Introduction
‘A group of happy people with disability having fun watching a video on a tablet’
Creating good quality accessible media can greatly increase the numbers of people accessing and effectively engaging with your information and can help improve SEO (as the search engines can index the transcript).
In this module you will gain an understanding of some of the key challenges faced by people with disabilities when accessing video media and learn how to create an accessible video for YouTube that is compliant with W3C guidelines and draws upon best practice.
Task
To create an accessible video or animation on YouTube with closed captions suitable for people with either a visual or hearing impairment that complies with W3C guidelines and draws upon best practice.
Process
1. Gain an awareness: To help you understand issues faced by people with a hearing or visual impairment try the following:
- Experience watching a video without the ability to hear, turn off the volume whilst watching a video. Some videos are fairly easy to follow by watching the visual display. Others, like news programs can make little sense without audio.
- Listen to an instruction video without viewing the screen to help determine how accessible it might be to a person who is blind.
- Read: Key challenges (pdf).
2. Understand the key benefits for creating accessible media:
- Read: Key benefits (pdf)
3. Gain an awareness of W3C guidelines relating to accessible media:
- For a summary of the key points read: What you need to do to make video and audio more accessible and comply with W3C
4. Get your instructional video:
Option 1: Create a new instructional video or animation by storyboarding the scenes and audio/voiceovers first (ensuring the audio components are suitable for those with a visual impairment). Create the video or animation and save it in a format suitable for You Tube.
Resources: Video storyboard template, for animations there is a link to Powtoon and GoAnimate.
Read: Tips for creating instructional videos
Option 2: Use an existing instructional video or animation and review the audio to make sure it is suitable for a person with a visual impairment or someone who is blind.
5. Upload your video to YouTube
7. Create the captions for your video
- Read: Best practice when creating a transcript
- Create your captions using the tools in You Tube
8. Test your video with someone who has a visual impairment and someone who has a hearing impairment. Make any adjustments based on their feedback.
