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Accessibility in Video Production

Ken Circeo

How I got here

Gov’t Shutdown

RESEARCH

JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT

“Sure, Jack. I’ll do it.”

“HELP!”

LavaCon 2013

@LavaCon

@LavaCon

Legal disclaimer

LAWYERS

NOT a Lawyer

1.4 billion people

VisionColorblindne

ss

Low vision

Slight vision

Blindness

MobilityArthritis

Quadriplegia

SpeechImpediment

Cognitiv

eDyslexia

SeizureLearning disability

Autism

HearingHearing loss

DeafnessUnable to speakSpinal cord

injury

Vision

285 million worldwide (World Health

Organization)

•21 million in the U.S. (NumberOf.net)

7%

Hearing

72 million worldwide (World Federation of

the Deaf)

•42 million in the US (Gallaudet Research Institute)

14%

3 Reasons

It’s good business

It’s socially responsible

It’s a requirement as of Oct 8, 2013

Penalties for non-compliance• Financial• Behavioral• Consumer

CVAA

Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010“Two decades ago, Americans with disabilities couldn’t get

around if buildings weren’t wheelchair accessible; today

it’s about being Web accessible. The ADA mandated

physical ramps into buildings. Today, individuals with

disabilities need online ramps to the Internet so they

can get to the Web from wherever they happen to be.” – Rep.

Ed Markey (D-MA)

W3C

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0“…make content accessible to a wider range of

people with disabilities, including blindness and low

vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities,

cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech

disabilities, photo-sensitivity and combinations of these.”

– Abstract from WCAG 2.0, 11 Dec 2008

Universal design

Products•Videos•Apps

Environments•UIs•Players

Services•Websites•Interactive training

Universal design

Player

The video player must meet or exceed CVAA requirements:

• Closed captioning

• Screen reader

support• Audio tracks

• High contrast compliant

High contrast compliant

A player must be

High Contrast

compliant. That is,

when the viewing

device is switched

into High Contrast

mode, all elements

of the player must

still be easily visible

and discernible.

Closed captioning format

Required

Single-layer closed caption any video pertaining to communications,

help and how-to, or highly technical in nature.

Better

Single-layer closed caption all video content.

Best

Multi-layer closed caption all video content using SMPTE

Timed Text, which the FCC recommends as a “safe harbor”

delivery format for meeting new requirements for captioning

internet-delivered video.

A brief history of CC (1 of 3)

A brief history of CC (2 of 3)

A brief history of CC (3 of 3)

Required

Video player must support screen readers

VolumeVolume. Move slider to raise or lower volume.Volume. Move slider to the right to raise the volume or to the left to lower the volume.

Screen reader support

Better

Create descriptive Alt text and support hotkeys

Best

Leverage additional layers (e.g. MSAA) that provide

additional information for the user

Audio tracks

Required

The player should support the ability to allow the user to

select between multiple audio tracks.

Better

Include a descriptive audio track for users with diminished or

no sight.“Hello, my name is Ken and today, we’ll talk about updating your Lync 2013 user image. To start, launch Lync, and select the current image. Now, select Default corporate picture…”

“Hello, my name is Ken and today, we’ll talk about updating your Lync 2013 user image. To start, launch Lync, and select the current image in the upper left of the Lync window. In the resulting Options screen, select the Default corporate picture radio button, second from the top on the right hand side of the screen…”

Audio track example

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

Descriptive audio track

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

Summary

1.4 billion people worldwide experience some sort of

disability.

CVAA has made accessibility compliance the new law of the

land.

Make sure your video player supports:

•High contrast compliant

•Closed captioning

•Screen reader support

•Audio tracks

If you can make a

video,

you can make an

ACCESSIBLE video

Questions

Sources

• National Association of the Deaf (NAD) www.nad.org

• American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) www.afb.org

• Congress Tracker www.govtrack.us

• Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center www.wirelessrerc.org

• Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) www.w3.org

• Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) www.smpte.org

@LavaCon

• Ken Circeo, Sr. Content Publisher, Microsoft

• Microsoft Office Division (MOD), Bldg. 17, Redmond

• 20 year industry writer

• Authored 200+ articles for MSN, InfoWorld, Daily Herald, News 3X/400

• Lives in Mill Creek, Wash.

• kencir@microsoft.com

Speaker