How accessible is your university video content?
Intro
As an HE institution, in an evermore competitive sector, it is critical to get the biggest reach with your video content. But is it possible that perhaps, without realising, you may be unfairly alienating an important part of your audience? Did you know that by adjusting the colour and contrast settings on your subtitles, for example, you could open your video up to an extra 10 per cent of the UK’s population?* Making your video content accessible can make the world of difference to a significant community of viewers.
For public sector bodies, such as universities, it is a legal requirement to make content on websites, including of course, video content, as accessible as possible. This also counts for the private sector, (which equally includes a large contingent of educational institutions). The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), is currently considered the main point of reference in terms of indications on best practice.
"For public sector bodies, such as universities, it is a legal requirement to make content on websites, including of course, video content, as accessible as possible."
You may have already noticed that leading international streamers, such as Netflix for example, are addressing the WCAG guidelines, (such as through inclusion of captions and audio descriptions), but similar to the majority out there, they are not yet fully compliant with the desired level. An understandable source of frustration for persons with disabilities is that, whilst these guidelines are incredibly useful in terms of signposting best practice, the area of legal enforcement remains grey.
But what does accessible content look like? As we too embark on this research, we thought we’d share some of our most helpful finds so far…
Challenging content
So where to start? If we consider the majority of content that is being posted by the HE sector, we can point to some recurring features that can easily be addressed right away, listed below. But before that, for a comprehensive introduction as to how you can include persons with visual and auditory disabilities, we’d recommend that you watch Pope Tech’s brief summary:
Captions
Addressing deafness / auditory & cognitive / learning disabilities
Content with speech
In most videos shared by the higher education sector, there is either a voiceover present or someone talking on screen. In order to assist the hard of hearing community, you can ensure that all videos include accurate and diligently synced captions, from start to end. The additional presence of this text, provides the opportunity for many to follow your video with a visual alternative.
Attention to captions
The mere presence of the captions is not enough. In order to securely enhance viewer experience, it’s important to opt for closed captions on your videos. Open captions are permanently embedded in the video, whereas closed captions can be turned off. This gives the option for viewers to moderate their own viewing experience, as conversely, some may find their presence inhibitive to understanding the content. You can find an explainer here.
And to format!
Be sure to select a clear and legible font, set the size of body text to a minimum of 40 to 60 pixels for full HD videos with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and any titles should be at least 50% larger than that. Choose a text colour that contrasts sharply with the background, using the dark colour as the background to the lighter font as being most advisable. The contrast ratio between the screentext colour and the background colour should be at least 4.5:1. Be aware also that for some people, especially those with dyslexia, a very high contrast colour scheme can make reading more difficult. It’s therefore a good idea to choose an off-white colour rather than a brilliant white in order to aid on-screen reading.
Dialogue-heavy content
Is there a lot of talking in your video? Are there some key concepts listed that are vital to the understanding of the overall messaging? Simple additions, such as clearly formatted namestraps, that are also verbalised by the on-screen talking head is a good start. The accompanying presence of screentext which further highlights the key points as they are being made by the interviewee can make your video more accessible. The introduction of motion graphics can also facilitate communication. Essentially, in this case, any visual tools that you can employ to reinforce the messaging being delivered via audio will be setting you off on the right road.
Audio descriptions
Addressing blindness / vision disabilities
Audio / Video / Visual descriptions
Rather confusingly also known as ‘video description’, an audio description communicates, via audio, what can be seen in the video. For the visually diverse community, in addition to the option of access to a transcript, inserting an audio description at the beginning of your video to set the scene is recommended. In cases where there are sufficient breaks between speech, this can also feature throughout. The main goal remains to be as least disruptive as possible for your viewers however. If there’s not enough time between speech to insert audio description, it’s advised to set this up as best possible at an earlier, convenient interval.
Transcripts
Making content accessible for all!
Keep your audio clean and clear
Albeit a task already on the post-production list, but just a further reminder here that working on your audio track should not just be a stylistic choice, but also an opportunity to reach everyone in your audience. Aside from applying best practice when in production recording and making use of post-production techniques to enhance the overall quality, the addition of a downloadable transcript for video content can also make a difference.
Lastly, be aware of flashing screens: for those who are part of the photosensitive epileptic community, an unexpected trigger could mean the difference between life and death. In order to protect these viewers, videos should avoid content that flashes more than three times per second. The test to check this is called the Harding Test, and if you’re unsure you can get your videos tested online visiting this website.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you a taster of how we can be modifying our workflows to ensure that the content we are producing can be enjoyed by all. You can find a more comprehensive resources list below for further reading.
AI for good
As a creative video production agency, we’re constantly on the lookout for ways that we can elevate the content we’re making for our clients. During our weekly research sessions, we’re increasingly coming across new tools that can facilitate the mission of enhancing accessibility in the production of videos in an efficient and increasingly economical way. Here are just a few examples:
- Signapse: if you’re posting an event that was originally live-streamed, Signapse offers an instant AI translating tool for BSL, turning text into sign language video using cutting-edge AI.
- Rev: generates captions and transcripts with ease. As with all automated tools however, human intervention is still required! It’s important to maintain quality control steps in the process to make adjustments where necessary.
- Adobe Podcast: an incredible new player for enhancing audio quality. Using powerful AI-driven tools, this plug-in can improve audio quality to an impressive level.
Further resources
There’s a lot to learn, but there are also a lot of brilliantly helpful resources out there. Websites that we have found particularly handy so far include:
- Official Web Content Accessibility Guideline guidelines: The WCAG handbook
- Understanding WCGA: Level Access Guides
- Legibility’s Rules for text in video
- Guides from the HE sector: The University of Bath’s guidelines
- Transcript and captions generator, REV’s, ‘Font colours for closed captions’
Conclusion
As the age of technological presence in our lives inevitably solidifies, as should the call to ensure fair and ease of access for all potential users. Fortunately, technological advancements, such as the explosion of AI-generated software, whilst posing considerably controversial questions in many areas, if used and checked diligently, could prove to become an important resource for content creators to avoid unintended discrimination.
"If you have a following, a student body, a community, that's one place that's always worth starting with - engage the community you're trying to facilitate."
‘So where to start?’, we hear you ask again. If you have a following, a student body, a community, that’s one place that’s always worth starting with – engage the community you’re trying to facilitate. Involve them in the process, this could be a chance to include and learn from those who can guide you the best in terms of where the most urgent gaps may be in your current modus operandi.
*Percentage of UK population with diagnosed dyslexia, cited by organisations like the British Dyslexia Association and the NHS.
Want to create more effective and engaging video for your institution?
At h10 agency, we specialise in creating video content for higher education marketing. This ranges from higher end promo videos, through to user-gen and social.
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