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Accessibility: Multimedia Overview

A Guide from the Accessibility Advocate

Multimedia and Accessibility

Videos

*Follow the links below for examples.

  • For accessibility purposes videos can be defined as moving visual images with or without synchronized sound. Examples include YouTube videos, motion pictures, and cartoon shows.

  • Common video file types include MP4, MOV, WMV and AVI.

  • Videos with sound must contain closed captions and videos without sound should have audio description.

  • Captions are the text format equivalent of the spoken audio from within a video. Captions address the need of users who cannot access audio. By providing content information via a textual format, all users, including your deaf users, stand to benefit.

  • Audio description is required when important information is visually shown on the screen that cannot be observed by a blind or vision-impaired individual.

Audio Files 

  • For accessibility purposes audio files can be defined as multimedia content that uses sound only. Examples include podcasts and songs.

  • Common file formats include MP3, M4A, WAV, and WMA.

  • Text transcripts are a way for deaf and deaf-blind users to know the content of an audio podcast.

  • Transcripts include the verbatim dialogue (words spoken) and additional details, for example when there is laughter sound, the same should be mentioned in the transcript. 

Resources

Deque University Multimedia Accessibility: Is it Important?

Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C): Transcripts 

Section 508: Create Accessible Synchronized Media