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Thread: Styling of video captions
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, Apr 13 2018 11:00AM
Subject: Styling of video captions
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One of my clients is adding captions to the videos on their website and they sent me some examples. The captions are white text on a mid-grey translucent background so the video content shows through a little. The colour contrast is fine but I feel that the translucency reduces the readability a little because the background colour changes both within a frame and over time. It's difficult for me to be objective now because I can't help looking for a problem, and I don't know if it will be a problem in practice.
I told the client I would prefer the text to be on a solid background but they say the styling is fixed - they are using Vimeo. I can't find anything in WCAG that specifies any aspect of the styling of captions. Does anyone know of any requirements in WCAG or any other standard? Has anyone done any user testing with different caption styles or had any feedback from users?
Regards,
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
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From: glen walker
Date: Fri, Apr 13 2018 11:06AM
Subject: Re: Styling of video captions
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From a usability perspective, I agree with you, but what they have now is
not an accessibility issue, although the translucent background could be
distracting for cognitive impairments.
I like it when videos let me choose the captioning colors, or at least give
me a few choices. Would that be an option for you? Could you have an
opaque and translucent option for captions? For readability, it might be
better to use less technical terms and call the options 'solid background'
and 'see through background', or something like that.
Glen
On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 11:00 AM, Steve Green <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> One of my clients is adding captions to the videos on their website and
> they sent me some examples. The captions are white text on a mid-grey
> translucent background so the video content shows through a little. The
> colour contrast is fine but I feel that the translucency reduces the
> readability a little because the background colour changes both within a
> frame and over time. It's difficult for me to be objective now because I
> can't help looking for a problem, and I don't know if it will be a problem
> in practice.
>
> I told the client I would prefer the text to be on a solid background but
> they say the styling is fixed - they are using Vimeo. I can't find anything
> in WCAG that specifies any aspect of the styling of captions. Does anyone
> know of any requirements in WCAG or any other standard? Has anyone done any
> user testing with different caption styles or had any feedback from users?
>
> Regards,
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
> 020 3002 4176 (direct)
> 0800 612 2780 (switchboard)
> 07957 246 276 (mobile)
> 020 7692 5517 (fax)
> Skype: testpartners
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> www.testpartners.co.uk
>
> Connect to me on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevegreen2
>
> > > > >
From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Fri, Apr 13 2018 11:10AM
Subject: Re: Styling of video captions
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In my opinion captions are either text or images of text and thus contrast minimums need to apply. In the US closed caption display requirements exist for physical devices under the CVAA and also apply when video programming owners display their video programming content over IP. It doesn't apply to all web based video players -- only to situations like where ABC, NBC, etc. would be delivering their own content. You might check out the settings in those online players like ABCs under caption > settings and see the options they provide for foreground, background, opacity, ec.
Jonathan
Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
Level Access
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From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, Apr 13 2018 11:20AM
Subject: Re: Styling of video captions
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The client is saying there are no options for the caption background - it is what it is, and the Vimeo Help pages seem to support this view. A little research suggests that some user agents (specifically iOS) provide the ability to change the caption styling but I don't know if this is the case with other user agents. It makes sense to me that it should be set at the operating system level rather than being the author's decision.
Steve