Principle 1: Perceivable
Producing Accessible Multimedia
When producing a range of engaging options on the web, we often look to things like audio and video content. What we must consider though is that some users are unable to see video, some users are unable to hear audio and others are unable to operate a mouse.
testing and checks
Checking captions and transcripts
Testing for compliance against this item, will require manual checks of the video and audio content, as well as any associated materials. Many of the internal tools we have available, such as MediaSpace and Echo360 will generate a large amount of the required delivery for you (for example, auto-generated captions) but a level of reviewal is required to ensure these are displaying accurately. If a review isn’t completed, we risk inaccurate outputs, meaning those users won’t receive the intended communication.
General best practice
Best practice for captioning and transcripts
Here’s how the compliance looks for each type of media:
Video
Must be carefully scripted or edited in a way that ensures all important content is accessible through the audio track. If this is not the case, any important information that’s presented visually must be described in a separate narration track using a technique called audio description.
Audio
Content such as audio-recorded lectures or podcasts must be accompanied by a transcript, and videos must be provided with closed captions.
Keyboard only usage
Content should be delivered in a player that can be operated with keyboard alone and has controls that are properly labelled so that they are announced to screen reader users, to be operated effectively by speech input users.
University guidance
Captions and transcripts - what do we have available to help?
The Learning Technology team have developed some principles and really great advice on this area. These principles can be used against both front of house, marketing focussed videos, as well as teaching and learning materials.
We’re also actively working with the academic community and technologists on our agreed, aligned approach to Teaching and Learning materials for the 2021/22. More to follow in this area!