Video, Audio, and Image Accessibility

Audio accessibility includes adding closed captions and transcription to your video content for people who are deaf and audio descriptions for people with visual impairments.

For the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, as well as those with temporary or situational disabilities, closed captions and audio transcription can be very helpful. Closed captions display spoken content, song lyrics, sound effects, and noise as text on a screen. Closed captions are synchronized with the audio, i.e.they are time coded to match the audio. Audio transcriptions are a text version of the entire spoken content in the video. 

Audio descriptions, or video descriptions, provide users who are blind or have impaired vision with a spoken description of what's on-screen.

To see closed captioning (CC) and audio description in action, check out this YouTube video from AudioEye. You can access the transcription by clicking the dots next to "SAVE" under the video.

Extra tip: Avoid using autoplay, as it doesn't give viewers time to set up assistive technology and could trigger a seizure if there are flashing elements.

Creating transcriptions and closed captions for accessibility involves writing out sounds and dialogue in a video or audio piece, such as a podcast.

Transcripts look like play scripts. Some websites automatically scroll transcripts while videos play; others post transcripts as blog posts, with embedded audio at the top.

Closed captions should be synchronized with speech, sounds, and music. How you add them to your video depends on the video platform you use.

Here are a few best practices for closed captioning:

• Make sure your closed captions are accurate.
• Use a consistent style.
• Synchronize with audio and allow enough time for people to read the captions.
• Remove any visual obstructions that could interfere with the captions. 
• Preserve the meaning and intention of the content. 

Both transcripts and captions can be created manually or via artificial intelligence (AI), though the latter is prone to mistakes. If you opt for AI, make sure you have a person editing the text before you publish your content.

Image alternative text, also called alt text or alt tags, is a written description of an image, GIF, animation, graph, etc. that screen-reading tools can read aloud to people with visual impairments, sensory processing disorders, or learning disabilities. Well-written alt text accurately describes an image as well as communicates its purpose and context, to provide an accessible and functional user experience to people using screen readers.

Here are a few best practices to help you write meaningful and useful alt text.

1. Leave out phrases like “image of” or “picture of.” 
2. Limit alt text to 150 characters. Some screen readers will cut off once that limit is reached.
3. Use descriptive language.
4. Be descriptive in content and context. 
5. Don’t cram in SEO keywords. Search engines can crawl alt text, but dislike keyword stuffing.
6. Don’t add alt text to decorative images — such as page dividers or branded graphics — as they don’t contribute to a greater understanding of the content. Use the empty alt tag (alt=“”) to hide decorative images from a screen reader.
7. Don’t use filenames as alt text. 
8. Avoid repeating information that’s already covered in a caption or an adjacent header.
9. If you need more characters but not a full transcript, you may add a caption underneath the image. 
10. When an image includes a lot of important text, formulas, or graphs, provide a transcript.

Learn more about alt text and see examples at WebAim.

Embedded metadata, which describes the code using plain language, lets people who need accessibility features know if they can access your publication.

Embedded metadata doesn't create multimedia accessibility; it says it's there. For example, video metadata stating a video has captions looks like:

<meta itemprop="accessibilityFeature" content="captions" />

There are two primary ways you can implement metadata for accessibility:

1. Whole page/publication: Metadata shows the accessibility features of an entire piece. 
2. Specific multimedia: Metadata describes what an image, audio component, or video offers.

Typical metadata includes basic information, such as the title and creator. 

Descriptive metadata tells a user what accessibility features and potential hazards are on your page or media piece.

It’s best to have an experienced developer create your embedded metadata.

Multimedia accessibility is a win-win for your users and your brand, as it allows you to reach more audiences and build better relationships with your customers. Considering the significant overlap between web accessibility and SEO best practices, publishing accessible content can also help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

If you need assistance with implementing multimedia accessibility, AudioEye can help. Learn about AudioEye’s platform and services.