Overview

• Captioning (either closed or open)
• CART (communication access real-time translation)
• Description (audio description or video description)
• Text-based transcript

The key to accessible multimedia is to think about accessibility in the planning stage. What message are you attempting to convey? How is your choice of media the best means to convey this message? Finally, ask:what do we need to do to best make this message fully accessible?

Answering these questions up front help ensure that your multimedia is not only meaningful and useful, but that you've allocated appropriate resources to the activity or project. Failing to do so can significantly increase project time and costs.

Did you know?

Closed captioning provides text to your multimedia that improves your content's searchability.

Captioning

Planning your project

Options for captioning vary widely, and require special software and technical skills. Accuracy and quality are important considerations. Depending on the media's length, complexity, and visibility, you may decide it is best to hire a professional. It's important to remember to include costs for captioning or audio description when planning a budget for your event or project.

Contracting information

• Live captioning/CART: have your buyer search the Office of State Procurement (OSP) site for release number S-884(5). It’s also the code for finding ASL interpreters.
  • Want a separate web stream option? (Instead of inserting the captions into the display.) Ask for a Streamtext link, with the chat option removed.
  • Even if you have captions displayed on screen the traditional way, having a separate link is often a valuable backup if the audio fails.
  • Want a "lightly edited" text file great for cleaning up to create captions for the archive and a transcript)? Ask for a copy of the "CART file" when requesting the service.
• Transcript: have an audio file you need to convert to a transcript? Source from the Court reporting, deposition, and transcription master contract on the OSP site.
• Captioning recorded media: Select from the Accessibility MN Master Contract program.

Other resources

For an overview and resources on captioning, the following links may help you:

• Captioning & CART - what they are and how to decide what you need 
• Captioning Essentials online training (select to leave this website)

Description

Description, often termed "audio description" or "video description" is the practice of providing verbal description of key visual information. In a live event such as a webinar or in-person presentation, often the speaker can provide the description. For recorded media, professional describers create a second sound track that editors then add to the media. Producers can choose to provide the description either through a button on the player (similar to the "cc" option for closed captions) or by offering two media links - one with and one without description. When planning your project, it is important to determine how you will support description, such as whether to hire a description service and how you will make the description available.

The following resources provide an overview and additional resources on description:

• Master contract for sourcing professional describers: expand the section under "Captioning"
• w3.org's Web Accessibility Initiative provides some general information on description strategies and approaches

Text Transcript

There are a variety of situations in which you may want to provide a text transcript.

• To support the audio recording of a public meeting
• To make a podcast or slide presentation accessible
• To supplement a captioned video

If there are visual elements, the text transcript should include a description of those elements.

While you may be tempted to ask someone in your office to transcribe the audio file, that can be impractical. A single hour of audio can run as much as 100 pages of text!

To find a professional, search the MMD contracting site (log in required) for the page "Contract Court Reporting, Deposition and Tape Transcription Services."

• Court reporting transcribers will provide faster turnaround, but their rates may be higher.
• Secretarial transcribers may take longer, but at a lower rate.

If your meeting is supported by live captioning, or CART (communication access real-time translation), you can ask for a transcript as part of the deliverable.

Resources

Contracting information

For information on contracting captioning, description, and transcript services, visit the Meeting Resources page.

Webinars & learning opportunities

Planning & Producing Accessible Videos for Web, Social Media & eLearning: a webinar presented by the MN Office of Accessibility

Other Organizations in Minnesota

• MN STAR Program (System of Technology to Achieve Results)

• MN State Services for the Blind (SSB)

• Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans

Media Accessibility Checklists

Here are some checklists to help ensure that you’re creating accessible multimedia. These checklists are not comprehensive or specific to a particular software or social media provider. They provide reminders of the different components that make up accessible multimedia.

Linking to Video Checklist

1. Complete text of audio is present.
2. Captions match the timing of the video.
3. Captions use complete sentences.
4. Speakers are identified.
5. Autoplay does not occur (work around: announce in text prior to link).
6. Audio description is present or not needed.
7. Meaningful text used on link.

Transcript

1. Complete text of audio.
2. Speakers identified.
3. Sound effects identified.
4. Document is in accessible format (e.g. well-tagged PDF or ordered text file).

Live Events

(Social Media Broadcast, Webcast, Webinars, Town Halls…)

1. All speakers have been trained on describing key visuals throughout their presentation.
2. If able to add live captions:
   1. Captioner has been scheduled.
   2. Player has been tested.
   3. Work with provider on how to insert captions.
   4. If player doesn’t support captions, use third party display
      1. Obtain link (URL) for third party caption display
      2. Include link for captions when distributing event information to attendees.
3. Ensure player is set up to support captions
   1. WebEx: need to manually add “Closed Captions” panel when launching program
4. Assign roles during event to ensure captions are functioning, viewer chat is monitored, etc.
5. Tech rehearsal is scheduled to ensure all systems run correctly.
6. If the captions stop working at some point during the event, pause event until the captioning issue can be resolved. Display a statement to this effect in the chat window and state aloud so all participants are aware that someone is troubleshooting the issue.

Audio Description Checklist

1. Key visual information not included in script has been identified.
   1. If all information is included in the audio/script, then you do not need to add audio description.
   2. If you identify that audio description is needed, reference DescriptionKey.org for expectations.
2. Concise, accurate descriptions added at appropriate times.
3. Unique description voice used.
4. Require high-quality audio.
5. Ensure appropriate file format.
6. Delivery: separate link or access within player?

Player Accessibility Checklist

1. Can use without a mouse? E.g. spacebar pauses or starts video regardless of focus?
2. Good visual focus and color contrast?
3. Captions can be viewed and turned off?
4. Audio description button if needed?
   1. If no button available on player and audio description is needed then provide multiple links to video: with and without audio description

Creating Captions for Recorded Media

1. Edit script or automated captions
2. Synchronize text via video editor
   1. YouTube provides auto-sync
   2. Still need to tweak via built-in editor
3. Test captions:
   1. Complete text of audio is present
   2. Captions match the timing of the video.
   3. Captions use complete sentences.
   4. Speakers are identified.
4. Store caption file with same name in same folder as video
   1. VTT
   2. srt, sbv
   3. TTML
   4. SAMI