Clearing the Trail: Accessibility
Accessible Multimedia in Pressbooks
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to
- Identify when to use transcripts, media captions, and audio descriptions for multimedia
Accessibility Standard – Multimedia
Transcripts are provided for audio recordings, and videos are captioned and include audible contextual visual descriptions.
What Are Multimedia?
The term multimedia refers to a variety of ways, or media, used to communicate information, such as videos, audio, animations, and slideshows.
File types used: MP3, MP4, PPT
Note: This guidance focuses on audio and video multimedia, but any tools you choose to use, you will want to ensure are accessible, too. For more on this, see Choosing the Right Tools for Your OER.
For Whom Are You Doing This?
This work supports students who:
- Are deaf or hard of hearing
- Are blind or have low vision
- Have a form of cognitive disability
- Are in a location where they cannot play or hear audio
- Are not native English speakers and need written-word formats to support understanding
How does that work? – Transcripts, Captions, and Audio Descriptions
Transcripts and Captions
- Transcripts provide the full transcription of audio content in a media file. They are often keyword searchable and offer an alternative to watching a video in order to receive content.
- Media captions provide a running transcription of audio content that is synced up to an audio or video file.
In UNESCO’s video about OER below, users can access a transcript and turn on media captions.
Open Education Resources (OER) and Innovation: Why OER? by UNESCO
The captions can be turned on by selecting CC below the video [1], allowing viewers to read all speech content and relevant non-speech content of the audio, which is synchronized with the video [2].
When viewed on YouTube, below the video, UNESCO has provided a Transcript. When Show Transcript is selected [1], the transcript of the YouTube video displays alongside the video [2], allowing viewers to read all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the video.
Audio Descriptions
- Audio Descriptions provide context for visual elements in media that may be left out of a transcript or caption.
View the following video to see how the narrator has incorporated audio descriptions into the video by
- Describing what the people are doing in the video rather than assuming the user can view it for themselves.
- Adding in audio descriptions of unspoken but important parts of the video.
Why Is This Important?
Incorporating media into your textbook ensures that students aren’t bogged down in heavy blocks of endless text. This is a key principle for Universal Design for Learning. Multiple means of representation ensure that students can listen to audio or access video files and images or analyze graphs and charts in order to engage in course content.
Meaningful audio, video, and graphics support attention and focus in ways that text by itself fails to do. However, if audio isn’t accurately captioned, students who are Deaf or hard of hearing won’t be able to access this content. English language learners will miss key information. Students who are studying with sound off while on public transit won’t be able to accurately follow along. Accurate media captions ensure that students have an equitable opportunity to engage.
In addition to media captions, an accurate transcript is a key step in tracking information and synthesizing complex ideas. Transcripts are excellent for students who can read more efficiently than they process auditory information. Transcripts are also important for students who want to accurately cite or quote something they learned from engaging with the multimedia.
If the captions and transcript do not contain contextual descriptions, audio descriptions help those who are blind or low vision to better understand the visual context.
What Do You Need To Do?
Accessibility Checklist – Multimedia
- All audio content includes a transcript. The transcript includes all speech content and relevant descriptions of non-speech audio and speaker names/headings where necessary.
- Videos have captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content that has been edited by a human for accuracy.
- All videos with contextual visuals (graphs, charts, etc.) are described audibly in the video.
Do I Need to Provide Captions, Transcripts, and/or Audio Descriptions?
Determining what you need to do to make your media accessible starts with understanding what is required for different types of multimedia. Consider the following questions:
If your multimedia resource includes audio that is synchronized with a video presentation,
- you need to provide captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource
If your multimedia resource includes audio narration or instructions,
- you need to provide a complete transcript of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource
If your multimedia resource includes contextual visuals (e.g., charts, graphs) that are not addressed in the spoken content,
- you need to provide audio descriptions of relevant visual materials in the resource
Keep in mind that most videos will need more than one of the above.
Transcripts, Captions, and Audio Descriptions
Now that you have identified whether your multimedia needs captions, a transcript, audio descriptions, or a mix of them, explore what each looks like in practice.
Select the arrow next to the accessibility term to learn what each entails and to see examples of each in practice.
Transcripts
Consider what your students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding the spoken word. A text transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio content in a multimedia resource.[1]
As you work on developing a text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:
- Speaker’s name
- All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
- Relevant descriptions about the speech. Descriptions that convey emotions and mood are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “Don’t touch that! [shouted].”
- Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
- Headings and sub-headings. Headings help when they make a transcript more usable or easy to navigate, especially when the transcript is long. When included, put headings in brackets to show they were not part of the original audio, e.g., [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].
Trail Wisdom: Transcripts and Third-Party Videos
If you are not producing your own video resource but are planning to embed video materials from a third-party source (e.g., YouTube), be aware that not all third-party videos include transcripts. While services like YouTube technically support transcripts, not all of their contributors include them. If you select a video resource that does not already have a transcript, you will need to produce one yourself.
Creating a transcript for a third-party video might infringe on copyright, depending on how the video has been licensed. Before producing a transcript for media materials you did not create, contact the copyright holder of that material for permission to do so. (See information about using YouTube in Pressbooks in BC Campus’s Pressbooks Guide.)
Captions
Captions are the text that is synchronized with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what’s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.
The work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource can be repurposed to provide captions. Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:
- All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the captions, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
- Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor]”; “[background music by XXX plays].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
Audio Descriptions
Consider what your students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone.[2]
When describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines:
- When contextual visual content on the screen is not described in the audio itself, you will need to provide an objective audio description of the visual element.
- Whenever possible, avoid creating the need for audio descriptions in the first place by being proactive at the time of recording. If you pay attention to contextual visuals while recording, you may find opportunities to convey the visual content with the accompanying spoken material instead of inserting audio descriptions of the visual content after the fact.
Audio Description Situation 1
To help students fully grasp a concept that you are trying to convey in your video, you have included some contextual visual references (e.g., maps, charts, physical demonstrations of a process). However, you realize, after making the video, that the audio portion does not describe these visuals in enough detail for a blind, low-vision student to be able to access all of the concepts you intended to convey.
In this case, you would need to record an audio description of the visual material that provides enough detail, so the same content is available to all learners.
Audio Descriptions Situation 2
You are recording a video or presentation that includes a chart that tracks coal production in British Columbia, and as part of the presentation you want to focus on specific data in the chart. The narrator or presenter might point to sections on the chart and say:
“As you can see, metallurgical coal production increased by three million tons over these two years.”
In this case, audio descriptions would be necessary to provide the missing context to students with visual disabilities; these students cannot see the data on the chart that tells visual learners what the production figures are and for what dates. However, if the narrator or presenter instead says:
“This chart illustrates that metallurgical coal production in B.C. increased from 23 million tons in 1999 to 26 million tons in 2001,”
the visual content is conveyed through the audio, and no audio description will be necessary.
How to create Transcripts, Captions, and Audio Descriptions
This video offers efficient steps and excellent tips for creating transcripts, captions, and, if needed, audio descriptions for a YouTube video.
Easy way to create accessible videos with audio by Pope Tech
Inspect for Accessibility
A few accessibility checks must be done manually, including checking for transcripts, captions, and audio descriptions.
Select the arrow to view the guidance.
Guidance for Inspecting Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions
Captions
Media captions provide a running transcription of audio content that is synced up to an audio or video file. As 3PlayMedia notes, machine-generated automatic media captions are often about 80% accurate. This means that they need manual review and editing by a person in order to provide equitable access.
To assess the quality of media captions, watch or listen for a few minutes with captions turned on. Typically, names, dates, locations, and complex vocabulary words need to be manually edited. If you see typos or misspellings in media captions that don’t align with the audio you hear, it’s likely that they have not been edited for accuracy.
What to do if captions are missing or inaccurate
Your team can request that multimedia content creators generate and edit media captions for accuracy. If this request is denied but the media is openly licensed and allows derivatives, you might be able to adapt the multimedia.
If the media is all rights reserved and content creators do not grant permission, the revising author will need to find other accessible media as a substitute.
Transcripts
If the video is hosted in YouTube, select the link and view it on YouTube. Scroll down below the video to see if a Transcript is available for the video [1]. Select Show transcript and listen to a few minutes of the video to see if the transcript matches the audio [2].
If the transcript is missing, you will need to enable a transcript in YouTube or create a transcript and link it in your Pressbook under the associated video. If the transcript has typos and it is your video, you will want to edit the typos to match the audio content.
What to do if there is no transcript or if it’s inaccurate
YouTube has a new transcript function that allows users to view and download the full transcript of a video. If the transcript is inaccurate, we’ll follow the same steps as above.
Audio Descriptions
Videos require manual review to determine if they need audio descriptions. Audio descriptions are unnecessary if the audio of the existing video presents necessary visual descriptions for understanding pertinent content.
To assess this, listen to the video with your eyes closed. If you understand and can visually imagine what is going on in the video, then no audio description will be needed. However, if some of the visual context is left out and requires you to look at the video to understand the context, audio descriptions will need to be added.
Find Your Footing
Licenses and Attributions
“Accessible Multimedia in Pressbooks” by Theresa Huff is adapted from “Multimedia- Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition” by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray for BCcampus, used under a CC BY 4.0 license, “Media Captions and Transcripts – Doing the Work: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Educational Resources” by Veronica Vold for Open Oregon Educational Resources, used under a CC BY 4.0 license, and “Improving Accessibility in Course Materials – Online Course Development Basics” by Jeani Young for Trustees of Indiana University, used under a CC BY 4.0 license. “Accessible Multimedia in Pressbooks” is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
