Videos & Images
Videos
When you use videos (your own or others) as part of your content you do need to consider the following as part of making the content accessible:
- You have looked at content and made sure it is relevant to students.
- An alternate format to the video is available either as transcripts or closed-captions.
Transcripts are meant to be stand-alone documents that provided a written description of what is happening. Closed-captions appear on the bottom of the screen. Today with the advent of computer programs that convert speech to text the two often end up the same with a video program just playing the automatically generated transcript as the closed caption. We should note that automatically generated material can range in quality from very poor to excellent. It is up to you are person selecting content to check over any transcripts to make sure they make sense. Transcripts are an item that can be used by many people to get a greater understanding of the material. If automatically generated transcript does not do a good job, the next step would be to grab the text and make adjustments and then provide that to your students.
Images
Images could be photos or hand drawn graphics they could also be flow-charts, graphs. Screen readers can pick out these elements independantly within your content. Like hyperlinks there is a visual component and a hidden component. The visual component is the image while the hidden component is the “alternate text” field. It is the alternate text field which both a screen reader picks up and that a visual reader sees if your image does not load. You should consider the following when placing images within your content.
Is the image there to add visual interest to your content or is it necessary to convey information about the topic?
This is an important distinction for someone who needs to navigate your content via a screen reader.
Visual Interest
These type of images are often called decorative images. They add nothing to your message. The best practice is to limit the use of these types of images within your content and if you are going add then your alternative text should indicate “decorative” so that someone using a screen reader knows they can safely skip.
Conveying Information
This type of image is adding to your explanation of content and can come in all different forms. As you add this type of content to your material you should consider the following:
- Have you numbered the image so it can be easily referred to and does it have a title which clearly states what image is about?
- Does the basic alternate text give a sense of what the content is about?
Alternate text fields often to have length limits so you may not be able to get a full description of the content into that field.
- Have you provided guidance in the surrounding text on what the student should be looking at in the image? eg. trends in the graph, description of pathways etc. The image should not stand alone, it should be supported within the text and perhaps with a caption.
- Are there clear labels within image?
- Can the information be provided in additional format?
A good example would be a graph which could have data provided in either table format or list format within the document (not within image!)
Note: the above practices can be helpful whether your student is using a screen reader or not, don’t presume just the presence of an image is helpful to a student, guide them through it.