2. What we’re talking about today
• Accessibility and:
• Recorded presentations and educational videos..
• Live presentations.
• How to:
• Create captions, subtitles and transcripts.
• Adding descriptions
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3. Why?
• Compliance
• WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance, which requires that captions be
provided for all prerecorded and live audio content in synchronized
media.
• Searchability
• Captions are scanned and indexed by search engines.
• User Engagement
• Captions benefit everyone and increase comprehension of, and
engagement with, content.
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4. Humanizing accessibility and inclusion
• Our goal is to create inclusive and accessible content for all users.
• Users is a crude term that fails to capture the diversity of our
audiences and participants.
• User personas can help use develop our awareness of the diversity
of abilities present in our ‘audience’.
• https://uxmag.com/articles/book-excerpt-a-web-for-everyone
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6. Elements of quality captioning
• Accurate
• Errorless captions are the goal for each production.
• Consistent
• Uniformity in style and presentation of all captioning features is crucial for viewer understanding.
• Clear
• A complete textual representation of the audio, including speaker identification and non-speech
information, provides clarity.
• Readable
• Captions are displayed with enough time to be read completely, are in synchronization with the
audio, and are not obscured by (nor do they obscure) the visual content.
• Equal
• Equal access requires that the meaning and intention of the material is completely preserved.
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7. Auto captions
• Generating captions automatically.
• YouTube.
• Cornell VOD.
• Other service.
• Automatic Captions are Not Sufficient
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8. Paul Treadwell / April 30, 2020 8
Auto caption file (.srt) sample
• Common caption file formats
• srt
• Cornell VOD
• sbv
• Youtube
• WebVTT
• Emerging standard
What does a caption file look like?
10. Download captions and edit
• Caption files can be
downloaded and edited locally.
• Downloaded caption files can
also be converted to transcripts.
• Notepad ++
• Free source code editor
• Opens & edits caption files
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11. Transcripts
• Basic transcript files.
• A text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed
to understand the content.
• Descriptive transcripts
• Include visual information needed to understand the content.
• If you provide a descriptive transcript, you do not need a separate
basic transcript.
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12. Captions to transcript
• Caption files can be converted to plain text.
• This removes timecodes, etc.
• As always, some editing will be needed to correct any errors.
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13. Zoom audio transcripts
• Zoom creates audio transcripts for cloud recordings.
• Technically I would considerate a captions file.
• Can be downloaded and edited as needed to create a transcript.
• Tie coded and with speaker names.
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14. Making useful transcripts
• Put the information in logical paragraphs, lists, and sections.
• Add navigation and clarifications.
• Add headings and links where it will make the transcript more usable.
• Indicate the speakers based on the type of content.
• When there are multiple speakers, you could use hanging indents to
make it easy to skim for a particular speaker.
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15. Adding descriptive text
• Describe the visual elements that are important to understand what
the video is communicating.
• Describe objectively, without interpretation, censorship, or comment.
• Write description in present tense, active voice, and third-person
narrative style.
• Examples from DCMP ‘How to describe’ web page.
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16. Live presentation – fundamentals for
accessibility and inclusion
• Design your presentation for the broadest possible audience.
• Consider the wide variety of abilities and characteristics your
participants hold.
• Learning styles.
• Communications skills.
• Sensory and/or physical abilities.
• Are just some examples of the variability you may have present in your
participants.
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17. PowerPoint accessibility
• If you are using a PowerPoint to present content, it should be
accessible.
• Use the built in accessibility checker to identify, and correct, issues.
• Especially if you are going to post or share the presentation after the
meeting or webinar.
• In meeting it has little impact but getting into the habit of creating
accessibility for all of your presentations is a best practice.
• An accessible slide presentation is one where all the content (both
images and text) has a text alternative, and the content is read in a
logical order either via keyboard navigation or using a screen reader.
CCE Accessibility Team/ April 15, 2020 17
18. Presentation and Delivery
• Use large, bold fonts and simply designed visuals on uncluttered pages
with plain backgrounds.
• Speak the essential content of visual materials, but avoid reading text
word-for-word unless it is a quotation.
• Use color combinations that are high contrast and can be distinguished
by those who are colorblind.
• Spell acronyms and avoid or define terms, jargon, and idioms.
• Provide cognitive supports by summarizing major points, giving
background and contextual information, displaying key terms and
concepts visually.
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19. Zoom accessibility.
• Zoom has accessibility features baked in.
• Automated transcripts (after the meeting).
• Keyboard accessibility.
• Screen reader support.
• Ability to add live closed captioning (with a 3rd party service).
• These features work in combination with your presentation but do not
automagically make your slides accessible, etc.
• Deepen accessibility by sharing a link if presenting a web page or an
accessible version of the file you are sharing.
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20. Improve the accessibility of your Zoom
meetings.
• There are some simple steps you can take to increase the
accessibility of your Zoom meeting:
• Pre-meeting
• Enable “Always Show Meeting Controls”.
• Communicate Zoom keyboard shortcuts in advance.
• Enable nonverbal feedback.
• Full set of recommendations on the CCE staff site
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21. Adding captions with Microsoft
Translator
• The Microsoft PowerPoint Translator plugin can caption ‘live’.
• Free from Microsoft
• Uses AI to understand content and create captions
• Not 100% but pretty good.
• Microsoft Translator Site Link.
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22. Resources
• Statistics
• 3PlayMedia Accessibility and Online Video Stats
• Personas, humanizing accessibility
• A Web for Everyone personas book excerpt https://uxmag.com/articles/book-excerpt-a-web-
for-everyone
• 3playmedia Faces behind the screen
• Captions and transcripts
• Described and captioned media program (DCMP) Captioning Key
• DCMP Description Key
• Description Key - How to Describe
• Web Accessibility Initiative Transcripts page
• Microsoft Translator web page
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23. Resources page 2
• Presentations
• Smashing magazine Inclusive design for accessible presentations -
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/11/inclusive-design-
accessible-presentations
• The Center for Universal Design in Education – Tips for delivering an
accessible presentation
• American Anthropological Association Presentation Guidelines for
Success and Accessibility
• Zoom accessibility
• Improve the accessibility of your Zoom meetings
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24. Please take our survey
• CCE Accessibility Meeting Survey
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25. 25Paul Treadwell / April 30, 2020
• E-mail the CCE Accessibility Team
• Visit the CCE Accessibility Site
• CCE Accessibility Team
• Katie Baildon
• Catina Hyman
• Emily Monroe
• Heather Russell
• Paul Treadwell
Contact
Editor's Notes
Captions are text that has been time-synchronized with the audio track and appear on-screen while the video plays. They originated in the 1980s as an FCC mandate for broadcast television in the US. Captions display dialogue and describe relevant nonspeech elements like sound effects and speaker identification that are necessary to the viewer’s understanding of the video – especially if the viewer cannot hear the audio.
Captions assume the viewer can't hear and display words in the same language that is spoken in the video.
Subtitles assume the viewer can't understand the language and display a translation of the spoken words and exclude non-speech sounds.
Transcripts are merely the text version of the audio and are not time-synchronized with the video but are the first step to creating captions
https://www.3playmedia.com/
It is important that the captions are (1) synchronized and appear at approximately the same time as the audio is delivered, (2) equivalent and equal in content to that of the audio, including speaker identification and sound effects; and (3) accessible and readily available to those who need or want them.
Can be used as a starting point.
Automatically-generated captions do not meet user needs or accessibility requirements, unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate. Usually they need significant editing.
To avoid situations like these, it is important for a presenter to remember that members in the audience may have a wide variety of characteristics with respect to gender, ethnicity, race, marital status, age, communication skills, learning styles and abilities, interests, physical abilities, sensory abilities, socioeconomic status, and religious beliefs. Since the speaker is not likely to know specific characteristics of participants, it makes sense to be proactive and design a presentation that will be accessible to anyone-or, at least almost everyone-without the need for accommodations.
https://www.washington.edu/doit/tips-delivering-accessible-presentation