If you are into video creation, you must ensure that you always create accessible videos. While an accessible video provides every user with a series of benefits, it is crucial for individuals with certain disabilities.
According to experts, the usability and reach of accessible videos are significantly more than those without enough accessibility. This leaves us with the question of how to create accessible videos. The section below informs readers about things they must learn to make all their videos accessible.
How to Make the Video Content Accessible?
You cannot have an accessible video if its content is not accessible. Here are the steps you must follow to create accessible video content.
Pick Colors Wisely:
You must never convey information using colors alone, and whenever you use colors, make sure you pick perfectly distinguishable colors. You should stick to this rule for all materials that feature information in the form of charts or text. You can check some WCAG video accessibility examples to learn more about the importance of color contrast.
The Text Must Be Clearly Visible:
Whenever you display any text onscreen, you must pick a large enough font size. Additionally, the text must remain on the screen long enough for the users to read it.
Never Use Fast-flashing Materials:
Ideally, you should not include any flashing content in your videos. If you cannot do away with them completely, ensure that the video doesn’t feature over three flashes in a span of one second. Following this rule is crucial to ensure that the video doesn’t trigger seizures in users with a history of seizure attacks.
Which Video Format Should You Choose?
The format of a video often decides how usable it will be. Always make videos in a format that is latest enough to upload, play, and view seamlessly for all kinds of users.
Which Video Player Would Be Ideal?
Here are the things you must check when choosing the video player-
The video player must support transcripts, audio descriptions, and captions
The player must enable keyboard-based operation of pause, play, and volume
The video player must feature accessible labels for screen readers, and other such assistive technologies
The player must not trigger automatic video playing whenever someone opens or reloads the webpage
Why Adding Captions and Transcripts Is a Must?
For videos to be fully accessible, they must include both transcripts and captions. According to WCAG video accessibility guidelines, every prerecorded audio content (barring media alternatives for text) must contain captions. Recent studies suggest that captioning increases views by as much as 80%.
Transcript, which is typically a video’s text version, is another element that increases a video’s accessibility. Other than describing everything spoken in a video, transcripts also explain every action taking place onscreen.
Here are the common ways to create transcripts-
By formatting and reusing captions
By typing the content of the video manually
By hiring a professional transcriber to do the job on your behalf
By using speech/voice recognition software
You Must Consider Adding Audio Description
A video accessibility checklist would be incomplete without the mention of audio descriptions. However, all videos don’t need audio descriptions. If the audio track doesn’t describe all onscreen actions clearly, you must include a detailed audio description of the video. Doing so is particularly important to make the video accessible to visually impaired users.
A video’s audio description must inform users about its characters, actions, onscreen text, and scene changes. It supplements the video’s original audio track to make it more accessible. To enhance the accessibility even further, you must add audio descriptions during pauses in dialogues.
Final Words
The above discussion must have helped you to understand what you must do to make your videos accessible. However, to implement those strategies, you must learn how to create good video captions and transcripts. You must also know how to maintain color contrast onscreen. As learning these things is not easy, you must consider using video accessibility services.