Video Accessibility Essentials

SUBTITLE, NAME, ETC
Wistia + 3Play Media:
Video Accessibility Essentials
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Hello! 👋
I’m Evanna
Growth Marketing Manager,
Wistia
Wistia + 3Play Media: Video Accessibility Essentials

Hello! 👋
I’m Luke
Staff Software Engineer,
Wistia

Hello! 👋
I’m Kelly
Content & Partner Marketing
Specialist, 3Play Media

👍 Share our livestream on LinkedIn
👍 Feel free to ask questions!
👍 We’ll send you the recording

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Making videos accessible together
for over 10 years
Wistia uses 3Play Media internally
Both based in Greater Boston area
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A top partner for 3Play Media
3Play Media captioning is available
natively within Wistia
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Who's this webinar for?
If you’re looking for best
practices for inclusive
brand marketing.
If you’re looking to grow your
audience globally and for
those that need accessibility.
If you’re producing video
content for an online
audience.

What we’re
going to cover
1⃣ Why Accessibility Matters
2⃣ Making Video Accessible
3⃣ Accessibility Next Steps
4⃣ Q&A

Why Accessibility Matters
SECTION ONE

Do you experience content
that has been made accessible
in your everyday?
QUICK POLL

Video accessibility gives people
equal ability to consume your
content in a way that’s inclusive
and approachable to their needs.

Making content accessible is a
brand value statement to your audience
and the DHOH and BLV communities.

Accessible video boosts your SEO
and extends the reach of your content
to the broadest audience possible.

There are legal requirements that
require online videos meet
accessibility standards and guidelines.
Ease of integration

Digital
Accessibility
101
W3C & WCAG 2.1
Americans with Disabilities Act
Rehabilitation Act of 1973

✅ World Wide Web Consortium
✅ WCAG success criteria divided into levels
✅ W3C definition of web accessibility
✅ Measured by “POUR”
WCAG 2.1 at a glance

LEVEL REQUIREMENTS
Level A
Baseline, usually not considered enough to be compliant.
● Alternative to (pre-recorded) audio-only & video-only content
● Captions (pre-recorded content)
● Audio description or media alternative to video (pre-recorded)
Level AA
Referenced in Section 508 + most legal settlements; we should aim for this!
● Captions (live content)
● Audio description on all pre-recorded content
Level AAA
Highest level of accessibility, requires more work but fully compliant.
● Sign language interpretation (pre-recorded)
● Extended audio description (pre-recorded)
● Media, text alternative to video (pre-recorded)
● Alternative to (live) audio-only content

Americans with Disabilities Act
Broad anti-discrimination law for people with disabilities in all
public life – including places of employment, education,
transportation, and public/private business organizations
Titles I + II
● Most pertinent to web accessibility; effectively extends the
existing physical access requirements to the digital world
● Includes the Internet in ADA definition of a “place of public
accommodation”
⭕
⭕

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 508 = requires electronic comms and IT be accessible to
people with disabilities (including emails, websites, and web
documents)
Jan. 2017 Section 508 refreshed to include direct reference to
WCAG 2.0; many U.S. states follow this legislature as standard
⭕
⭕

What do all these laws
mean for marketers?

Making Video Accessible
SECTION TWO

1⃣ Captions
2⃣ Subtitles
3⃣ Transcripts
4⃣ Audio Descriptions
5⃣ Accessible Video Player
Accessibility
Features

Do you use captions, subtitles,
transcripts, or audio description
for your video marketing?
QUICK POLL

3Play Media saw that
88% of businesses are captioning
their video content.
2022 STATE OF CAPTIONING

✅ Reach people who are deaf
or hard of hearing
✅ Make it possible to watch
videos on mute or in loud
environments
Use Captions to…

Approximately 48 million Americans
have some degree of hearing loss.
HEARING LOSS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

About 92% people watch videos
with the sound off.
VERIZON MEDIA STUDY

Captions help make your content
more accessible to a wider audience,
especially on mobile devices where
sound is often turned off.

Closed Captions
🟣 Turn on/off
🟣 Multiple language options
🟣 Requires sidecar file
🟣 Standard in broadcast,
streaming, online videos

Open Captions
🟣 Can’t disable
🟣 Single displayed language
🟣 No sidecar file required
(burned into the video itself)
🟣 Good for social media,
foreign language film

✅ For people who don’t speak
the language in the video
✅ Listening and reading to
learn a new language
Subtitles
Yo soy tu padre.

✅ Read at your own pace or
use screen readers
✅ Searching for specific
information in the text
Transcripts

✅ For people who are blind or
have low vision
✅ Provides visual context
without directly watching
Audio Description

Making videos accessible with
Wistia + 3Play Media is simple.

✅ Obvious player controls
✅ High contrast colors
✅ Playback/volume control
❌ No auto-playback
✅ Keyboard / screen reader control
✅ Accessibility features (CC) & (AD)
Accessible Video Player

How to make
videos accessible
in Wistia

Accessibility was more
of a priority in 2021.
Wista saw a 13.5% increase
in videos that met three or
more criteria for Web
Content Accessibility
Guidelines 2.1 AA.
2022 STATE OF VIDEO REPORT

Using our
Accessibility Checklist

Every video comes with an
accessibility checklist to help
you make your videos more
accessible to everyone.
Wistia Accessibility
Checklist

Wistia is compatible with screen
readers such as VoiceOver (Apple),
TalkBack (Android), and NVDA or
JAWS (Windows).
✅ SCREEN-READER
LEGIBLE
The player is fully functional with the
keyboard alone, and built to handle
various assistive technologies for
both desktop and mobile.
✅ KEYBOARD COMPATIBLE

The player color is accessible by
default, and we offer an accessible
color chooser via the Customize
menu. Learn more about minimum
WCAG contrast minimums/
requirements here.
✅ HIGH-CONTRAST PLAYER COLOR
A description of the thumbnail can be
added via the Customize panel.
✅ THUMBNAIL ALT-TEXT
Player controls such as the play
button, volume, settings, and captions
are persistent in the play bar.
✅ VISIBLE PLAYER CONTROLS

We integrate with 3Play Media so you
can order captions and transcripts
from 3Play Media directly within
Wistia for your entire video library.
✅ CAPTIONS & TRANSCRIPTS
Audio Descriptions are alternate
audio tracks used for narrating
important video content that blind or
low-vision viewers would otherwise
be unable to access. These can be
ordered from 3Play Media outside of
Wistia.
✅ AUDIO DESCRIPTIONS

Accessibility Features
SERVICE DESCRIPTION
Captions Display text of dialogue and other auditory information.
Subtitles Display translated text of spoken dialogue to viewer’s specified language.
Transcripts Text document of all spoken dialogue, often with speaker labels and timecodes.
Audio Description Visual content is verbally described by a narrator often in non-speaking parts.
Accessible Video Player Accessible in color, playback controls, and offers listed accessibility features.

QUICK POLL
Want to dive deeper? Let us
know if you want an individual
demo walk through.

Accessibility Next Steps
SECTION THREE

Accessibility in Production
Use captions and transcripts to
improve your production process
and distribution strategy.

Using transcripts
in post-production
is a highly effective
way to edit your
videos, faster.

As you distribute video
across your marketing
channels, make sure that
every video is accessible
in every platform.

STEP USE CASES
Pre-Production
Live captioning kickoff calls, planning sessions, brainstorming, budget discussions
and referencing the transcripts for action items and accountability.
Production
Transcribed production notes, live captioning remote interviews. Design and shot
framing considerations for captions.
Post-Production
Editing non-fiction or unscripted content like interviews, events, and discussions
with transcripts to quickly find the best takes and cut out the “ums” and “uhs”.
Distribution
Providing closed captions, non-English subtitles, video transcripts, and audio
descriptions for your online videos.

Accessible video helps your
viewers AND your team.

Create a culture of accessibility
in your workplace.

🔴 Set accessibility standards for your viewers
AND your employees.
🔴 Require high-quality closed captions and
other accessibility options for all of your videos.
🔴 Implement best practices across your
organization for distributing accessible video
content internally and externally.
Set the Standard

Get captioning for all asynchronous
video and live captioning for your
synchronous events.

🟡 Make your video content accessible!
🟡 Get captions for all your videos.
🟡 Get an accessible video player.
🟡 Make ALL internal and external
videos
accessible.
Action Items Captions +
Player!

Q&A
Ask us anything!

Video Accessibility Essentials

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