USING ACCESSIBILITY MULTIMEDIA AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL

Access to information on equal terms to all the people is a right that should not be influenced by their possible disabilities. In many cases the technologies used in divulgation programs, education or training don´t take into account the needs of people with auditory or visual disabilities. Sometimes, even the technology itself is a new barrier that generates multiple disabilities, those ones that arise from the digital divide.
The aim of pasmao.tv is to disseminate technological knowledge (the digital signature) among a few specific groups (people with hearing or visual disabilities, and elderly). So it is necessary to achieve technological divulgation and make it accessible, according to physical (visual or hearing disabilities) and conceptual (digital literacy) aspects. The first aspect, concerning to the auditory or visual disabilities, it was implemented using technologies well known in the fields of audiovisual accessibility: subtitling and audio description. The second aspect, concerning to the conceptual difficulties and the technology gap, has been solved using an unconventional broadcast method, but effective in the light of the results. It has been developed a tv comedy, that introduces, in a natural way, the concepts and ideas underlying the digital signature, applied to everyday situations.
In order to do this performance, the whole work was divided in several stages. In the earliest stages, studies were conducted among the target population of the performance. The aim of these studies was to determine what aspects of the digital signature will become a target of action: what concepts are known or unknown, and what elements of this technology generate rejection. This study identified the main content to disclose: aspects of how obtaining a certificate, what are their usefulness, or what is the safety level obtained when use the digital signature technology. The tv comedy script was written from result of this objective and subjective study. We wrote a friendly script, using a language close to the user (viewer) that did not included unnecessary technical complications. Using this script the tv comedy was recorded and produced, which was later convert to accessible using subtitling and audio description. Finally, a website was created for the diffusion of the tv comedy. The website was designed by following the accessibility guidelines more acceptable.
This work was later published in the website www.pasmao.tv and it also was presented in diverse national forums of elderly and disabled people. The work has achieved a very high acceptance level, both from an subjective point of view as a objective. The result is a accessible product at all levels, carrying out the assigned task of technological diffusion. The vast majority of the "audience" affirm that they understood how operates the digital signature and how to use it. In many cases, they also said that they will use this technology with fully confidence. The greatest success of this work has been to check that the concept of "universal design" and "design for all" are valid and effective. Achieving an accessible action does not imply high effort or extra cost, if the accessibility is established as a goal from the beginning of the work.