Making videos accessible

To create an accessible video:

• create the video in a particular way
• place the video in the site in a particular way
• provide detailed information about the video
• provide a transcript in text or HTML
• provide audio descriptions
• provide captions

Bear in mind that not all users access video the same way and that you will need more than one method to make the video accessible to them.

Why make videos accessible?

Web accessibility standards

The University is legally obliged under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to develop and maintain accessible web pages. Our websites need to meet standards outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Monash University's 'Accessibility standards' webpage

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0

Benefits of video accessibility

Those who benefit from accessible videos include:

• users with visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, seizure and literacy disabilities;
• users on slow internet connections who will find it difficult to download large files;
• users with English as a second language who use a combination of alternatives to video to fully understand the video content;
• users using mobile web devices with little support for Flash and JavaScript.

Resources

• Transcription and captioning services