The search engines (such as Google) love video content and so do web surfers (viewers who can become clients, customers or simply an audience captivated by your video content). In fact, the only thing that is better than video content is accessible video content. So today we’ll look at making video accessible.
What is Accessible Video Content?
Accessible video is video content that is designed to be enjoyed by all regardless of hearing or seeing difficulties, language spoken and in fact, any barrier that prevents the viewer experiencing the full scope of your videos. Accessible video content is video that includes captioning, subtitles or voiceovers. Recent research has shown that including captions or subtitles actually increases your viewership in terms of finding your videos on the internet and the duration in which your audience engages and watches your videos.
Tips on Making Video Accessible
With this in mind, here are some tips on how to make your videos more accessible.
Making Video Accessible – Video Captioning
Video captioning is the inclusion of both dialogue and sound that is not perceptible visually, but remains vital to having a full understanding of the video plot or content (for example telephone rings’). It is imperative that closed or open captions are large enough to read easily without covering important visual content, and that the text remains on the screen for an optimal time to read easily.
Making Video Accessible -Video Subtitling
Video subtitling is similar to captioning but is designed more for viewers who do not speak the source language of the video. Subtitle translations in the form of closed captions can also be utilized for the deaf and hard of hearing and can be offered in a range of languages as either srt, vtt or ssa files (all for web content we can of course offer other subtitling formats if required).
Making Video Accessible – Audio Description
Audio description uses detailed spoken description to explain visual content that cannot be accessed by viewers who are blind or sight impaired. This offers them the opportunity to enjoy video through visual description, in much the same way that closed captioning allows content to be accessed by the deaf or hard of hearing.
Making Video Accessible – Avoid Flashing Content
Flashing content should be avoided as they can trigger photosensitive seizures. We recommend that you always run your video content through PEAT which stands for Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (free downloadavailable here).
For more information about any of our video accessibility options, transcription services, translation services, video closed captioning services or video subtitling services, why not get in touch today? We are available seven days a week and always happy to help.
