Overview

The objective of this document is to summarize possibilities and issues related to the transformation of audio and video media to enhance accessibility. Potential transformations that have been considered by the Task Force include the following.

Color transformation of visual content (including video) to satisfy a user's individual needs.
Flash mitigation (see the paper cited below) to reduce risk for people with photosensitivity.
Transformation of audio content in accordance with an individual's audio profile.

It is assumed here that the transformations would be completely automated, and, at least in some instances, may be applied on the user's device rather than by the media creator or distributor.

Open Issues

Unresolved issues include the following.

How feasible are the transformations discussed above, in different scenarios?
What, if any, additional transformations should be proposed?
Where in the software (authoring tool, Web application, user agent, assistive technology, operating system, audio/video drivers, etc.) are transformations feasible, and where should they be applied? The answers may well be different depending on the desired transformation.
How does the potential for such transformations fit into current and anticipated future priorities for the development of Web-related standards and technology specifications?
In particular, what is its relationship with future W3C/WAI accessibility guidance (e.g., user agent-related guidance)?
Should it be integrated into or acknowledged in any technology specifications? If so, which specifications?
Should the potential of augmented reality devices to transform incoming images and audio of the external environment (as well as virtual objects) be discussed in future publications of this Task Force, or elsewhere?
Some transformations (e.g., flash mitigation) may introduce latency into live media. To what extent is this likely to be the case, and is it within reasonable tolerances?

References

Barbu, A., Banda, D., & Katz, B. (2020). Deep video-to-video transformations for accessibility with an application to photosensitivity. Pattern Recognition Letters, 137, 99-107.