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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Mon, Jun 24 2013 4:20PM
Subject: YouTube Accessibility
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Hi,

Is YouTube generally considered to be an accessible place for video content
these days? That is, if a video author was conscientious about
accessibility -- created captions, made transcripts available, provided
audio description tracks, etc. -- would YouTube be considered a good place
to post videos in a way that people with disabilities would be able to use?

I've definitely seen videos on YouTube that have captions, so I know that
functionality is available. But I don't think I've ever seen links to
transcripts or audio descriptions available. Of course, a video author
could post a link to a transcript that is hosted elsewhere if YouTube can't
host it.

Or does YouTube not really have this down yet, and video authors would have
to host accessible solutions themselves?

Thanks,
David

From: Loretta Guarino Reid
Date: Mon, Jun 24 2013 5:11PM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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David,

If a YouTube video has captions, there will be a searchable transcript
available on the watch page. (Note that this is not available if the video
has been embedded in another page.)

Whenever a video has captions available, there will be a Transcript icon in
the toolbar below the video (next to "Add To"). Activating the icon will
list the timestamps and text for all the caption lines, and will highlight
the line being displayed in the video as it plays. Clicking on any line
jumps to that point in the video. Use your browser's search function to
search for text in the transcript area.

Loretta


On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 3:20 PM, David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Is YouTube generally considered to be an accessible place for video content
> these days? That is, if a video author was conscientious about
> accessibility -- created captions, made transcripts available, provided
> audio description tracks, etc. -- would YouTube be considered a good place
> to post videos in a way that people with disabilities would be able to use?
>
> I've definitely seen videos on YouTube that have captions, so I know that
> functionality is available. But I don't think I've ever seen links to
> transcripts or audio descriptions available. Of course, a video author
> could post a link to a transcript that is hosted elsewhere if YouTube can't
> host it.
>
> Or does YouTube not really have this down yet, and video authors would have
> to host accessible solutions themselves?
>
> Thanks,
> David
> > > >

From: Ken Petri
Date: Mon, Jun 24 2013 10:20PM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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The "interactive transcripts" feature on captioned videos hosted on YouTube
is pretty nice. But like Loretta says the interactive transcript isn't
available if you embed the video in your own web page.

For screen reader users, the HTML5 version of YouTube seems to work pretty
well. (Users can "opt in" to the HTML5 version via http://youtube.com/html5.)
It should be noted that not every video on YouTube has been converted to be
playable in the HTML5 player, though it does seem like newly uploaded
videos are automatically encoded in formats that can use the HTML5 player.
The buttons in the HTML5 player report state properly in a screen reader
and it is possible to use the slider controls for scrubbing through a video
and adjusting volume.

There are a couple of issues that I have noticed:

- The captions themselves are displayed in an overlay that contains them
in an ARIA live region set to "assertive." So when the captions are
showing, each new caption is read aloud in the screen reader as soon as it
appears. While there might be a case where this could be desirable
(deaf-blind users??), for the most part it is a big distraction, and it
seems to me to be an odd/poor choice on Google/YouTube's part. A screen
reader user who is viewing a video in the HTML5 player with captions
exposed will need to move into the video controls and turn off the caption:
Click the "cc" button and arrow through the menu to the "turn off captions"
option.
- I could not get into the captions menu (to enable or disable captions
or select an alternate caption language) using the keyboard alone. You can
do it in a screen reader, but I could find no way to turn captions on and
off solely via keyboard (even in the Flash version of the player or when I
am in "cursor" mode in the browser).


ken

On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 7:11 PM, Loretta Guarino Reid <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> David,
>
> If a YouTube video has captions, there will be a searchable transcript
> available on the watch page. (Note that this is not available if the video
> has been embedded in another page.)
>
> Whenever a video has captions available, there will be a Transcript icon in
> the toolbar below the video (next to "Add To"). Activating the icon will
> list the timestamps and text for all the caption lines, and will highlight
> the line being displayed in the video as it plays. Clicking on any line
> jumps to that point in the video. Use your browser's search function to
> search for text in the transcript area.
>
> Loretta
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 3:20 PM, David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> >wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Is YouTube generally considered to be an accessible place for video
> content
> > these days? That is, if a video author was conscientious about
> > accessibility -- created captions, made transcripts available, provided
> > audio description tracks, etc. -- would YouTube be considered a good
> place
> > to post videos in a way that people with disabilities would be able to
> use?
> >
> > I've definitely seen videos on YouTube that have captions, so I know that
> > functionality is available. But I don't think I've ever seen links to
> > transcripts or audio descriptions available. Of course, a video author
> > could post a link to a transcript that is hosted elsewhere if YouTube
> can't
> > host it.
> >
> > Or does YouTube not really have this down yet, and video authors would
> have
> > to host accessible solutions themselves?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > David
> > > > > > > >
> > > >
>
>

From: Léonie Watson
Date: Tue, Jun 25 2013 1:39AM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:
"If a YouTube video has captions, there will be a searchable transcript
available on the watch page. (Note that this is not available if the video
has been embedded in another page.)"

The media player from Nomensa solves this problem. It enables a locally
stored captions file to be synchronised with content pulled in from YouTube
or Vimeo. Unfortunately it doesn't use the same captions format as YouTube
though.
http://www.github.com/nomensa

Léonie.

--
Carpe diem.

From: John E Brandt
Date: Tue, Jun 25 2013 8:55AM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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Ditto to the other comments. I might add that my most recent experience (a
couple of months ago) has been that if you actually create a transcript file
and upload it as the caption file for YouTube, then the "transcript" feature
(as described) will appear. If you rely on the "automatic transcript"
process, there will be no transcript.

I believe you can export a text copy of the automatic transcript, edit this
and then repost and it will all work. I think there is also now a way to
edit the automatic transcript in the YouTube backend. Like everything
Google, YouTube changes all the time and with little or no fanfare. Just
when you think you know about something and how to use it, they change it.

Glad to hear the HTML5 video player works well with some screen readers
(does it work with all?). I have been going through the effort of creating
an alternative video page by posting a second page using the accessible JW
Player. See example: http://maine-aim.org/video/index.html

~j

John E. Brandt
jebswebs: accessible and universal design,
development and consultation
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

@jebswebs

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Wed, Jun 26 2013 4:03PM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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Thanks, these are all super helpful comments!

Would you say, though, that if I post a video to YouTube, it is possible to
do so in a way that would be considered compliant with WCAG Level AA?

David


On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 7:55 AM, John E Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Ditto to the other comments. I might add that my most recent experience (a
> couple of months ago) has been that if you actually create a transcript
> file
> and upload it as the caption file for YouTube, then the "transcript"
> feature
> (as described) will appear. If you rely on the "automatic transcript"
> process, there will be no transcript.
>
> I believe you can export a text copy of the automatic transcript, edit this
> and then repost and it will all work. I think there is also now a way to
> edit the automatic transcript in the YouTube backend. Like everything
> Google, YouTube changes all the time and with little or no fanfare. Just
> when you think you know about something and how to use it, they change it.
>
> Glad to hear the HTML5 video player works well with some screen readers
> (does it work with all?). I have been going through the effort of creating
> an alternative video page by posting a second page using the accessible JW
> Player. See example: http://maine-aim.org/video/index.html
>
> ~j
>
> John E. Brandt
> jebswebs: accessible and universal design,
> development and consultation
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> 207-622-7937
> Augusta, Maine, USA
>
> @jebswebs
>
>

From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Thu, Jun 27 2013 5:15AM
Subject: Re: YouTube Accessibility
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John E Brandt wrote:
> Glad to hear the HTML5 video player works well with some screen readers
> (does it work with all?).

I struggle with it on VoiceOver, the entire player has tabindex=-1, so
you cannot 'arrow' to the controls.

However, you can tab to them (play/pause is third in the tabindex
order), and once in the control area the basic controls are well
labeled, and usable.

Overall there doesn't seem to be one perfect solution. For example,
our media player (that Leonie mentioned) provides good controls, but
the Youtube API doesn't allow external players to show the captions
(at least last time I checked).

Between our website (which includes transcripts) and Youtube everyone
is catered for, but not all in one place :-/

-Alastair

www.nomensa.com/blog/