ADA - Handling Videos

Videos help with communicating to the visitors of your website, extra steps need to be taken to make them available to those that use screen readers for ADA compliance. Please note that customers are responsible for handling closed-captioning and transcriptions of their videos.  

• Do any linked/embedded videos have closed-captioning and transcripts?
  All videos must have closed-captioning and should include any relevant sound effects. Videos should have textual transcripts as well. This will enable people who have a hard time understanding the language more easily follow the subject of the video. SchoolNow includes one (1) hour of video captioning and transcription per year with our ADA Service Plan.
  
  As an aside, captioned videos also assist with SEO, because the text can be found by search engines.
  
  

Additional Information

• Any video without audio should have an accompanying audio description track.

• Captions - text synced with media with relevant sound effects included. 

• Transcripts - not synced with video, good for podcasts. More for people who might have a hard time understanding the language

• Two different types of captions;

  • Open - burned into the video and cannot be turned off

  • Closed - can be turned off by the viewer

• Video captioning should be as accurate as possible. Automatic captioning like what Youtube provides automatically is not yet very good.

• Captioning makes videos accessible for hearing-impaired users. It also helps with comprehension and retention of information