Markdown - A simple syntax for transcription of accessible study materials

Abstract

Transcription of study materials into accessible formats is a challenging but necessary task. The sources of study materials vary from images to multimedia files, which often have to be transcribed manually. A fully accessible target format such as HTML is the goal of every transcription process, supported by guidelines and helpful tools. Therefore the transcribers have to deal not only with the content but also with the right usage of the used tools. We show that the usage of the easy to use Markdown language can improve the technical quality and accessibility of the resulting documents. For further improvements of the transcription process several helping tools are presented to simplify and speed up the process as well. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.