Accessible Video Checklist #
- Record high-quality audio
- Create accurate captions
- Describe visual content when recording
- Use appropriate colors for text and graphics
- Share on an accessible platform
Accessible Video | The Details #
Record high-quality audio #
- Recording quality audio will help all users understand your content, and make it easier for autocaptioning tools to accurately caption your video.
- Record in a quiet environment with a high-quality microphone close to you.
- Test your audio and listen back to ensure quality before recording your entire video.
- Record in the HCC Vocal booth or check out microphones from the HCC Info Desk or for best results.
Create accurate captions #
- All videos should be accurately captioned, including relevant sounds and speaker identifications.
- Sounds that aren’t relevant (e.g. coughs, background noise, filler words like “um”) do not need to be captioned unless the context makes it relevant (e.g. a speaker comments on a cough or background noise).
- The easiest method is to upload your video to an automatic tool that can make the first pass at captioning, but all videos must be reviewed for accuracy by a human to meet requirements.
- See Section 508.gov’s Captioning Guidelines for further guidance on captions.
- These platforms have automatic caption capabilities
Describe visual content when recording #
- If your video includes visual imagery that is important to the context of your project, orally describe the relevant information during recording (e.g. “This chart shows exponential growth for GreenCo with a jump from $100 last year to $1000 this year.”)
- This planning can begin when writing the script or outline for your video.
- See W3.org’s Guide to Writing Integrated Audio Descriptions for best practices.
- If you can’t describe visual content when recording, you can record a second video with the necessary audio descriptions to share alongside the original recording.
- These platforms support playback of a separate audio description track:
- ScreenPal – We highly recommending using UMW’s enterprise license as it is the only platform on this list that gives users the tools to auto-create a first pass at audio description and can add a pause to video playback for audio description track. See our ScreenPal guide for more information on how to create audio description.
- Microsoft One Drive/Sharepoint – Videos hosted in your UMW Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint site allows you to manually add an audio description file. There is no auto-creation of an audio description track. See Microsoft’s Guide to Adding Audio Descriptions
- YouTube – Videos hosted on YouTube allow you to manually add audio description files. There is no auto-creation of audio description. See YouTube’s Guide to Adding Audio Descriptions
Use appropriate colors for text and graphics #
- On-screen text should be high-contrast against the background. If placing text in front of a moving image, consider using an opaque or translucent text box to increase readability.
- Visual elements should not use color alone to convey meaning (e.g. highlighting elements in different colors to differentiate between them). Use symbols or shapes in addition to color whenever possible.
WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
Share on an accessible platform #
- Videos must be shared on a platform that allows for captions and audio descriptions in playback.
- Optionally, you can also share a transcript of your video to improve the accessibility of your project. Transcript could meet accessibility standards if the visual content of the video is irrelevant to the content. See more in our Accessible Audio guide.
