Distance Education
Multimedia Accessibility Guide
Creating accessible multimedia (audio and video) content benefits all learners (e.g., video streaming in noisy airport or a silent library). However, it is especially beneficial for individuals with a hearing impairment, those who speak English as a second language, and those with learning/cognitive challenges.
Use the information and tips in the expanders below as you are creating your multimedia content:
Captions
Synchronized, accurate captions are required for all instructional videos that have audio.
Basic Captioning Guidelines
- Captioning must be run from video start to finish and include opening music and intentional background noises
- Captions must be 99% accurate
- Captions should display synchronously with the audio
- Caption placement should not obscure other important information
- For more detailed captioning guidelines, visit The Captioning Key website
Distance Education Captioning & Transcription (DECT) Grant
Fullerton College faculty can now submit captioning requests through the CCC DECT Grant. Videos must be instructor-created; used in online, hybrid, and/or hyflex courses; and at least one minute in length.
If you have a captioning project that meets these requirements and you would like more information or support with the application, contact Cory Thomas at cthomas@fullcoll.edu.
Captioning Scenarios
Review the Captioning Scenarios for detailed information on other captioning options and resources for FC faculty and staff.
Audio Description
Audio description provides blind and low-vision users with a description of the visual content in a video. It describes the relevant visual information in an audio format, so that users with visual disabilities can access what others see in the video. Audio descriptions are another step to making your content accessible to all students and are a requirement of web accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.0 AA and Section 508.
When are Audio Descriptions Required?
Videos that do a good job of describing visual content usually do not need an additional audio description. To test a video, try to listen to just the audio. If you can easily follow along, you likely do not need audio descriptions. However, if there are relevant visual elements (i.e. charts, graphics, slides with text that is not spoken, etc.) in the video that the audio does not adequately describe, an audio description is required.
If you are creating a video and take the time to explain essential information in detail, the need for audio description can be greatly reduced or eliminated.
For detailed audio description guidelines, visit The Description Key website.
Accessible Video Players
Creating accessible multimedia is more than just captions, transcripts, and audio description, it is imperative that the player used to deliver the multimedia content be accessible as well. Accessible video players should support the following:
- Video buttons and controls should be accessible without use of a mouse
- Video controls should be announced properly to a person using screen reading software (e.g., JAWS, NVDA)
- Support for closed captions
- Support for audio description (nice-to-have, but not required)
- Interactive text transcript (nice-to-have, but not required)
Examples of fully accessible video players:
Examples of video players that meet accessibility requirements, but do not support audio description and/or interactive text transcripts:
- YouTube
- Canvas Studio
- Vimeo
Transcripts are required for audio-only content like podcasts. If you created an audio file without a script, or the podcast/third-party audio file you are using does not already have a transcript, it is easy to create one using Microsoft Word. Follow this tutorial from Microsoft Support to learn how!