Digital Accessibility Essentials: Video & Audio
What Is Video & Audio Accessibility?
Accessible video and audio content provides accurate captions, audio descriptions, and transcripts. The medium and method of delivery of the content determine when captions, audio descriptions, and/or transcripts are needed.
Why Accessible Video & Audio Matters
Captions, audio descriptions, and transcripts provide people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing access to video and audio content. Captions also support a wide range of users beyond those communities, including people with disabilities such as ADHD and dyslexia; individuals who are not fluent in the video’s language or are unfamiliar with the speaker’s accent; people who learn best through reading; and anyone watching a video in a noisy environment.
Note: Lowercase “deaf” is typically used to describe the medical condition of hearing loss. Uppercase “Deaf” refers to people who identify as members of the Deaf community and is a cultural identity that shares a common language, experiences, and social norms. You can learn more about d/Deaf identify and culture.
Captions
Captions are text of the audio contained in a video. The captions are timed to appear in sync with the audio while playing a video. Closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer; open captions are always visible and cannot be turned off.
Captioning Guidelines:
- Captions need to be provided for all video content that includes audio.
- Live-streamed events and presentations: At minimum, enable automated live captioning. Human-created live captioning is required for accommodations and public live-streamed events.
- Pre-recorded video: Provide accurate, human-reviewed captions. Auto-generated captions (like through YouTube) require human review and edits, since they are not accurate enough to meet accessibility compliance requirements.
- Closed captions should be provided over open captions whenever possible.
Audio Descriptions
Audio description is an oral account of essential visual information in a video which supports blind and low vision viewers. Determining whether a video requires audio description is more nuanced than with captions.
Ask yourself: Does the video have visual information that is needed to understand what the video is communicating?
No: Then audio description is not needed. For example, a video of a person speaking without supporting visual content does not need audio description.
Yes: Then audio description is likely needed.
- Pre-recorded Video: All public-facing pre-recorded video content should have audio description available (which can include sufficient description in the original audio of the video). Other pre-recorded video content should provide audio description when accommodations are requested.
- Live Video: Any individual, department, or program that provides pre-planned live-streamed video content should be prepared to provide appropriate audio description upon request.
Transcripts
A transcript is a text version of the audio contained in an audio or video file.
Transcript Guidelines:
- Transcripts should be provided if there is audio content that does not have accompanying video content (e.g. podcasts).
- Transcripts may also be provided for a video in addition to captions.
- Auto-generated transcripts need to be reviewed and edited for accuracy.
Practical Application
As you create and share video and audio content, remember that accessibility means providing:
- Captions for videos.
- Audio description depending on the video content.
- Transcripts for audio-only content.
Captioning Tools
- Panopto is a university-provided tool that creates automated captions. You can upload a video to Panopto, enable automated captions, and then edit the captions for accuracy.
- Microsoft Teams live captioning for meetings and events.
- Zoom automated captioning for meetings and events.