In 2014, we focused on developing the Amara platform (making it faster and even more user friendly), building partnerships, and gaining long-term sustainability. In 2015, in addition to continuing this work, we also want to foster greater connections amongst online translation and accessibility communities. We’re starting with this new sub-blog: Community, Accessibility & Translation (aka CAT) – our goal with this space is to explore the values, communities, and issues that drive our work.
Amara attracts a uniquely diverse group of users, and we hope to reflect that uniqueness in this blog. We want to highlight the people who are making a difference, like Dawn, at iheartsubtitles, who is urging creators and producers to budget caption costs into their productions. We’d like to cross-pollinate with other large communities, for instance, the TED Open Translation Project community has published some great tips on language acquisition.
We’re also excited to spread awareness around groups like /r/CaptionsPlease on Reddit, a community of volunteers who help make specific videos accessible, upon request. These are just a few examples of a growing community of allies who are sharing best practices, advocating for a more inclusive world, and working to make the web a better place.
We’ll be doing plenty of writing here. More importantly, we will soon be inviting guest/cross posts as well. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you’d like to share, please get in touch: blogs@amara.org
