- [Richard] Okay, well, next we'd like to hear from eKitabu, and hear how this Kenyan education content organisation is creating early grade reading materials for deaf readers in EPUB. - [Georgine] Thank you, Richard. So my name is Georgine Auma, and this is my sign name. I'm the director of studio KSL at eKitabu, and I'm happy to be here today to share a note on technical guidance for sign language videos in accessible digital content for children who are deaf. Next slide, please. So our focus for today will be on these four main areas. One, we'll be discussing about the technical guidance for sign language video in accessible digital content which was published by UNICEF, and, we'll be talking about why EPUB, we'll also be sharing an example of EPUB with sign language video, and lastly I'll be sharing a resource list with technical guidance, for anyone who might be interested in the work that we are doing. So, as we talk about sign language video and digital publications, and especially developing content for learners who are deaf and hard of hearing, we know that sign language is the most accessible language for deaf learners, and that means the overall content that you make for deaf learners, and especially for early grade learners need or should build their language, and their communication skills, and also should be able to build their national sign language so that they're able to express themselves in sign language, and also as we work on a pathway to reach (indistinct) for deaf learners, and both for their educational growth meaning that some of the key accessibility features that need to be included in sign language videos, and digital publications. One, the first key feature they need to consider is a national sign language video which should be on full screen and not an insert. That means it should be full screen, and should have a high resolution background which supports the story or the narration. So we need to have the signer on the front of the screen which is on the front of the book, and not the insert that, usually they're on TV. So we need to make the signer on full screen, and not a bottom insert; and this approach is what is recommended, and especially for early grade learners. This is because the hands of the signer needs to be very visible, and so it's easy for them to follow. Number two, we need to have a fluent signer who is deaf, a deaf person themself, and the reason for the purpose, why we use deaf signers is that they are able express themself fully. For a deaf person it's possible for them to provide the full information. It's different from what a person using the second or another language would be doing, and that's why we use native deaf signers. So we need fluency, and full expression, and this should be clear. So the signer should be a deaf person. That feature is the image, the background image should be high resolution. It should be a full background, full on this screen. This is to make sure that it's easy to see, and it's easy to understand. For a deaf learner, we are visual learners, and so image supports the narration of the story, and so they need to be able to see the image clearly, and be able to connect with whatever story is being narrated. And so, the information on the background image, and the signer should be the same. Then, the next one is on captions should be included in their spoken or written language. So this is to enable easy following, and also should have easy to read fonts which are not blocking the signer. So, they should be brief. The captions should be brief, and not blocking the signer. They should be short sentences, so the child is able to follow depending on their level of understanding, and the caption should not be moving. Number five, the features should have-- so one of the other features is on a glossary or dictionary which should have illustrations to build on the language, and literacy skills for all the deaf learners. Glossary or the dictionary words I used together with the content so that they can support the sign language acquisition, and the sign language skills. These glossary words can be banded or made in bold, so that the learner is able to know how to pick out the words, and they should be able.. they should be accessed within their storybook. So those are some of the main features that we focus on, and also the person who is signing.. that's on the person who is signing the story, the glossary words, and the images, and also on the captions. The captions or the glossary words also explain where the words are followed within the story. So, we have this pairing of the words it's part of the description. The next one is on the audio which would follow the written language. It could be on or off depending on what the person watching is interested in. So it should have an on and off option. We also sometimes have the human-narrated option, but this should also, we should also make sure that this is fluent, and it's also synchronises very well with the text, and also what is being signed. It should follow what the signer is signing, and also match with what is written in the captions. Meaning, the caption, the signer, and the audio should all be synchronised together. Point number seven is proper lighting. This helps the visibility of the signer. If the lighting is not very clear or its too bright, then the video becomes not very visible, and then that means you're not able to communicate to the signer, and finally, is on interactive elements. These provide different or multiple ways of action and expression for deaf learners. We know that deaf learners are visual learners, as I had mentioned, and they respond very positively to different means of engagement, and especially those through visual, and also given a visual platform they are able to learn well, and express themselves well. So this, some of the key features for accessibility of sign language videos for deaf learners. After the production of quality sign language videos, we use the EPUB, where we package our content. We package all our content in EPUB because it supports different features, different accessibility features. Not only for deaf learner, but also it meets the different standards, and it has different variations of accessibility. Next slide, please. As I mentioned, we all love EPUB, and we've talked a lot about EPUB today, maybe briefly, just to mention a few of the reasons why we work or why we love working with EPUB. One, it's an open standard, which is already recognised and recommended by International Digital Publishing Forum, and it meets the W3C standard, and it supports multiple accessible features which are inclusive, and we are able to embed our sign language videos. We are able to synchronise the audio, and the text, and the read-aloud, touch screen readers application, for example, NVDA and JAWS has a lot of accessible fonts, and also it has hierarchical structures, and navigations. EPUB also support interactive assessment when it comes to questions and activities. Most of our work is used online, and also offline, and so we're able to use this on EPUB. Next slide, please. As I mentioned about packaging our content into accessible EPUB, this is an example of an EPUB where we have embedded a sign language video with different accessibility features. If you could please play the video for me, Richard, thank you. - [Richard] Okay. Wish me luck. - [Book Narrator] On Sunday, Marion got up early. She walked to the window. It was a sunny day. - [Georgine] From the video we can see the different accessibility features, which I had mentioned earlier. We have a sign language video, and also the video has captions, there's audio, we can see the glossary words which have been underlined. So if you click on the word, it takes you to the video which has a specific word, and the specific sign, and how the word has been used in this story, and it also has an illustration for that word. Next slide, please. So, that's it, this is a resource list, a specific area for people who might be interested in the work that we're doing, and in terms of sign language video production. In this, we hope to guide the work that you are doing. Thank you. - [Richard] Thank you very much, Georgine. All of the resources and links that are provided in the various presentations will be extracted, and made available on our website. Thank you to colleagues from eKitabu, and from all of the speakers in this session, we've covered DAISY and Egypt, braille innovations, the use of voice assistance, artificial intelligence, and sign language. So much amazing work going on by DAISY members all around the world.