Accessibility Guidance for Digital Information

For audiovisual material, consider accessibility options for hearing impairment as well as visual impairment. This may include closed captioning and/or transcripts, which need to be edited if auto-generated.

Audio Descriptions

Where your video is silent, or where the visuals present information that is not adequately communicated with the audio, a verbal description of the video is a valuable accommodation. There are several ways to do this.

• Best choice: Build audio description into your video. Have people in the video introduce themselves, or introduce them. Identify and describe visual elements in your audio narration as you create the video. ("Here is a chart showing the change in the number of respondents reporting positive feelings about their hometowns between 1990 and 2020. The red line, representing New York, is flat until 2001 when it spikes higher, stays flat for a few years, and then rises slightly thereafter beginning in 2008. The green line, representing the rest of the country, gradually sinks year after year.") That's not always possible, of course.
• Make a second copy of your video with a new audio track that integrates audio descriptions into natural pauses. If necessary, you can freeze frames in the video so that they can be described.
• If the player where the video will be seen supports it, you can add a second audio track and allow viewers to choose which track to listen to, or listen to both tracks simultaneously. This option allows the use of an Audio Description toggle, where the viewer can turn the descriptive track off or on. (This is not yet available for YouTube.)

Transcripts

Transcripts can be auto-generated by YouTube. Audio can be transcribed in Camtasia as well (instructions here). Microsoft Word offers a transcription feature that allows you to upload an audio file (instructions here). And there are many free and paid apps that transcribe audio, as well. Don't forget that the speech-to-text software that generates these transcripts is highly fallible and subject to incorrect interpretations. Additionally, transcription might contain timestamps that can be confusing or distracting. Be sure to read over and edit the transcript before publishing it.

To use a transcript to create closed captions in a video, you will need to convert or export your transcription to a SAMI or SRT file. SRT is open source and very basic -- you can add only counters and timestamps with the text, no formatting. SAMI was developed by Microsoft and is a more complex option with greater versatility. Strangely, though SAMI is a Microsoft file format, Word can't export documents as SAMI files. You can create a SAMI file with a text editor like Notepad or with third-partly software (one open-source option is Subtitld).

Captions

As with many disability-related accommodations, adding captions gives functionality to non-disabled users as well. Closed-captioning allows viewers to watch your video in spaces that are noisy or require silence, makes up for bad recordings, and gives an extra path to understanding for viewers who may not be fluent in the video's language.

YouTube allows you to add subtitles and captions, and will even auto-generate them if you don't have a transcript already. Camtasia also allows you to add closed captioning, with several possible methods including uploading a transcript file, using auto-captioning, and manually entering captions.

W3.org: Making Audio and Video Media Accessible

Accessibility.com: Beginner's Guide to Developing Accessible Video Experiences

W3.org Web Accessibility Initiative: Video Captions