Audio and Video
For video with soundtrack, provide synchronized captions. Provide text description for video without sound. In addition, provide synchronized audio description if the video cannot by understood from the soundtrack alone.
Provide text transcripts for audio files.
Ways To Make Multimedia Accessible
- Captions
- Text representation of the spoken word or any kind of sound
- There are two types of captions: Open and Closed.
- Open Captions
- Open captions cannot be turned off - they are always visible within the video.
- Open captions are seen in some foreign films - Subtitle
- Closed Captions
- Closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer.
- Closed captions are typically available on most television shows and commercials.
- Who Benefits From Captioning?
- Primarily for an audience who cannot hear the audio
- Those with language barrier/second language
- In noisy environments - gym, bar, airport, etc.
- In quiet library settings where sound should be muted
- Transcripts
- Text representation of audio and video file
- Transcripts do not have to be exactly the same as the spoken word in a video. A transcript can provide more -- such as descriptions of non-text sounds like "laughter" or "thunder."
- Who Benefits From Transcripts?
- Those who are deaf and cannot hear audio or video files can get information about the multimedia piece.
- Those who are visually impaired can get information easily.
- Those using a slow internet connection.
- Those who do not have the required plug-in or can't get it due to company restrictions; no sound card
- Those with language barrier/second language
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -- Search Engines do not index non-text information.
- Note: It is good idea to include a transcript even when there is a captioned video.
- Audio Descriptions
- Description of the visual content
- Audio descriptions provide a description of the critical visual information being displayed that is not available otherwise --- Comments like "John enters the room with a fearful look on his face."
- Who Benefits From Audio Descriptions?
- Providing Audio descriptions allows video content to be accessible to those with vision impairments.