Accessible Video
What makes video accessible? Video is a unique media that must provide accessibility for multiple disabilities, including people who are blind, visually impaired, and hearing impaired. To satisfy each of these unique needs, video content must have video description and closed captioning. In some cases, subtitles or a transcript are provided, which are both part of closed captioning. In all cases, to be compliant under the law, video description and closed captioning are required.
Video Description – Making Your Visual Web Content Accessible
Society has become reliant on video content as a source of information, entertainment, and education. Unfortunately, those who are blind or have low vision are at risk of being sidelined or excluded from these educational, social, and cultural mediums because they cannot see what is happening in the video except for verbal cues of speech and some sound effects. Video description provides an accessible method for people who are blind and visually impaired to get more details and information from a video, beyond just dialogue and sound effects.
Common Questions and Answers About Video Description
What is Video Description?
Video description, also known as described video, or visual description, is a descriptive narration of crucial visual elements in a video, movie, or television program. Video description provides audio portrayal and context of important visual information by interpreting the actions, gestures, backgrounds, settings, or educational visuals in a video, thereby making the video accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
Video description is generally meant to offer information on visual content that is considered essential to fully understanding the video. Thus, failing to provide video description excludes individuals who are blind or visually impaired from having complete comprehension of the video.
Here’s an example: “On the way to London for his daughter’s wedding, Harvey is hitting a little turbulence. At his daughter’s pre-wedding party, Harvey loses his footing, but you never know what tomorrow would bring… The lady smiles and Harvey and his new friend stroll across Central London…” This is a video description from the trailer of the romantic comedy Last Chance Harvey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIalIJvYGs). This audible description paints a picture of what Harvey is going through. These snippets of video description are incorporated into the trailer to give a description of important scenes so that vital information is not lost.
It is even more critical in virtual education content, when a teacher is instructing using visual aids, whiteboards, or other mediums. The student who is blind or visually impaired must have video description or the content of the lesson is not fully accessible, and the student is left at a significant disadvantage. Like alternative text or image description that describes an image in the content of a website, video description is used to detail the visual contents of a film or video.
What is the difference between Video Description and Audio Description?
These terms are generally used interchangeably as it is an audio description of visual elements in a video. The terms define an audio track within a video that conveys essential visual aspects of the video content.
It’s important to note that neither audio nor video description is the narration that you might hear during a movie or video. Instead, these are well-defined, well-prepared descriptions of key visual elements that give the listener vital information about what is occurring visually.
What is the difference between Closed, Open, and Real-time Video Description?
Closed video description is description that can be turned on or off by the viewer. Open video description cannot be turned off and plays automatically. Real-time video description offers live or real-time commentary or video description by a professional audio describer. This is common in theaters, in-person tours, and live events.
Are Subtitles and Closed Captioning the same as Video Description?
No, but video description is closely related to subtitles and captions. In the same way captions and subtitles can make a video accessible to those who are deaf and hard of hearing, video description does the same for those who are blind or visually impaired.
Is Video Description required under Federal regulations?
According to the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, television entities must include video description in a portion of their prime time and children’s programming. These regulations are expanding and will soon be a requirement for video web content, so it only makes sense to plan early and start including video descriptions in your video web content.
Video Descriptions Set the Scene
Within written literature, setting a scene, describing the surroundings, environment, landmarks, etc. is critical before jumping into dialogue. The same is true for video, although for a sighted individual this is simply taken for granted. For individuals who are blind, the setting is completely lost. Imagine watching Romeo and Juliet without any idea of setting, which Shakespeare so artfully developed as part of his plays. Much of the relevancy of the dialogue would be completely missed. Video description provides the setting and background in verbal form, so that an individual who is blind can better understand and enjoy unspoken video content.
The benefits of video description are immense. In addition to giving important information to individuals who are blind or visually impaired, it is of great importance to companies and website owners as they make videos accessible to a wider audience. Not only will you be on the right side of the law, but incorporating video description will make your website accessible to everyone, which is beneficial to your brand.
Closed Captioning – See What Others are Saying and Hearing
Closed captions provide traditional accessibility for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing, and also provide benefits for other users. Closed captions give users the ability to view audio content when conditions warrant it, such as in loud or distractive environments. Closed captions provide language learners (ELL and ESL) the ability to better comprehend content by hearing and seeing the spoken words. Closed captions allow search engines to crawl content on your videos for SEO indexing. There are many ways to make closed captioning valuable. However, for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired, closed captions are critical to an essential understanding of video content.
Common Questions and Answers about Closed Captioning
What is Closed Captioning?
Closed captioning is a process that displays text on a video screen, television, or other visual display in order to offer interpretive or additional information. This process is often utilized as a transcription of the audio portion of a television program, video, or movie, in addition to other audio events as they happen. Closed captions offer the kind of accessibility people who are deaf and hearing-impaired need in order to have the same experience as a non-disabled individual.
Closed captioning is a technology that enhances retention and comprehension of media information for all viewers, including people who are deaf and hearing impaired. It includes spoken words and all other audio elements that play a part in the narrative. Closed captions are ideal for viewers who are hearing impaired since they display what is being vocalized, as well as background sounds. They can also be utilized for other purposes such as indexing and searching content.
What is the Difference between Open and Closed Captions?
There are two type of captions. Open captions are always in view and users cannot turn them off. Closed captions can be turned on or off by the viewer as needed.
What is the Difference between Subtitles and Captions?
Subtitles provide only dialogue and some background sounds, and assumes that the audience is able to hear other aspects of the audio. In addition to dialogue, captions provide richer detail in regard to all audio events, such as background noises and other audio cues.
Is Closed Captioning the same as Video Description?
Although closed captioning and video description serve the same purpose, making television and video content more accessible for individuals with disabilities, they are not the same. Video description is someone describing key visual elements in a video to someone with a visual disability. Closed captioning on the other hand, displays the dialogue and background sound elements of a video.
Do I need Closed Captioning under Federal Guidelines?
Closed captioning needs are enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for both television and internet programming.
Example for Use of Closed Captioning
For individuals who are deaf, taking an online course through a virtual high school could be extremely challenging if teachers speak but cannot be heard. Instruction is often performed by a live or recorded teacher via a video explaining content. A student would need an accommodation via the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for a sign language interpreter to sign everything the teacher is saying in the video so that he could take the course. Closed captioning or subtitles would provide accessibility for the deaf or hard of hearing student to fully participate in the instruction, in addition to providing the ability to self-manage their education progress.
Laws and Acts Regarding Closed Captioning
Various acts and laws cover the need for closed captions to ensure equal access and communication with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, including:
- 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA)
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
- Section 508 & Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
These cover virtually all venues, including public and private education, both for K-12 and higher education, virtual education, healthcare services, government services, government employment settings, various public transportation services, and legal and law enforcement services.