How to make video content accessible
Janaina Santos, 20 October 2020
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Janaina Santos, 20 October 2020
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When it comes to accessibility of videos, adding subtitles and transcripts will benefit a much larger group. Just as an example, most videos on Social Media are watched without the audio on.
Here are the main things you need to check to ensure your video content is accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing.
If you are producing a video and you would like to fully adhere to the accessibility guidelines as much as possible, please consider the following points:
Make sure the face of the speaker is visible and has good lighting.
Some viewers with auditory disabilities use mouth reading to understand spoken language. When possible, consider this when preparing the setting of the video.
If you plan to include sign language, make sure the frames have enough room at the lower right side to add the sign language overlay without blocking important information.
The text size should be large enough to be easily readable (and should stay in the page long enough to allow readers to follow it).
Be conservative on the use of colors – the background should offer enough contrast and not compromise the visibility of the subtitles.
Remember the Pokemon shock incident when over 12,000 people in Japan had photosensitive epileptic seizures due to a flashing visual effects in one episode.
Flashing content can be dangerous for sensitive viewers so avoid anything that flashes more than 3x per second.
A 508-compliant video player meets 3 requirements:
Here is a list of accessible video players, among them, Kaltura and JW Player.
After picking a video player, do not allow autoplay mode. Users should be able to start and stop the video whenever they want.
Captions for videos created for digital accessibility should follow the WCAG standards. This is mandatory in cases such as public institutions in Europe.
Read more: Digital Accessibility and the WCAG standards.
In summary, captions are different than standard subtitles as it should include contextual information besides the dialogue (i.e. phone ringing, capital letters to represent someone screaming, etc.).
Here is a quick list to follow when creating captions for the deaf and hard of hearing:
Transcripts are a great way to allow users with hearing disabilities to follow video and audio content.
As it is the case with captions, it is also a requirement for public institutions in Europe to adhere to digital accessibility guidelines.
You have different options to generate transcripts from your audio or video file:
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