Video & Accessibility
Video Requirements
At a minimum, this website meet W3C’s WCAG 1.0 Level A
and current federal Rehabilitation Act Section 508 standards. The agency is working towards WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance. For more information about the transition, go to the VDOE Website Accessibility Plan.
In order to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance (required by January 18, 2018), transcripts and closed captions must be provided for all videos. Videos placed on VDOE's YouTube channel will automatically have both transcripts and closed captions.
Guidance for Creating Transcripts
- Transcripts should be verbatim, and not a summary.
- Plan for your video with a script and then edit as needed to create a transcript.
- Include visual information as you speak so that all relevant audio information is included.
- Speakers should identify themselves and their surroundings.
- Instead of saying "as you can see, the website search traffic peaked here", say, "this chart of website search traffic for 2016 shows that search peaked in May."
- For most cases, minor edits for readability are recommended, but the meaning should not be changed. Most often, grammar mistakes should not be corrected.
- If no script was prepared, use the automatic YouTube captions and edit for accuracy.
Captioning & Transcript Resources
- WebAIM WCAG 2.0 Checklist-This is a PDF document. (PDF)
- Best Practices for Transcripts
- W3C Multimedia Accessibility FAQ
- Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions
- 508 Accessibile Videos - Why (and How) to Make Them
- YouTube’s captioning documentation
- Ohio State University
- University of Washington
Production Tips
- Include visual information as you speak so that all relevant audio information is included.
- Speakers should identify themselves and their surroundings.
- Instead of saying "as you can see, the website search traffic peaked here", say, "this chart of website search traffic for 2016 shows that search peaked in May."
- Captions should not block important visual content. Do not place text or important visual elements at the bottom of your presentation slides.
On-Screen Text Guidance
- On-screen text should be reasonably large.
- Do not place text or important visual elements at the bottom of your presentation slides.
- High contrast colors should be used.
- Text must remain onscreen long enough to be read.
Flashing, Strobing, or Optical Illusions in Video
- If you have a media item that contains this type of flashing, strobing, or optical illusions, do not post it.
- Make sure your video, animation, or other multimedia product does not contain flashing, strobing, or flickering elements within a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz, as these effects can cause some people to experience seizures, dizziness, and nausea.
- Graphics that contain certain types of optical illusions can also have the same effect on users. Further, this type of flashing and movement can be distracting for some users with cognitive disabilities. WebAIM’s article on Seizure Disorders