Text 4 Multimedia

Audio and video elements add richness to course content, but they can present accessibility challenges, particularly for blind and/or deaf users. In this section, we'll look at some of the ways we can remove those barriers.

Check out this report on the accessibility features built in to the film Finding Dory:

Audio

Audio content represents a serious barrier for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Fortunately, this is a pretty straightforward to correct: it's simply a matter of providing a written transcript of the audio material. If no script is available for the material, dictation software is a good place to start. It's essential to understand, though, that it is just that: a starting point. Depending on the source, there will be a little to a lot of cleanup and augmentation necessary before your audio transcript is ready to use.

Another option is to upload your audio to YouTube, let it auto-caption the content, and then extract the script from the YouTube version. You can find it,Instructions for uploading audio hereand instructions for extracting the script here. (You can also use this method to extract a script from a video, but it has to be a video that you have uploaded.) Again, you'll probably have to do some cleanup before your script is 100% accurate.

The necessity for providing a written transcript is another good reason--beyond a smoother and more professional performance--to start from a script to begin with when creating your own audio materials.

Video

Videos present both audio and visual issues, so making them fully accessible can be a challenge.

A step that is straightforward and simple to carry out is to add captions to your video. These can be open (visible all the time) or closed (visible only if you turn them on). Captioning video creates accessible content for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, and it can also help students who have cognitive challenges consume the video content. Captions also benefit learners whose native language is not English, and they make the content of your video searchable. Captions are a great example of how Universal Design goes beyond the realm of disability and provides benefits to a wider audience.

Types of Captions

Closed Captions

Video that has closed captions is denoted with a familiar CC icon.

Using closed captions is optional. Users can turn them on or off with their video player or other controls. Closed captions for video on television are read by a decoder that is part of the hardware of all television sets sold in the United States. Closed captions for video on the web are read by a media player if it supports closed captions. Not all versions of media players support closed captions. Closed captions are not part of the actual video stream and exist in a separate text stream.

Users who want to access closed captions need to understand how to turn them on from their televisions or media players. Include instructions for users in your course.

Open Captions

Video that is accessed on the web can use open captions to provide on-screen text. Open captions are always displayed because they are part of the video stream. Open captions are not subject to different media player features. Users do not have to know how to turn the captions on. A disadvantage of open captions is that if the video is compressed, there can be a loss of quality and readability. They can also be distracting to some users.

Real-time Captions

Taking place during a synchronous event such as streaming video or a Blackboard Collaborate session, real-time captioning, sometimes referred to as real-time text, is a transcription service similar to TDD/TTY for telephones. Transcription services are separate from Blackboard Learn. There is usually a cost for the service and the service needs to be arranged in advance of the event.

Subtitles

Translating just dialog and not including sound effects or other description, subtitles assume that viewers can see and hear. Only spoken dialog is captioned and often translated into a different language.

Finding Captioned Content

The easiest and fastest way to add captioned content to your course is to locate videos that already have captions. A relatively small percentage of videos are captioned, but you can locate them by filtering your search. In YouTube, type your search term and then add a comma followed by "cc". For example, searching for captioned videos on MOOCs, type "MOOC, cc" in the search box. iTunes and Hulu both have filters to help you locate videos that have captions. Just because a video has captions doesn't make the actual content any better or worse than uncaptioned videos. Before adding a captioned video to your course, play it all the way through to ensure the captions are accurate and the content is what you are expecting.

How to Caption a Video with YouTube

You can caption any videos that you own and upload to your YouTube^TM account. YouTube's automatic captioning service provides a solid start to captioning your videos.

Having a storyboard is very important, even if you are making informal videos. Type out your outline and what you are going to say. This takes a little extra time up front, but it saves time in the long run. With a storyboard, you'll sound better in your video and you'll need fewer retakes. You'll also be able to copy and paste your narration into YouTube instead of retyping it into the caption editor.

Working from a video transcript

Go to your Video Manager.
Next to the video you want to add captions or subtitles to, click the drop-down menu next to the Editbutton.
Select Subtitles and CC. In the drop-down menu, choose the language that's spoken most in the video and click Set language.
Click the Add subtitles or CC button.
Choose the language for the subtitles or closed captions you want to create. You can use the search bar to find languages that don't automatically show in the list.
Click Transcribe and set timings.
Copy and paste your all of the spoken audio in the text field. If you're creating closed captions, make sure to incorporate sound cues like [music] or [applause] to identify background sounds.
Click Set timings to sync your transcript with the video.

Setting the timings can take a few minutes. While you wait, you'll be brought back to the video tracklist. Once it's ready, your transcription will automatically be published on your video.

Manually adding captions

Sometimes the Transcribe and auto-sync function will fail. If so, you can still add the captions manually.

Navigate to Subtitles and CC, select the language of the video, and then click Create new subtitles or CC.
Click play, and let the narration run 4 to 8 seconds and then click pause. Generally, try to start and stop at natural pauses in the narration, if possible.
Copy the narration text from the transcript, and paste the narration spoken during that time frame into the text box.
Click the add subtitle button (+). Drag the edges (as needed) of the narration box to align better with the spoken narration.
Repeat 2-4 for remaining narration.
When you have finished adding the narration text, click Publish.

Working with automatic captions

Upload the video to YouTube.
Wait two to six hours.
Log back into YouTube and go to your Video Manager.
Next to the video you want to edit captions or subtitles to, click the drop-down menu next to the Edit button.
Select Subtitles and CC.
Click Automatic Captions.
Edit the existing captions (sometimes the automatic approximations are hilarious so this is fun).

Screenshot of captioning process in YouTube

Although YouTube's automatic captioning is far from perfect, it will get you 80% of the way there. The clearer your speaking voice and diction, the better results you'll get. The best part of the automatic captioning tool is that the time codes are synched to your content. All you need to do is edit the existing text in each frame.

Audio Description

There are different levels of audio description that can be added to video captions. One is the addition of sound effects such as "floor creaking" or "glass shattering" to the closed caption track that help fill in missing information a narrator fails to provide.

Audio descriptions can be part of open or closed captions.

A more advanced level of audio description is provided for users with visual disabilities. These are detailed descriptions of all the actions taking place on the screen, and in order to be effective they must be skilfully inserted into gaps in the spoken dialog. In the video below, a blind user demonstrates how she accesses the audio descriptions through her cable service.

Audio description

The easiest way to avoid requiring audio description in the example is to have a storyboard that the narrator follows that details visual information out loud. You can see a demonstration of a video with audio description embedded here.

Adding an audio description track is not simple, and some players (including YouTube) don't support audio description tracks. While not ideal, one possible substitute is to include a storyboard with screen-reader accessible text and time markers.

This US Government site has complete instructions on creating audio description tracks.