Making Accessible Media
All media should be treated like a public space that anyone can access, no matter what their disability, education level, or socioeconomic background.
Alternative formats and tools for people with disabilities include but are not limited to:
- large print
- braille
- audio description
- audio transcripts
Remember that accessibility benefits everyone, not just people with disabilities!
Websites
Please visit the Worldwide Web Consortium for the most up-to-date best practices. Although there are website testing programs available, the best way to ensure that your website is accessible is to conduct user testing with real people.
Captioning
Captioning is the most important type of access because almost 5% of the world’s population has what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls “disabling hearing loss.” That is 430 million people worldwide.
Caption all video content, so deaf people or people who need to read the video content can access it. Not all deaf people use sign language, and some hearing people also use captions for a variety of reasons.
Finally, many of the auto-generated “craptions” on YouTube are incorrect, so it is good practice to have an accurate transcript of the video for full access.
For additional reading:
3PlayMedia, Captioning Best Practices for Media and Entertainment
Audio Description
Audio Description (AD) provides narration of the visual elements – action, costumes, settings – of theater, television/film, museum exhibitions, and videos. The technique allows patrons who are blind or have low-vision the opportunity to experience media more completely.
If you produce broadcast television or streaming entertainment videos in the United States, you are required by law to audio describe some of your content. “In October 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) into effect, requiring that modern communications technologies be made accessible to all people regardless of vision and hearing loss,” according to the accessibility company 3PlayMedia.
Alt Text
Alternative text for images on a website allows a person using a screen reader to understand the content of the image. If there is no alt text, the screen reader says, “image” and gives no information.
According to WebAIM (Accessibility In Mind), alt text serves several functions:
- It is read by screen readers in place of images, allowing the content and function of the image to be accessible to those with visual or certain cognitive disabilities.
- It is displayed in place of the image in browsers if the image file does not load or when the user has chosen not to view images.
- It provides a semantic meaning and description that can be read by search engines or be used to later determine the content of the image from page context alone.
Using Plain Language
People with intellectual disabilities or cognitive impairments should have access to all information in the media, and having media content in plain language helps. In addition to clear written content, images and infographics can help everyone better understand the information presented.