When developing an accessible attitude, your goal should be to consider all of your customers, not just those with disabilities. This may seem like a lot, particularly when creating accessible videos. Audio and video content can be especially challenging for individuals with disabilities; thus, content creators have a responsibility to provide as many people with the same experience as is feasible.
Producers need to prioritize accessibility right from the start and adhere to a few procedures to create video content that is accessible. This means accounting for audio descriptions, subtitles, and transcripts. Even the video player that is used to show the content should have features like customizable playing speed and keyboard navigation.
To make sure your online video material is accessible, there are a few more recommended practices you should adhere to. These include employing colors with strong contrast, avoiding flashing or strobing effects that might cause seizures, and giving succinct and precise explanations of visual information. Content producers may guarantee that their movies are accessible to all users, regardless of ability, by adhering to certain best practices.
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Six Methods for Creating Accessible Videos
Great stuff abounds in the world, but most of it is inaccessible to some people, which irritates those who are left out. Here are six strategies to improve your video’s universal accessibility:
1. Closed Captions
Closed captions enable those who are hard of hearing or deaf to completely access video content. Captioning is the process of displaying timed text over the soundtrack of a video. It is usually a transcription of various video clips, including sound effects, dialogue, and song and music descriptions. Closed captions let viewers turn the subtitles on or off while they’re watching a broadcast. They are the most common kind of captioning and may be identified by the [CC] mark.
The following short list should be kept in mind while creating subtitles for the hard of hearing:
• The captions should contain all pertinent information, including song lyrics and descriptive noises
• The captions’ timestamps should match the sound
• Stay on display for a sufficient amount of time to allow for reading
• Proper backdrop and text color contrast
• No silences without subtitles
• Speaker identification
2. Transcripts
A transcript is a written account of the speech found in an audio or video recording. There are several types of transcription, such as verbatim and simple word transcriptions. A verbatim transcription captures every word that was said, while a Plain Word transcript is accurate in terms of content but leaves out things like false starts, ums, and ahs.
3. Open captions
Open captions, also known as baked-in, burned-in, or hard-coded captions, are visible to everyone watching the movie. Videos come with open captions by default; you cannot turn them on or off. Open captions are commonly used when watching videos on websites with video players that cannot show closed captions.
4. Audio Description Standard
For those who have vision loss, Standard Audio Description is the descriptive audio narration of pertinent visual parts of a video that is not included in the original audio track. The AD voice track is recorded and written to blend in with the spoken dialogue and other audio cues. The last audio description track can be produced as a synthetic voice or recorded by a voice artist.
5. Media alternative transcript
A media alternative transcript is a written transcript that, in addition to the speech, also provides explanations of the visual elements shown in the video. With the aid of a screen reader, it enables those who are blind or have low vision to have complete access to video information.
6. Audio Description in Extended Form
Certain videos could need extended audio descriptions since there aren’t enough organic pauses in the soundtrack. Incorporating the audio explanation entails modifying the video to pause at specific moments. The final video is longer due to Extended AD.
What is the role of video accessibility?
Videos must be accessible for a variety of reasons. As we’ve already discussed, the most important thing is to make audiovisual content available to everyone.
Still, that’s not all! See some other justifications for the significance of accessibility in videos:
- Diverse audiences
Given the variety of viewers, video accessibility caters to the demands of a range of users, such as the elderly, people aging and losing sensory abilities, people with hearing and vision impairments, and people with situational restrictions. This increases the content’s relevance and audience. - Inclusion
Ensuring accessibility guarantees equitable access to audiovisual content for individuals with sensory limitations, including hearing or vision impairments. This encourages social and cultural inclusion and makes the same materials and information available to a larger audience. - Legal compliance
Digital material accessibility is mandated by laws and regulations in many nations; non-compliance with these requirements may result in fines, legal repercussions, and complaints.
4. Enhanced user experience
Accessibility elements can enhance the overall user experience (UX) for those without sensory impairments as well.
Subtitles, for example, can be helpful in loud locations or when audio cannot be presented at a high volume, as was previously indicated.
5. Discoverability and SEO
Search engines can index video subtitles, making online information easier to find. Stated differently, this implies that it will be easier for people to find your audiovisual content online.
This supports search engine optimization (SEO) tactics in addition to helping those with disabilities.
6. Corporate and social responsibility
Businesses that put accessibility first show corporate and social responsibility. In addition to projecting a positive picture of the company, this helps strengthen ties with both present and future customers.
Conclusion
Making content accessible to a larger audience involves producing videos that are easy to watch. You may make sure that your films are accessible to individuals with a variety of disabilities by adhering to best practices and rules.
A few of the most important best practices for making videos accessible are to provide transcripts, audio descriptions, and closed captions. These features facilitate the accessibility of video content for people with hearing or vision impairments. Additionally, making sure that videos have high-quality audio and visuals might aid in the comprehension of the content by those who are deaf or blind.
Ensuring that videos are compatible with assistive technology is a crucial aspect of producing accessible content. This can involve making sure the video player is keyboard accessible, utilizing headlines and links that are descriptive, and offering alternative text for images.
