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Re: YouTube Live accessibility?

for

From: Chaals McCathie Nevile
Date: Jul 15, 2016 3:45AM

On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 18:14:21 +0200, John Foliot < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> Hi Vanessa,
>
> You asked "...is it acceptable...", but that is a very conditional
> question. That is more of a legal and compliance question than anything
> else,

Another way of looking at it is a simple logical test:

Is your content accessible, if you don't caption except when requested?

The answer is in one sense pretty obvious: No.

No captions = Not accessible.

Is there an obligation on people to identify as needing captions?

That's much trickier. The answer I give is that there are many who do not
even realise the benefit they get from captions, and are unlikely to think
of asking for them. There are also those who find it very challenging to
make the request - "I don't want people to realise that I can't hear half
of what they say", or the normal case in Spain, where I live, for english
interpretation, of "I don't want people to realise I don't understand half
of what is happening".

So while I think people *should* ask, I think relying on them to do so is
a straightforward failure.

Which is how I get to John's answer: No, it is not "acceptable". Assuming
your goal is to provide accessibility - or even assuming your goal is to
increase efficiency.

On the latter, as well as embarrassing auto-caption "fails", I would point
out that reading a transcript is, for many people, far more efficient than
listening, both in terms of time spent and ability to absorb the content.
So there is generally a significant productivity boost available too. But
that's a digression.

If your goal is risk management, that's indeed a question for your risk
managers. Companies and individuals do lots of things on the basis of
"I'll probably get away with it". But I don't recommend skipping captions
even on that basis, which should not be a big surprise.

In practical cases, looking at the real-world cost of captioning is
probably useful, before making a decision. Compared to most parts of video
production at a corporate level it's often surprisingly cheap. Sometimes
discovering that we're talking a few thousand dollars a year is enough to
convince the bean-counters that it is cheaper to do it than to think up
how to get away with not doing it.

cheers

chaals

and so the answer to that question likely resides more with your
> legal folks. For WCAG compliance however, the answer is found here:
>
> *1.2.4 Captions (Live):* Captions
> <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#captionsdef> are provided for all live
> <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#livedef> audio
> <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#audiodef> content in synchronized media
> <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#synchronizedmediadef>. (Level AA)
>
> ...and so, no, not really.
>
> It is (I would suggest) a risky proposition to presume that captions
> aren't
> needed until requested: not all users who need/want captions are
> necessarily going to pre-register and request that. (It sort of reminds
> me
> of the 2nd floor restaurant debating the need for an elevator, as none of
> their patrons are in wheelchairs...) Establishing a method to provide
> textual alternatives to the audio (and video) streams in advance will
> likely also end up being more cost effective over the long run.
>
> I have seen (and been part of) live captioning inside of the Adobe
> Connect
> environment (see:
> http://environmentsforhumans.com/2015/accessibility-summit/#.V4e4WLgrKhc),
> and as far as I recall, they are using a CART service who are inputting
> into the Adobe Connect space, and that 'platform' while not perfect, is
> pretty darned good accessibility-wise. (For CART srevices, you might find
> this helpful: http://ccacaptioning.org/faqs-cart/)
>
> HTH
>
> JF
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 8:41 AM, Preast, Vanessa < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
>> Does this also apply to live distance instruction, such as using Adobe
>> Connect or webinars?
>>
>> If so, is it acceptable to provide the live captioning only on the
>> occasions when a participant registering for the event indicates the
>> need
>> for live captions? Otherwise the captions would be added to the
>> recording
>> later?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>