procedures.
Depending on which tasks are outsourced and which are handled by the team, it is then possible to plan precisely the relation of responsibilities of personnel and the timeline, as well as revision cycles.

Time

An introductory organisational meeting should develop a timeline that is as concrete as possible, systematically setting out timeframes, tasks and responsibilities. When planning deadlines, remember that some stages build on one another. For instance, an AD cannot be prepared without the content and the translation into the appropriate sign language cannot take place without the recorded speech or script. Equally, your own timelines must be coordinated with any tasks that are outsourced. Accordingly, external offers should be obtained right at the start, and your own timeline regularly adapted to the timeframes and conditions notified by external parties.
If several accessible videos are produced, the first production cycle is likely to need far more time than subsequent ones which can draw on practical experience and the systematisation of processes on the team.