Embracing community-based participatory research in Media Accessibility
Irene Hermosa-Ramírez, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Transcript of the video essay
In white letters over a black background, the title of this video essay reads: ‘Leading by Example: Embracing Community-Based Participatory Research in Media Accessibility’, by Irene Hermosa-Ramírez for the Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 39. Throughout this essay, there are recordings of myself, the author: a young researcher with dark wavy hair, fair-skinned and wearing a dark jumper, accompanied by some texts on screen referencing citations, screen recordings and diagrams for illustration.
A piece of paper reads ‘research subject’. This phrase is crossed and a new one is handwritten in green: ‘co-researcher’. This video essay aims to disturb the differences in agency and decision-making between the Media Accessibility researcher and the research subject. The first part of the essay helps me defend this position theoretically and the second one proposes a real-life application of the Community-Based Participatory Research framework.
Next, a black man appears and signs: “Setting up many things without us, the Deaf, your actions are useless.” On screen, Twitter user Chancey Fleet asks: “Dear sighted people working in tech: stop designing ‘solutions’ blind people never asked for based on your ableist nightmare of what you think our problems are. Our number one problem these days is … you.”
This post and others were in reference to a new technology: a vibrating in-shoe GPS system that could supposedly replace white canes. Visually impaired users of this social network promptly pointed out to the fact that it seemed obvious that no users had been involved or consulted in the design of this device. It was unrequested and it was unwanted. Thus, the following question arises. Are we, as Media Accessibility researchers also guilty of this? Are we researching topics that people with sensory disabilities never asked for? Should we be the ones designing research questions at all? Indeed, there has been a shift from maker and expert-centred approaches to user-centred approaches in the field of Media Accessibility. And an advocacy for the involvement of users in the creation of accessible services. Examples of the latter include participatory accessibility, poietic design and accessible filmmaking. In the words of Greco and Jankowska: “Users are now seen as bearers of unique knowledge that is essential for the design and the evaluation of access solutions.” The position defended in this paper is that we, as researchers, can also take one step further in this direction and embrace Community-Based Participatory Research as a viable framework to advance our studies.
Israel and colleagues define Community-Based Participatory Research as follows: “A commitment to conducting research that to some degree shares power with and engages community partners in the research process and benefits the communities involved, either through direct intervention or by translating research findings into interventions and policy change.”
It is also worth clarifying that Community-Based Participatory Research is not a method, but rather an orientation to research. It can in fact apply quantitative, qualitative and, notably, mixed methods. This approach draws from theories such as critical pedagogy, action research, critical theory, and feminist theory, and it aligns with the transformative-emancipation philosophical paradigm.
The differences between the user-centred approach in Media Accessibility and Community-Based Participatory Research largely lie in the role of the users. In user-centred studies, they participate as interviewees, testers, etc. That is, they take a passive role, while in the context of Community-Based Participatory Research, they take an active one. The underlying power imbalance is thus overcome, shifting to an equitable partnership. That is, users define the research questions, they are involved in the selection of methods, in the collection and interpreting of data, in the dissemination of findings, and in solving the initially defined problem.
In the words of Boyd: “For many engaged scholars, ethical research requires working with and for individuals and groups, not doing research on or about subjects.”
To better exemplify the application of Community-Based Participatory Research to Media Accessibility studies, this paper presents a mixed methods design proposal. For this proposal to be truly framed within the transformative approach, the research topic is defined by the community concerned, and the research findings should translate into action or resolve the defined problem. The proposal revolves around accessibility compliance in the context of social media accounts from cultural institutions from Spain. Both publicly and privately funded museums, theatre venues, and music and cinema festivals. The focus is placed specifically on image description or ‘alt text’. And the starting point will be, yet again, Twitter.
Now on-screen, a demonstration of the lack of image description in the Twitter feed of one of the most notorious cultural institutions in Spain, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. With the aid of an ‘alt text’ plugin in Google Chrome, one can easily verify that images are not generally described.
Now, I’m showing an example from the National Theatre in London where there is image description: “Text in white reads: ‘All kinds of limbo’, A black woman in a shiny jumpsuit sits on a tower of household objects.”
Screen reader users have repeatedly voiced their concerns when it comes to the widespread lack of accessibility awareness on this social network and others. In fact, out of the more than nine million tweets compiled by Gleason and colleagues in 2019, around 12% contained images, but only 0.1% of those images were described.
Now on screen, some tweets that illustrate the issue at hand. Liz Jackson quotes a tweet from the official account of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and adds: “No alt text on the Olympic handle for the Paralympics. Says it all.”
In the Spanish-speaking communities, we see similar demands. User Enara says: “Today I’ll quickly tell you about a consequence of not adding image descriptions: virtual events you cannot attend because, surprise, the schedule is an image that does not include alt text.”
Another tweet reads: “Asking for an image description is not easy. I feel vulnerable, some days I feel like I am asking for a favour. I don’t know how the other person is going to react and that is unsettling. But everything fades away when I read you. Thanks for your inclusion!”
The initial problem is therefore already identified by the community. And, for the purposes of this proposal, the involved stakeholders could be defined as the Spanish blind community on social media and the communication or social media teams from cultural institutions. To outline our mixed methods design for this proposal, we may draw from Creswell and Plano Clark’s diagram. It is based on a mixed methods Community-Based Participatory study from Greysen and others, that combined quantitative and qualitative surveys to assess and improve transitions from hospital to shelters for homeless patients.
Their research design involved five stages. First, to engage with the community. Second, to identify the research priority. Third, to develop the quantitative instrument based on the qualitative findings identified in the first two steps. Fourth, to collect and analyse data. At this stage, qualitative and quantitative results are merged. Fifth, to deploy and implement the action plan.
Following the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research, the research team translated the obtained results into an action plan developed in collaboration with the community stakeholders. This plan involved, for instance, the establishment of a procedure to obtain funding to implement the needed policies and the fostering of a longer-term partnership. In our case, the five stages also include the initial engagement with the community through meetings and the creation of lasting communication channels, on top of the identification of the key co-investigators and the research goal: raising awareness and drafting good practices for accessible communication on social media.
The third step would be devoted to designing the two main instruments of the proposal: a quantitative survey to gather why cultural institutions in Spain do not describe the images they post on social media, and a qualitative survey for screen reader users to point out best practices in ‘alt text’. Fourth, the data is collected and analysed, with the addition of a content analysis of image descriptions from cultural institutions outside Spain that do consistently provide ‘alt text’. These quantitative and qualitative results are merged at this stage. The fifth and last stage would be devoted to the co-creation of a set of good ‘alt text’ practices with users deriving from the obtained results. These good practices are then shared with the addressed cultural institutions for example, through workshops led by users. The aim is, as suggested throughout the article, not only to raise awareness, but also to achieve change through policy implementation.
In conclusion, this essay does not seek to disregard user-centred studies or deny their impact in the lives of users, but rather, to open up a new avenue that is otherwise established in other disciplines such as Sociology and the Health Sciences.
Involving users in the creation and testing of access services will continue to be necessary and valuable for all stakeholders involved in accessibility processes. Yet the application of the Community-Based Participatory Research approach to Media Accessibility can take us one step closer towards solving problems identified by users, all while involving them in the research itself in a more meaningful way. If our aim is to mainstream participatory approaches in the industry, we too have a unique opportunity to shift from a community-placed into a community-driven approach to research.
Disclaimer: this research has been funded by the RAD project. Irene Hermosa-Ramírez is a FI scholarship holder and a member of Transmedia Catalonia research group.