This year’s CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities will take place in San Diego, California, from February 29 through March 3, 2012.

I will be delivering an exciting presentation titled “The Descriptive Video Exchange: The Technology and Implications of Crowd-Sourced Description.” This presentation will cover the technical details and cultural implications of our research using the Descriptive Video Exchange (DVX) – a simple crowd-sourcing model for the creation and distribution of amateur video description.

Topics to be covered in this one-hour presentation include

• The development of a new software technology – the Descriptive Video Exchange (DVX) – that allows viewers to verbally describe what they see in a movie, and seamlessly share those descriptions over the Internet, thus greatly expanding the potential number of described titles available to blind and visually-impaired viewers;
  
  
• Our lab’s program of rigorous research to evaluate 1) the effectiveness of DVX for the recording and distribution of amateur audio description, 2) the effectiveness of automated digital tools for enhancing the presentation of amateur audio description, and 3) the effectiveness of using social networks and online communities for the recruitment of volunteer audio describers; and
  
  
• The potential impact of such a technology on the accessibility of educational materials, movies, YouTube, TV shows, and its possible ramifications for the description and mainstream entertainment industries.
  

I'm looking forward to meeting many new people there, and I hope you will be one of them!

Session Location: Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, Betsy AB, 2nd Floor

Session Time: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - 3:10 PM PST