British Sign Language glossaries to support UK undergraduate study in art and design, engineering and science developed in partnership with The University of Wolverhampton. Comprising comprehensive libraries of terms to help deaf students avoid the ambiguity and confusion associated with terms without equivalent, direct signs. The glossaries contain 3776 terms, with video signs in four formats (QuickTime and Windows Media Player, broadband and narrowband). 

Key Considerations

• Usability - quick downloads, searchability, ease of navigation. 
• Accessibility - must observe W3Cs accessibility guidelines 
• Design - aesthetically appealing & visually stimulating  
• Video - must be good quality, quick to load, easy to view.  
• Maintenance - must be easy to administer & maintain by non-technical University staff  
• Collaborative working - deaf practitioners, steering and advisory committees, etc gave input on the development.

Approach   
The first concern was to make the glossary easy and intuitive to use. There are several routes to the definitions (quick search, power search, browse by subject, department or letter). Keyword searches incorporate 'fuzzy logic', with suggestions made for any searches that don't produce results. Every definition has direct links to related terms to encourage further investigation.

Accessibility and design 
There is a tension between making sites accessible and making them look good. Our experience working with clients that have a commitment to accessibility has made us experienced in resolving this issue. We now design all sites to the Web Accessibility Inititiative 'AA' standard as a matter of course (i.e., there is nothing in the design/structure that makes it impossible for any group to use the site). We could have gone further to accommodate the visually disabled, but as the point of the site is the viewing of sign language videos we felt it was acceptable to be less strict on some accessibility issues to focus on optimising the experience for the deaf community. 

Video   
We spent a lot of time experimenting with different streaming formats and consulted with the deaf members of the steering group to find out what they wanted from the video. We settled on QuickTime and Windows Media Player as preferred formats.

Quicktime was the clear winner in terms of quality and level of control - deaf users said they wanted to be able to run the clips at a speed that suited them, and to be able to easily scan and review specific sections to help them quickly understand and learn the sign. At the time of our research only Quicktime allowed this.

Windows Media Player was our second choice - largely because it ships with the windows OS. Supporting Quicktime and WMP allows means most users will be able to use the site without having to download a plug in.

Finally, we chose to abandon streaming as a delivery method and opt for progressive downloads instead. Streaming the clips didn't allow for the level of control our deaf users requested. With streaming you have to reconnect each time you view the stream and because the clips are so short (typically 2 or 3 seconds) the resulting delays become frustrating and make the site less fun to use.