Creating Video and Multimedia Products That Are Accessible to People with Sensory Impairments And How Universal Design Features Benefit Everyone by Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D. DVDs, streaming video on the web, and films Access for People Who are Deaf present engaging instructional tools. Everyone Millions of people worldwide experience enough benefits from dynamic visual displays and dialog. hearing loss to affect their ability to watch a Well, not everyone. Viewers who are deaf miss all television program at a standard volume level. audio content not also presented in a visual form. Some people are born deaf or hard of hearing, Those who are blind can access the visual content some experience a hearing loss from an accident also presented in spoken form. It is usually not or illness, and many gradually lose their ability difficult to make video and multimedia accessible to hear. The elderly are the fastest growing group to viewers with sensory impairments, but special of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. considerations should be made at the design Captions on videos allow full accessibility to these phase to ensure complete access to everyone. people. It is also easier and less costly than providing accommodations to viewers with sensory To experience watching a multimedia product impairments once they need to access the media. without the ability to hear, turn off the volume during a video presentation. Some programs, Universal Design such as sporting events, are fairly easy to follow Universal design is defined by the Center by watching the visual display. Others, like news for Universal Design at North Carolina State programs, make little sense without access to the University as “the design of products and audio content. To make this content accessible to environments to be usable by all people to the those who are deaf, the producer could arrange greatest extent possible, without the need for for a sign language interpreter or text captioning adaptation or specialized design” (projects.ncsu. to appear on the screen. edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/about_ud.htm). At the Center, a group of architects, product Captioning involves synchronizing text with audio designers, engineers, and environmental design content of a video presentation. It is more common researchers established a set of principles to guide than sign language because not all individuals the design of environments, communications, who are deaf know sign language, there is no and products. The principles ensure that one standard version of sign language, and the the design accommodates a wide range of intricate motions of sign language may be difficult individual preferences and abilities; the design to display clearly, especially when scientific or communicates necessary information effectively, other highly specialized language is used. regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities; the design can be used efficiently, Captions benefit other viewers, including those comfortably, and with a minimum of fatigue; for whom English is a second language. People and appropriate size and space is provided for with certain learning disabilities can also benefit approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless from hearing and seeing the spoken word of user’s body size, posture, or mobility. simultaneously. Some instructors use captioned videos with the sound turned off to teach people When universal design principles are applied, how to read. Captions also provide content access products can be used by people with a variety of to people viewing videos in noisy settings (e.g., characteristics. Expensive options for making the an airport) or in situations when it is important content of an inaccessible product accessible to to be quiet. They also benefit everyone who people with disabilities can be avoided. wants to know the spelling of words used in the presentation. Closed captions also allow someone to search the captions of a video for specific topics. Captioning and Transcription • Use a simple sans-serif font, such as Helvetica, Off-line captioning is created after the video and proportional spacing. has been shot. The captioner types the captions, • Ensure high contrast between the text and which are recorded on the video image. Captions background. typically appear on the screen as a group and • Use italics to indicate the narrator, off- erase as a group; they do not scroll. The captions screen voices, sound effects, and other vital are either “open” or “closed.” Open captions are information presented aurally. part of the actual image of the video and appear Transcription is word-for-word translation on the screen whenever the video is presented. of audio content into a text file. Although an Closed captions are stored in Line 21 of the appropriate alternative for audio files, it is best to vertical blanking interval (VBI) between the use captions that are synchronized with the visual frames of a television signal and appear when the content for videos. Having said that, transcription television’s built-in decoders are used. as an alternative format can benefit those who Real-time captions are created as viewing are both deaf and blind, who cannot easily access takes place. They are most often used for closed captions, and who do not have technology live programs such as video conferences and that allows them to view videos. sporting events. Much like a courtroom reporter, Legislation and greater awareness of individual a trained stenotypist enters spoken content by needs has resulted in increasing numbers of typing phonetic codes on a special keyboard that video presentations available with captions. facilitates high-speed transcription. Computer Many educational materials and most children’s software translates the phonetic codes into words and prime time television programs are closed that typically scroll across the bottom of the video captioned. image in a continuous motion. To employ universal design, the production Resources Center for Universal Design in Eduation should be filmed so that critical visual content (CUDE) does not appear where captioning will cover it. Knowledge Base (enter search text “captioning”) www.uw.edu/doit/programs/ For example, if you are shooting an ice skating center-universal-design-education/search-kb event, make sure the feet of the skaters are not so close to the bottom of the screen that they will be Amara covered with captioned text. Keep in mind that amara.org/en/ captions should provide content for all of the visual events that occur on the screen, including Captioning Key noises that are not the result of speaking (e.g., a dcmp.org/learn/520 dog barking may translate into the captioned text “Dog barks.”). Suggestions for making attractive Closed Captioning and functional captions include the following: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning • Use one or two lines of text. Creating Accessible Videos • Caption the exact wording of speakers, www.uw.edu/accessibility/videos including slang and grammatical errors. Hearing Loss Association of America • Only occasionally edit a few words to facilitate www.hearingloss.org reading speed. • Caption sound effects that contribute to the Media Access Group at WGBH Caption Services understanding of the content. main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/captioning • Synchronize captions with the aural content. • Only occasionally change the location of National Association of the Deaf Captioning captions on the screen. Service Vendors • Use both uppercase and lowercase letters dcmp.org/learn/10 4 National Captioning Institute Most video producers use outside services for www.ncicap.org audio description. Because this additional audio content is not of value to other audiences and National Court Reporters Association can be distracting, audio description is usually www.ncraonline.org not included with the standard product but is National Center for Accessible Media provided as an optional format available by ncam.wgbh.org request. Resources UDL on Campus Center for Universal Design in Eduation (CUDE) udloncampus.cast.org/home#.WrvX84Ih1T7 Knowledge Base (enter search text “audio YouTube Captions description”) www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcj85tBje4 www.uw.edu/doit/programs/ center-universal-design-education/search-kb Access for People Who are Blind People who are blind cannot access the visual Creating Accessible Videos content of a video production unless the www.uw.edu/accessibility/videos content is available in audio or tactile format as well. Awareness of this access issue during Descriptive Video Service the design phase of a product’s creation can main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/ result in speakers or narrators voicing enough description of the content to allow a person who is blind to follow along. This is particularly important for Narrative TV educational programming and products used www.narrativetv.com with large audiences where it is unknown to the presenter what visual impairments audience Audio Eyes members may have. For example, speakers can www.audioeyes.com introduce themselves rather than having the information presented in a text box. Copyright, VITAC (Vital Access) acknowledgment statements, and other www.vitac.com information at the end of the video can also be spoken by the narrator. Producers can listen to WGBH their video product without viewing the screen www.wgbh.org to help determine how accessible it might be to a person who is blind. Examples of Accessible Videos and Media Player Audio Description For examples of videos that are universally After shooting and editing is complete, specially designed, explore the DO-IT streaming video trained professionals can add audio content to collection at www.uw.edu/doit/videos/index.php. the video soundtrack. When pauses occur in the These videos are designed so that captions do original production, the speaker reads titles and not cover important visual content, and credits names and describes scenery, objects, and other and reference information is spoken. For most visual information for the viewer who cannot videos, there is an audio-described version, a see.