Thursday Morning

9:15 Continental Breakfast at Smith-Kettlewell

9:30 Introductions and Welcome Josh Miele, Jim Stovall, and Ana Forest.

9:45 The Descriptive Video Exchange (DVX) Application Program Interface (API) – A gentle technical introduction to Smith-Kettlewell’s open-source tools for cloud-based storage and retrieval of video description. Keith Williams.

10:00 YouDescribe – a demonstration of how DVX is being used to provide access to YouTube videos. Josh Miele, Steve Jacobs, and Keith Williams.

10:20 HTML5 and DVX – An introduction and demonstration of how HTML5 can be used to deliver inline, extended, and text-based video description from third-party sources. Owen Edwards, John Foliot, and Keith Williams.

10:45 Break

11:00 LiveDescribe and DVX – a discussion and demonstration of how an open-source, professional-quality description authoring environment can utilize the Descriptive Video Exchange. Deborah Fels, Kristian Ott, and Keith Williams.

11:20 Modern Screen Scraping – A discussion and demonstration of how Computer-vision techniques can be used to find and read natural and artificial text in a video. Ender Tekin.

11:40 Stage Whisper – A discussion and demonstration of a prototype Android app for using Voice Over IP (VOIP) technology and smartphones to deliver live description in theater contexts. Josh Miele and Keith Williams.


12:00 Lunch – Small-group discussion

Thursday Afternoon

1:00 Solo-DX – A discussion and demonstration of one company’s direct approach to distributing third-party description. Justin Sohl.

1:30 Audio Fingerprinting and Second-Screen Technologies — An update and comparison of available, open-source technologies for synchronizing third-party description with external video content. Owen Edwards.

2:00 Break

2:15 BlindyTV – A discussion and analysis of an unorthodox approach to distributing described television programming. Bryan Smart.

2:45 Intellectual Property Barriers – A presentation and discussion exploring the legal, policy, and practical dynamics interacting to pose challenges and opportunities for the production and distribution of third-party video description. Paul Schroeder. Discussants: Lainey Feingold and Dennis Clark.

3:30 Break

3:40– Educators Panel discussion – TVI’s, technology, and description as a teaching tool. Lori Johnson Yue-Ting Siu, and Mary Ann Siller.

4:20 Museum Panel Discussion – Using crowd-sourcing techniques and location-based technologies to deliver an accessible descriptive museum experience. Rebecca McGinnis and Halsey Burgund. Discussant: Megan Lawrence.

Friday Morning

9:15 Continental Breakfast at Smith-Kettlewell

9:30 Developing a Visual-Impairment Research Agenda for Description (VIRAD) – A preview and discussion of proposed empirical research questions and priorities for future research on the creation and delivery of description for blind consumers. Larry Goldberg, Bryan Gould, and Josh Miele.

10:15 Developing an Expanded Populations Research Agenda for Description (EPRAD) A preview and discussion of proposed populations (other than blind/vi consumers) who may benefit from video description, and empirical research questions, outcome measures, and priorities for evaluating the effectiveness of description for these populations. Jaclyn Packer and Matt Kaplowitz.

11:00 Break

11:15 Managing the Quality of Crowdsourced Content – A discussion of lessons learned from Amara, Wikipedia, and other relevant platforms. Jules Rincon and Megan Lawrence.

11:45 Collaborative Crowdsourced Description – The advantages of text-based description for collaborative authoring, searching, and tagging. Josh Miele and Owen Edwards.


12:00 Lunch – Small-Group Discussion

Friday Afternoon

1:00 Designing Accessible Webinars – An overview and discussion of lessons learned in delivering the VDRDC webinar series. Jason Stark.

1:30 Cultivating Blind Description Professionals – An overview and discussion of the NFB Professional Development Workshop (PDW), Internships, and planned Youth Experience Mark Riccobono, Rick Boggs, Jennifer Justice, and Josh Miele.

2:00 Break

2:15 Consumer Focus Groups, Past and Future – How the VDRDC is using focus groups at consumer conferences to disseminate and gather information about the future of video description. Megan Lawrence, Korie Boctor, Mary Ann Siller, Lori Johnson, Jennifer Justice, Joel Snyder, and Mark Riccobono.

2:45 Looking Ahead – a discussion of the future of the VDRDC and the DLN. Josh Miele.

3:15 Meeting Evaluation – An opportunity to discuss what did and did not work about the execution of the 2013 DLN meeting. Korie Boctor and Josh Miele.

3:30 Adjourn