Accessible Video

November 25, 2008

By: Brian Miller

Most people give up on accessibility when they want to post video on their website. They feel that making it accessible isn't as important and would require too much time and work. And the reality is that it it important doesn't have to take that much time or work.

What the Standards say

WCAG- 1.0.

• Guieline 1.4 For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

Section 508:

• A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
• Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
• When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually.

What this Means

This mean that videos played on your site should have the following:

• Closed Captions synchronized with the main audio content for the hearing impared
• An alternative audio track that desribes the visuals of the movie for the visually impared
• An Accessible video player that allows you to integrate the two items above and to control the movie playback using a keyboard or other alternative input device for the physically impared.

How to do It

There are some great tools out there that can be used to create these:

• Making Video Accessible- Examples of accessibility and an accessilbe video player
• ccPlayer- An accessible video player
• Authoring Captions for Flash- how to create closed captions