Practical Accessibility: Making Prerecorded, Synchronized Media Accessible, by Online ADA.
Synchronized media is the technical term for media that has synchronized audio and video content. Most of what we generally refer to as “video” fits this definition. It has audio in the form of dialogue, narration, music, and sometimes sound effects. All of these elements — the visuals that we see on the screen and the auditory elements that we hear — need to be accessible for users.
In order to figure out how to make the media accessible, first determine how you are using the synchronized media in question. A clear sense of that purpose will dictate what measures you need to include in order to make the media accessible to the widest range of users.
If you’re using synchronized media as a supplement to other information provided in that specific part of your site — rather than as the primary vehicle for communicating information — and the media does not communicate any information that users cannot get through more prominently featured text, consider it to be supplemental media. For supplemental media, the most important issue to keep in mind is that users may react differently to that media — and not all of them will find that it enhances their experience of your site. Some users may find the media distracting. It might make it hard for them to focus on their primary goals and interacting with your site. For this reason, it’s critical to give those users a way to stop the media so that they can experience the site without the moving parts that make it hard to focus.
Synchronized media is considered primary content when the media communicates contextually relevant information that is not already featured as text or communicated by other elements on the page. This applies to a range of media, from movies to recorded speeches to music videos. If the synchronized media’s content is not duplicated by other accessible media on the page, it is primary content. Primary content synchronized media must be made accessible for users who have visual impairments, hearing impairments, or processing disorders that prevent them from easily understanding any part of the synchronized media information. Primary content synchronized media can have the same kinds of problems as supplemental media but has additional requirements for making the information it communicates accessible to users.
Accessible synchronized media helps users with and without disabilities. Most obviously, accessible synchronized media helps users with partially or fully impaired vision and users with hearing impairments. Those users need accessibility support to use the media at all, or to fill in spots where they could not understand the visual or auditory information. Accessible synchronized media also helps users who have trouble processing visual or audio information. These users may have trouble retaining the information that they see or hear. So, having a transcript or other alternative media gives them a way to review the information in their own time.
Accessible synchronized media also helps users who don’t consider themselves as having a disability. Media use in public places is common — having a transcript for synchronized media allows users to consume that media when they are in places where they would have trouble hearing audio or in places where they don’t want to play audio out loud.
Accessibility doesn’t have to add much time or cost into the content development cycle. Anticipating accessibility needs during the planning stages makes it easier and often less expensive to incorporate the necessary supports. Storyboards and scripts for the video can be used as the foundation for the planned alternative media. Considering accessibility early on in the content development cycle is also simpler and less stressful than having to create accessibility supports under time constraints or while facing a lawsuit.
The first two steps in making synchronized media accessible are determining the purpose of the content and considering user needs. After these, there is one more step to complete in the accessibility support cycle: identifying the standards and success criteria that will help to determine whether or not your synchronized media is actually accessible. For this, we turn to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, created by the W3C Organization’s Web Accessibility Initiative. WCAG for short, these guidelines are an internationally recognized standard that gives us a common set of success criteria to use when planning for and evaluating the accessibility of digital tools and content.
The following WCAG success criteria apply to both supplemental and primary synchronized media content. When it comes to making synchronized media accessible, the first WCAG success criterion that applies is 2.2.2: Pause, Stop,. Hide. This success criterion requires that any synchronized media that plays automatically for more than 5 seconds has a mechanism to pause, stop, or hide it. Note that scrolling down the page does not count as this type of mechanism. The key to 2.2.2 is that users must be able to control the media to suit their needs. An important note for success criterion 2.2.2 — it is best never to have any media auto play on page load. Giving users the choice to opt into and control the timing of the media start is better than forcing them to opt out or to restart the content because they missed the beginning.
A success criterion that is closely related to 2.2.2 is 2.4.3: Focus Order. 2.4.3 requires that if a web page can be navigated sequentially and the navigation sequences affect meaning or operation, focusable components receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and operability. For users to customize their experience of synchronized media, they need to be able to get to the controls quickly and without difficulty. This is especially important if you decide to go against best practice by having your media auto play. Burying the media controls half a dozen focusable items in will make it harder for keyboard users to find those controls. It’s best to put those controls early on in the focus order so that hitting the tab key one or two times gets the user to the controls that lets them pause or stop synchronized media.
This need for easy access to the controls brings up another success criterion, 2.1.1: Keyboard. 2.1.1 simply requires that all functionality be keyboard accessible without requiring specific timings for individual key strokes. This functionality is required unless the specific function of the element relies on the path of the user’s movement, rather than simply getting to the right endpoints. Full keyboard functionality is an element that’s critical for a wide range of users, especially users with dexterity-realted impairments. Constructing the media controls correctly, preferably using semantic HTML markup, will ensure that users can find and operate those controls using the keyboard. This can be easily accomplished by using an accessible media player or by using native HTML markup to embed the file.
Last, label the controls both visibly and programmatically in the HTML markup so that users can easily identify them as the media controls — and make sure that they communicate any changes to their state, such as the play button becoming a pause button. This will ensure that you meet success criteria related to labeling, such as 3.3.2: Labels and Instructions, which requires that labels or instructions be provided when content requires user input, and 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value, which requires that all user interface components — including but not limited to form elements, links, and components generated by scripts — have a programmatically determined name and role that when the user can set states, properties, and values, those user-initiated settings will be reflected in the markup and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies.
3.3.2 and 4.1.2 are essential for users who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers and voice recognition. These users must be able to identify controls via the names of those controls, even outside of the immediate context. Clear labels or names coupled with appropriate roles will make identifying the controls much easier. Screen readers such as Jaws, NVDA, and VoiceOver normally read off labels for controls, but default to generics like “button” if there is no accessible label. Users who rely on voice commands need clear labels so that they can verbally name the correct control. Specific labels that make it easier for users to identify the purpose of a control or form field will make navigation much simpler for these users.
Roles are important because users will expect different functionality for elements depending on whether that element is a link, button, check box, or something else. Ensuring that the role matches the functionality helps users to predict what will happen when they activate a particular control.
The previously discussed WCAG success criteria apply to both supplemental synchronized media and primary content synchronized media. In addition to those success criteria, there are three more that apply only to prerecorded primary content synchronized media. As a reminder, primary content synchronized media is synchronized media content that functions as the main source of the information you’re trying to communicate. If the main content of a page is a video and that video content’s information is not duplicated in text on the page, the video is primary content. The three additional success criteria that apply to primary content are 1.2.2: Captions, 1.2.3: Audio Description or Media. Alternative, and 1.2.5: Audio Description.
1.2.2 applies if users must engage with synchronized media content in order for the page to fulfill its purpose. To satisfy 1.2.2, ensure that the media has synchronized captions that are easy to identify and enable. Enabling captions automatically is a great way to do this. This helps users who have hearing impairments or auditory processing disorders and helps users who are simply trying to watch the media in a noisy environment.
1.2.3 and 1.2.5 also apply if users must engage with synchronized media content in order for the page to fulfill its purpose.. Both are focused on helping visually impaired users. 1.2.3 requires inclusion of an audio description or a media alternative, like a transcript or descriptive transcript. A descriptive transcript is a text transcript that includes not only the dialogue in the synchronized media, but also descriptions of any important non verbal sounds included in the media. An audio description is an additional audio track that includes all the original sounds of synchronized media and has supplemental verbal descriptions of visual information shown in the video.
Because the last applicable success criterion, 1.2.5, requires audio description, you should include both a transcript and an audio description track to meet the success criterion. This will also ensure that users who prefer to or must use a refreshable Braille display have the support they need. The transcript and audio description track must be easy to access, which is another way that an accessible media player can help.
Accessible media players are media players that have accessible controls as well as additional features that make it easier to incorporate accessibility supports, such as transcripts and audio description. Able Player is one of the best known, but there are a range of others. Digital A11y (“Accessibility”) has a link of accessible media players on their site at www.digitala11y.com/accessible-jquery-html5-media-players.
What if you’re not using an accessible player though, and you already have lots of video content published on a specific service like Youtube or Vimeo? The accessible media players are great, but they are not the dominant model for publishing and distributing multimedia content. So it’s easy to get started with something else before you realize how inaccessible that other service is. YouTube and Vimeo are the two biggest players when it comes to multimedia hosting and distribution. While both make it easy to add captions to your media, neither currently allow content creators to upload alternative audio tracks, such as audio description. Because of this, you need to make use of workarounds to make the media you publish on these platforms accessible.
YouTube has automated captioning capabilities that you can use to generate captions. Once the captions have been generated, you can then edit them to ensure that they’re clear and accurate. It is always a good idea to edit auto generated captions. Machine learning algorithms used to generate the captions will get most words, but don’t add punctuation. They also have trouble with accents and with fast speech, so editing your captions can help to ensure your users won’t be confused by mistakes. In order to include an audio description in a video on YouTube, you will need to make a separate version of the video with the audio description worked into the video’s audio track.
Vimeo, in contrast to YouTube, does not provide automated captioning. So if you use Vimeo, you will need to provide your own caption files. This can be made easier if you pay for a captioning service, such as those provided by Rev, Amara, or 3Play Media. Once you have a caption file, you can add it to your Vimeo video using the advanced options in your video manager.
In the end, including synchronized media content does require more effort than just embedding the content on your page. A little planning goes a long way toward making accessibility simple, however. Give users control over the video if it plays automatically for more than five seconds. Clearly and programatically label video controls. Make controls keyboard operable and easy to find. Ensure that there are captions and include alternative versions of the media, including a descriptive transcript and an audio description so that all users can get the information contained in the video.
Building these elements into your process will make accessibility easier and ensure that your message gets out to a broader audience.