WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Can the captions page be corrected?

for

From: L Snider
Date: May 7, 2020 1:28PM

HTML 5 players are the way to go to be more fully accessible. For example,
AblePlayer allows for one video, and a audio description (AD) track,
captions track, text transcripts track and even a sign language track. I
can them tracks but they can be layered or not, depending on the user's
preferences.

I wish YouTube (and don't even get me started on Vimeo) would allow for
this, it would give people more options. Even though they do a bit of AD in
videos that are automatically captioned (AD in the captions). Right now the
only way to do true AD (or sign language, etc.) in things like YouTube is
to make different videos.

Cheers

Lisa

On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 2:45 PM Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> > Hello all - when reviewing the page about captions, transcripts, and
> audio descriptions (https://webaim.org/techniques/captions), this
> "important" notation was displayed: In order to be fully accessible to the
> maximum number of users, web multimedia should include both synchronized
> captions AND a descriptive transcript.
> >
> > However, per WCAG AA 2.0, multimedia is NOT FULLY ACCESSIBLE unless it
> also includes Audio/Video Descriptions (AD).
>
> Correct. The sentence you are referring to is within the section on
> captions and transcripts. Audio descriptions are covered later in the
> page. It wouldn't make sense to discuss the necessity of audio
> descriptions before they have even been introduced.
>
> > Of course, there are some instances where ADs are not required like when
> the existing audio covers all of the key visual elements like someone
> reading all the text on the slide.
>
> Yes, this is covered at length in the audio descriptions section of the
> article.
>
> > And the AD section verbiage ("not common", "gaining popularity", etc.)
> on this page
>
> These are accurate statements.
>
> > seems to minimize its value and treats this as a nice-to-have by
> creating the perception that no one else is doing it.
>
> The intent is to make it clear that they aren't common, not that they
> aren't important - many reading the article have likely never heard
> the term "audio description" before.
>
> > ADs are not merely "helpful" only if convenient to provide or something
> fashionable/popular.
>
> Yes, the article stresses their importance - and encourages better
> media production so as to avoid the need for audio description.
>
> > Is it time to update this page to accurately emphasize the need and
> required compliance of ADs?
>
> I've added some additional content and made some tweaks to better
> emphasize this.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jared
> > > > >