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To demonstrate the value of access and attending to audiences' experiences, this article shares our analysis of our interviews with eleven students who created videos with sound and captions. We build on our analysis to present a modified set of criteria for assessing how video composers demonstrate awareness of their audiences' needs and preferences when designing access.
Introduction
While j oining other writing teacher-scholars in the movement toward multimodal composition, Janine found that her commitment to the accessible design of videos in her composition courses converged with the values of Stacy, a senior lecturer who teaches filmmaking and visual communication courses. During our first meeting prior to becoming colleagues, the two of us recognized that we shared common goals in our respective classrooms when asking students to create videos with sound and captions. As colleagues now teaching D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students at the same university, we share the belief that instructors and students can improve the accessibility of videos through sound and captions. Our insistence is buttressed by our experiences as a Deaf individual (Janine) and a hard-ofhearing individual (Stacy) who have encountered inaccessible situations and who work to reconstruct sound as an accessible mode for composers and audiences with various hearing levels.
Composition scholars and students who create multimodal texts, including videos, can unintentionally limit access for audience members if we spotlight sound as the primary mode for expressing meaning and treat other modes, such as captions, as supplements that work solely to help certain bodies understand the spoken message. Janine has argued against approaches in which video creators might create a complete video and then wait until the postediting process to think about captions and access ( "Embodied Captions," "Where Access Meets"). She has studied how creators-during the entire composition process-can imagine ways in which visuals, captions, and sound can work together in harmony to express the multimodal message ( "Embodied Captions," "Where Access Meets"). For instance, Deaf composers can make sound accessible through vibrations that can be sensed or imagined by the body. Along those lines, the two of us contend that multimodal composition scholars and students can consider the accessibility needs and preferences of audience members with various abilities throughout all creation processes.
As videos, sonic compositions, and other multimodal...