Accessible Technology in the Pandemic

 For my project, I made a short informational video about accessibility during the pandemic. My topic was how the pandemic has expanded the availability of accessible technology on college campuses, allowing students to access recorded lectures or attend lectures from home. These technologies are very helpful for students who struggle attending classes in person, or who need learning accommodations, and the pandemic has created an opportunity for schools to continue to offer these options.

 

Stairs in front of CSI

Before working on this project, I hadn't done any project with video since high school, so I wasn't sure how to start. I tried to imitate what I saw other people do for similar short "documentary"/news videos, and I know videos like those by Vice heavily feature voice-overs, so I decided to use the format of a voice-over along with supplemental footage. I wasn't able to film people easily because of the pandemic and I didn't want to film myself because I didn't feel like I had anything to add to the project by having myself in it, so for my footage I focused on the campus itself and screen recordings of online learning tools.

One thing that surprised me was the tools I needed to do the project. I tried to use Windows' built-in video editor, but it didn't support any voice-over tracks and had a confusing setup that I'd never seen before in a video editor. So, I found a free video editor that worked well for what I needed, and downloaded it. It was surprisingly easy to use for the most part.

My workflow ended up working pretty well. I wrote the storyboard, and then the script, and then drove to campus to film. Then, I recorded the voice-over in pieces and put it all together into one video. I think my script turned out really well. I think I could've gotten some better footage, but I had mono while I was working on the project so I didn't have a lot of energy to keep walking around campus. In non-Covid times, I could have asked some people to let me film them walking on campus instead of having footage of an empty-looking campus. I also have a digital camera that I left at my mom's house, and using that could've greatly improved my project too. The main challenges were finding good software for editing, writing a script that fit correctly into the time slot, and gathering the footage that I needed (which required going to campus and also installing software meant for screen recording).

However, I think that considering the tools I had and the situation we are all in right now, I did a good job and I'm proud of the end product. It was a very informative experience, and editing videos now seems a lot less intimidating - I feel like I have gained some technical skills along with creative skills through this project.