Educational Video

This week, in addition to processes and methodologies for creating educational videos, I learned more about video accessibility and international law for digital content. As an activity, I produced a 4-minutes video with a Creative Commons license which was published on YouTube. Mayer's 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning were applied to make it an effective learning element.

    Challenge #1: Know the difference between caption, audio description, and descriptive transcript (W3C).

Caption: A text version of the dialogue and non-dialogue audio information to understand the content, for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and others. “Closed Captions (CC)” are hidden or activated by the viewer. "Open-Captions" are burned-in and always visible. Generally, it's shown in one or two lines, and best to keep them under 32 characters per line. Similar, but the different term “subtitles” translate spoken dialogue.

Audio description: An audio that helps users with visual disabilities perceive visual content, often called Descriptive Video Service (DVS). It can be inserted in the primary video with pause, another audio track, or an alternate version of the video which can be expensive and time-consuming. But if the presenter of the primary video explains aloud, no separate audio description track is necessary which requires a comprehensive descriptive script in advance.

Basic transcript: A text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content, used by people who are deaf, are hard of hearing, have difficulty processing auditory information, and others. 

Descriptive transcript: Also include visual information needed to understand the content for people who are both deaf and blind. They are also used by people who process text information better than audio and visual/pictorial information. 

Ideally, provide a descriptive transcript, and then there won't need to prepare a separate basic transcript. The descriptive transcript is easy and inexpensive to make using captions and audio descriptions that you already have to meet Level AA.

    Challenge #2: DIY transcribing audio to text 

There are two main transcription practices: verbatim and clean read. Verbatim practice transcribes the text word-for-word, and includes all speech and utterances that the speaker conveys. Clean read is a text format that excludes speech errors, filler words, and any other non-intentional utterances from the speaker.  With any transcription, there are some best practices to stick to. Making sure that each transcript matches up against the audio, and that different speakers throughout the transcript are identified, will go a long way with your audience. When it comes to transcription, accuracy and clarity are key (Leduc, 2018).

    Challenge #3: PowerPoint Accessibility

I learned that PowerPoint includes a tool that will identify many common accessibility issues. To run the accessibility checker in Windows, select File > Info. Select the Check for Issues button and choose Check Accessibility. 

I checked Alt Tags for major shapes but the shapes of the characters are ungrouped and I couldn't spend enough time regrouping them to add an appropriate explanation to each. 

Color Contrast: I used the text and background colors that passed the color contrast checker from week 3. 

Process

1. Determine which part of the course to develop into a video

2. Outline the concept or process

3. Write scripts

4. Draw a rough storyboard

5. Create slides (incorporate feedback)

6. Record voiceover

7. Edit the voiceover

8. Attach the voiceover file to the slide

9. Trim the voiceover

10. Trim the video

11. Upload the video and edit captions on YouTube

12. Update the storyboard

Challenges

The first version was created in PowerPoint, using the record function. But I found it hard to capture quality voiceover. 

Solution

I incorporated peer feedback to add some animation on the slide and tried to record voiceover separately. For the second version, to reduce noise, I used Adobe Audition and attached the audio file to each slide, which later I found I had to trim the audio to go along with the slide. During export, somehow PowerPoint turned the first slide stretches for 3 minutes, so I had to trim it again in a video editor. 

Which law should my video be compliant with?

Since I'm located in the United States, ensuring the educational/training video covers US compliance levels is important. This article summarizes the US Laws for Video Accessibility: ADA, Section 508, CVAA, and FCC mandates (Klein, 2021).

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): The law demands "auxiliary aids" such as closed captions and audio descriptions that help make "places of public accommodations" accessible, such as on online video. It needs revision to define languages in the context of the internet (Klein, 2021). It must be adhered to by state and local governments, non-profits, and businesses in the US.

• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Applicable to the US federal agencies and departments, including businesses supplying the E&IT products and higher education that receive funding under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998. It had a refresh in 2018 that assigns compliance with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA (Klein, 2021). Level A standards require both captioning and a transcript for all audio content. Note that a transcript alone does not meet the legal requirement. At the end of the day, the goal is to create equal access to content for all people (Leduc, 2018). 

• 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA): The law makes sure that accessibility laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s are brought up to date with 21st-century technologies. It mostly affects TV broadcast media companies and does not cover video content that is aired only online and never on television (FCC, 2011).

• The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules for quality standards for television captioning and user control requirements for caption display for online videos that previously aired on television.

If I'm relocated to a place in the EU, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) establishes accessibility requirements for a number of key products and services to benefit individuals with disabilities and elderly people in the European Union (3mediaweb). 

Also, because I'm from Japan, I wondered what accessibility law exists. 

English version of Basic Act on the Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society

Japanese version  高度情報通信ネットワーク社会形成基本法

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a source for international laws and policies.

In practice

Some tips for making online videos ADA-compliant (Lewis, 2019):

• Videos should have closed captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Captions should be accurate, complete, and time-synced with the speech. Relevant sound effects should be described in the captions, like [applause] or [doorbell rings].

• Include an audio description and transcript for blind users.

• Ensure you’re using a media player with keyboard-operable controls to accommodate people who cannot use a mouse.

In the end

The bottom line is to be in compliance with the ADA. Although it is not explicitly defined, "auxiliary aid" could mean a closed caption or/and audio description, or/and a transcript. For organizations in the US, providing text-based entries that support audio and visual content is also beneficial for both user experience and business cases.

The video has open captions in which the video narration appears as text at the appropriate time and gives access to people regardless of abilities and conditions.

The audio description (AD) follows the main narration to describe visual elements, providing access to people who are blind or visually impaired. In this video, I differentiated with a female voice as the main narrator and a male voice as the AD.