Create Accessible Multimedia
Video and audio – and even podcasts and live streams – must be accessible to everyone. Before you publish, make sure your multimedia content has the right accessibility aids.
Per WCAG 2.0 Standards regarding multimedia and SUNY Electronic & Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility Web Accessibility Standards, all multimedia must:
- Provide synchronized captions for public-facing audio-video content
- Provide transcripts for audio-only content
- Provide audio descriptions for audio-video and video-only content.
The State of Nevada provides an informative breakdown of multimedia requirements by media type.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) created a video, “Video Captions – Audio Described Version,” which is a great example of using both captions and audio descriptions to inform the audience of what is being communicated in the video.
Captions
Captions enable people who can’t hear to enjoy your video. They also help visitors who don’t understand spoken English or the speaker’s accent. They also give everyone convenient options such as watching the video on mute or watching, listening and reading at the same time.
All videos posted on monroecc.edu must have captions. If your video is hosted on Vuja or an official MCC YouTube channel, take advantage of its auto-captioning features but then edit the captions for accuracy. No auto-captioning job is perfect. Look for misspellings – especially with proper names – and captions that are out of sync with the video.
The digital.gov article, 508 Accessible Videos – How to Caption Videos, gives good advice for creating captions.
Provider Information
- Adding Subtitles and Captions to YouTube Videos
- Edit or Remove Captions in YouTube Videos
- Captions and Subtitles in Vimeo Videos
Contact Instructional Technologies’ Video Services for assistance with captions in Ensemble.
Transcripts
Transcripts assist people who can’t hear or who process information differently. They also come in handy for skimming content quickly and for visitors who aren’t native English speakers.
Transcripts make video accessibility easier, too. You can upload transcripts to YouTube to create video captions. Captioning – Making Captions from Transcripts in YouTube from the University of Colorado Boulder documents the process.
Audio Descriptions
Important parts of a video can be totally visual, without dialogue. That’s where audio descriptions come in.
When your character smiles, walks toward her car, or pours liquid into a beaker, she probably won’t say so. An audio description (or a transcript) conveys actions like this so people who can’t see the video can still experience it. Think of audio descriptions as alternate (alt) text for video.
Audio descriptions can also help second language learners, and people with cognitive impairments or autism spectrum disorders.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative’s Audio Description of Visual Information gives several options for incorporating audio descriptions in your videos. Watch its audio description demonstration video to see how useful audio descriptions can be.
Additional Resources
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Making Audio and Video Media Accessible provides comprehensive how-to and a concise introduction about who is helped by accessible multimedia.
- University of Minnesota: Video Captions & Transcripts gives three methods for captioning in YouTube.
- Section508.gov: Guidance on how to Create Accessible Video, Audio and Social Media.
- In particular, 508 Accessible Videos—Why (and How) to Make Them lays out a strong case for making all videos accessible.
- Siteimprove Academy: Accessibility for Content Contributors has a good accessible multimedia tutorial and tricky knowledge check questions.
- uiAccess: Transcripts on the Web: Best Practices provides tips to create more useful audio descriptions and transcripts.