Video Accessibility
Whether your video is recorded using Zoom, Panopto, Canvas Studio, Camtasia, SnagIt, iMovie, YouTube, or any social media platform, it must be accessible to ensure that individuals with disabilities can easily engage with and benefit from your content.
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Accessible means available to听all students, regardless of their听abilities. For example:
- Deaf or Hard of Hearing
- Visual Learners
- Cognitive Disabilities
- Speakers with Accents
- Complex Technical Terminology
- Noisy Environment
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Training Videos
- Use your CSUN username and password to watch听听in the Panopto.听
- Watch other UDC Training Videos
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Presentation Slides
Visuals and Complex Images
Visuals and complex images are required to provide narrating or text alternative for an extensive description, thus benefiting everyone. Also, images and graphics make content more pleasant and easier to understand for many people, and in particular for those with cognitive and learning disabilities. They serve as cues that are used by people with visual impairments, including people with low vision, to orient themselves in the content.听
Creating Accessible Videos: Visuals
Important visual information has corresponding audio.
- Best: Plan a script to include all information.
- Explain what the chart or diagram conveys.
- Or, make an alternative video with audio descriptions.
Accessible Video Best Practices
- Use clear and simple language.
- Provide sufficient contrast between the text and background.听Use听Colour Contrast Analyser听tool to ensure accessible contrast.
- Ensure text is comprehensible and has good font size.
- All audio information has a corresponding visual information and vice versa.
- Allow enough time for people to take in all of the important visual information.
- Present text in blocks (e.g. complete sentence).
- Be mindful of how color is used.
- Don鈥檛 add flashing elements, unnecessary motion or noises. It can be distracting and cause trigger seizures.
- If featuring a speaker, make their face visible and have them speak slowly and clearly.
- Read it out loud for people who can鈥檛 see the screen:
- Famous quotes
- Text on the screen
- Image descriptions
- Full website address. If the website is long, consider creating a short URL (such as tiny.cc or bitly.com).
- Avoid听using:听Here, Click here, This, That, There, This button, This slide, and other vague language.
- Instead: Describe what is on the screen (e.g. button label, navigation menu name, or location description)
Videos are automatically captioned in Panopto, Google Slides, PowerPoint 365, Web Captioner,听Otter.ai, YouTube, Camtasia,听or any other automatic captioned programs that听are computer-generated, are听not 99% accurate; therefore, they are not acceptable for students that need accommodation.听If a class has a student with a relevant approved accommodation, whether the class will be taught live or feature pre-recorded videos, all instructional and public-facing videos must be captioned appropriately.
Contact听听for professional captioning services
- Email:听ncod@csun.edu听
- Phone: (818) 677-2054
- Zoom ID: 380 527 5501
- Website:听
听faculty should contact their assigned Instructional Designer.
How do I caption my instructional materials?
The听CSUN Universal Design Center听is available to help faculty make听instructional materials accessible, including guiding faculty through the听self-service submission process. Faculty may also submit instructional听media directly to the听NCOD: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services.
听faculty should contact their assigned Instructional Designer.
Captions are text descriptions of dialogue and background music or sound which provides the same level of information as one would get from hearing the audio. Text should be听synchronized听and听equivalent听with audio.
- Use text that is听easy to read听(good font size and color contrast),听consistent,听clear, and听errorless.
- Caption quality is crucial
- Every pre-recorded video听should听have captions.
- There is听no standard size听for captions鈥攖hey vary based on the size of your video player window. However, if you must squint to read your captions, the font size is too small.
Two types of Captions:
- Closed:听The viewer can toggle the captions on or off when needed.
- Open:听Viewer cannot toggle captions on or off.
Captions vs. Subtitles
Captions and subtitles are similar, but they are distinct from each other.听
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Captions:听text descriptions of dialogue and background sound or music thus providing equivalent information as one would get from hearing the audio听
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Subtitles:听straightforward translations of video鈥檚 dialogue
For example, a bilingual English/Spanish website, we would have clearly labeled captions (for English text) and subtitles (for Spanish text).
听Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
Auto-captions are often machine-generated captions with poor quality in which content is not accurately communicated to people who depend on captions. Auto-captions should be corrected for accuracy and provide equal access for everyone.
Creators/owners should review auto-generated captions for accuracy. Accuracy highly dependent on audio quality.
- Vocabulary听
- Terminology
- Acronyms
- Names
- Locations
- Unusual words
- Complex Technical Language
- Limited punctuation
- Limited speaker identification
- Incorrect words choice do not match the spoken audio (e.g.听Can vs Can鈥檛, Know vs No, Hear vs Here, Ban vs Van, Cake vs Kate, Savvy vs Say Vi)
- Add sound effects and music if applicable (e.g.听[water dripping], [upbeat music], [audience cheering], [balloon pops], etc.)听Descriptive captions help to ensure the viewers have full experience of the sound and enjoy the media.
Learn more about听.
Text versions of media content that includes听dialogue, descriptions of actions or important information on-screen
There are two types of transcripts:
- Static:听transcripts presented in听plain text
- Interactive:听transcripts with highlight words as they鈥檙e spoken in the video. This allows viewers follow along, and search across the spoken audio of a video and play from any point in the video by clicking within the transcript.
In addition, transcripts help students to听get the information they want quickly, learn the spelling of technical terms spoken, and take notes for comprehension.
Audio descriptions听are additional audio tracks that describe by a voice-over narrator and give context for essential visual information (e.g.听actions, characters, scene changes, on-screen text, and other visual content). This helps describe important visual details that cannot be understood from the main soundtrack alone. Audio descriptions are commonly used for pre-recorded material such as video tutorials, video resources, and instructional videos.
听Why do we need descriptions?
- Access for individuals who are blind and low vision
- Literacy
- Auditory learners
- English language learners
- Autism spectrum
- No access to visual content
The goal is to make the visual information in media accessible to people who are blind and have limited vision, but others may benefit from the explicit explanations as well.
If videos are created with accessibility in mind, audio descriptions are probably aren't necessary, as long as important visual elements of the video are described in the audio track itself (e.g. man speaking at a podium for static presentation).听For example, you do听not听need audio description for talking heads only, or for text on slides as long as the slide text is woven into what you say.听
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