Enhancing Web 2.0 Accessibility Via AxsJAX: A Tutorial at Google - Charles L....

Subtitles please!

it's because you are a german vorzugsschüler. sehr brav. setzen.

It would be better if everything he said would be typed as he spoke. its not bad, its just some words that he says with an accent and its not understandable.

If you could type out what he said, that would be helpful.

Accessibility applies to people for whom gaining access to information(etc.)is impossible in reasonable environments. Maybe you should open your mind a little and try to grasp foreign accents - it isn't that difficult unless you are suffering from a severe cognitive disability. Demanding an elevator to go 3 steps because you're too lazy to get off your a***, isn't a demand for accessibility - it's just pathetic.

Access to all he is saying is impossible to me in a completely quiet room. I'm sure deaf people would have even more trouble accessing what he is saying. Communication is two-way. Listening is only half of it. Maybe you should open your mind to the possibility that an accent can be so strong that it becomes inaccessible. I've had many foreign professors and no one as unclear as that. Maybe accents or Google presenters are supposed to be above criticism.

Google may not be above criticism. But accents are representative of a geographical background and criticizing them is like criticizing people for being born or growing up in a particular place. That's the reason why it is not appreciated.

Is it offensive to say that I don't understand Spanish for the same reason? Must I know all languages of the world and all accents to be a moral person? Or is it only a requirement that I don't mention my inability to understand someone's foreign language or strong accent? It seems like some people are just oversensitive or paranoid of being seen as culturally intolerant. When something doesn't make sense, it shouldn't be a moral issue to say so.

The question is of degree. Linguistic categories for mutual intelligibility in speech range from accent > dialect > languages, where only extremely divergent dialects (not classified into languages due to low number of speakers) and languages are considered mutually unintelligible. Accents by definition, are accents because they are the same language and can be understood by speakers of that language. The argument for not understanding a different language simply does not apply here.