Accessibility Project Brainstorming

My brain is rushing again. After a few days with the parents, which were good, I've been thinking about accessibility and physical training, but I've not been able to write or get much done. Forty-five minutes here and thirty minutes there. Anyhow, it's been nice having some time to write and think.

I am a bit frustrated because my searches for closed captioning are turning up squat at Google. I'm sure this is my lack of proper or specific terms. I am attempting to find specific details about the populations which use closed captioning. I also want to know what percentage of sports and physical training videos offer closed captioning. Finally, I am attempting to locate coaches and trainers who train athletes and clients via video over the web. All of this is information for the grist mill which is my brain.

I'm still looking for that information.

In the mean time, here's a rough idea for a final project: create a video appeal to commercial producers of physical and sports training videos--especially those who use YouTube, etc., to post samples of their training videos as sales comeons--to present their material in accessible formats. The video should be a concise, clean, and clear positioning of the arguments for closed captioning--and it should be tightly constructed. The rest of the final project would be a discussion of the rhetorical tools used in the video, how I appealed to what for the specific audience (ethos, etc.), and then why and how I constructed the accessibility of the video. The video would obviously be closed captioned and have an attached script. If there was time and motivation, perhaps even include the extended notes? We'll see.

But first, I need some numbers and data, and I cannot seem to find them. Searching sloppy style, I guess. Need to improve that.

The theoretical backing for this has several bases. First, the very nature of practice in much of Disability Studies is that academic research and discussion is a form of activism--while arguable, it is a potential position. By referring to self in the process as non-disabled, that would center the disabled instead of the "able" bodied. Third, I can position the call for the material not just to benefit people with disabilities, but that it benefits numerous users, and I can cite common YouTube and other social video sharing problems (bad volume, lack of clarity, etc.). I think one of the key points is to indicate that this is a largely untapped market with already huge sales--if 15% of the population is disabled, how much of a market is not being tapped?

How do I even locate the total sales of physical training videos, information products, or web based materials? I'm not used to researching businesses, so I'm not quite sure how to approach that angle.

Here's a side note: if we're so interested in shutting down sports, art, music, and "electives" in school, why doesn't the public at least demand that school districts or the federal government provide a specific amount of web-based education for children. This way, parents could attempt to expose their children to this kind of education at home or at libraries, and then the children would at least receive some exposure. I am not suggesting that distance or web based training can fully replace the in-person educational experience, but it would at least provide some form of public education for children. And if this project is currently underway, then what is needed to publicize or increase the interactive nature or appeal of educational web material for children?

I think even has potential for the US Gov't, or state gov't, to sponsor state and/or national fitness by providing very simple, clear, and safe exercises on a regular basis to the public through official sites.