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Re: Video Transcript Question (Bump)

for

From: John Foliot
Date: Nov 22, 2014 11:58AM

Hi Lisa,



Overall, I agree with Karl's recommendation, while at the same time pointing
out a few things (that hopefully others might learn from too):



1) Providing a transcript is more than a "nice to have" (in case others
might start thinking that) - it is in fact often a requirement for WCAG AA
Compliance:



1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded): An
alternative for time-based media or audio description of the prerecorded
video content is provided for synchronized media, except when the media is a
media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such. (Level A)



...where the transcript is the 'alternative' to the audio-description. (The
audio description piece of course being a AA requirement:

1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded): Audio description is provided
for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media. (Level AA))







2) You mentioned having a transcript in Word. While obviously we want to
avoid formats that may introduce their own issues (i.e. user does not have
MS Office), there are examples of .rtf and .pdf transcripts that are
provided for download, which technically meet the WCAG Requirement, so
providing the transcript in an alternative format is not forbidden.



However, as always, HTML is the preferred format for interoperability.
Semantically structured HTML (aka POSH - Plain Old Semantic HTML) is still
the best :) Karl's suggestion of using <h>headings is one that I would also
recommend, although depending on the content I might also look at the
viability of definition lists:

<dl>
<dt>Question 1</dt>

<dd>Response to question 1</dd>

<dt>Question 2</dt>

<dd>Response to question 2</dd>

<dt>Question 3</dt>

<dd>Response to question 3</dd>

</dl>



3) Currently HTML5 lacks a programmatic way of *directly linking* a
transcript to a video, which can be problematic, especially if a web page
contains more than one video.



While this is a known issue (and it is being worked on now), I highly
recommend that the link text for your transcript be well labeled; i.e. avoid
this:

<a href="">transcript</a>



.in favor of either:



<a href="">Transcript for the XYZ Video</a> [explicit, clear link text]

or

<a href="" aria-label="Transcript for the XYZ Video ">transcript</a>



.although the second solution is only viable for users with Assistive
Technology.





FWIW.



JF

------------------------------

John Foliot
Web Accessibility Specialist
W3C Invited Expert - Accessibility

Co-Founder, Open Web Camp











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