Captioning YouTube Videos and Providing Accessible Playback Controls
Our article on captioning YouTube and making the embedded player more accessible has been updated to include captioning using YouTube's automatic caption timing facility. We have also refreshed our YouTube Player Controls, moving the buttons South of the video and adding a button to allow video to loop.
The article also introduces a simple web application we wrote that will convert YouTube captions into formats usable in other online video players.
The article first discusses means for getting a transcript, editing it for proper display in a caption track, synchronizing the video with the transcript, and putting the track into YouTube.
Second, the article talks about problems with the typical means of embedding YouTube and provides a simple solution. We have written a small JavaScript library to dynamically create accessible controls for the YouTube Embedded Video Player. The YouTube Player Controls library makes it easy to embed YouTube video without a bunch of ugly copy and paste. And it allows you to create video playlists of any length.
YouTube is a workable option for educational video. Our article and tools give you a way to effectively include YouTube in your web pages without compromising accessibility.
Creating Accessible PDF from Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a popular print layout tool. Its integration with Adobe Acrobat makes it a go-to choice for creating sophsticated layouts for PDF documents. Adobe Acrobat is quite capable of producing documents with strong accessibility. However, there are “quirks” that designers should know about when exporting accessible PDF from InDesign and Acrobat.
We have written an informational document and tutorial that covers the basics of creating accessible PDF from Adobe InDesign and Acrobat Professional. The downloadable file contains our documentation (in accessible PDF, of course!), along with a a number of InDesign and Acrobat documents demonstrating stages in authoring accessible PDF.Download: Accessible PDF Using InDesign and Acrobat (zip file).
Captioning Flash Web Video and Video for iPod
Below are the slides for our presentation at the Digital Media in a Social World Conference, February 20. We discussed captioning and providing audio description for Flash web video, using our JW Player Controls (discussed below). And we also went through a process for converting MP4 video and DFXP Timed-Text into a format that plays back in iPod, Touch, or iPhone with subtitles/closed-captions.
We will be distilling the information into a short tutorial using MAGpie. For now, here are the scripts for creating subtitled/close-captioned video for iPod and an example subtitled/close-captioned example M4V file. Also find an accessible PDF of the Flash/iPod captioning presentation.
Accessible Flash Web Video: JW Player Controls
Our JW Player Controls is a high-accessibility set of controls that “wrap” the popular JW FLV Player Flash web video player. It enhances the functionality of the player by providing a high-contrast area for displaying captions and a set of keyboard and screen reader accessible buttons that work across most platforms and browsers.
We chose the JW FLV Player, the most popular open source Flash video player, for a number of reasons.
- The player has the ability to display captions and play audio descriptions. This is unique among open source players.
- The player uses Adobe Flash for video content. Flash is the most pervasive software platform on the web. Adobe claims that 99% of all Internet-enabled desktops in the major markets have Flash. So, it is highly likely end users will not have to install any software to use the player.
- The player is able to be controlled by external scripts that can be called from anywhere in a web page. This made it possible for us to create easily accessible controls. This was crucial, since Flash applications can present difficulties to keyboard and screen reader usage.
- Licensing of the player allows for redistribution for non-commercial purposes, enabling developers to deploy the player within universities, non-profits, and government organizations.
We believe JW Player Controls provides an accessible solution for web publication of video content, for units within the university and beyond. Web developers will have little problem deploying it for most or all of their Flash-based video, and it provides an easy path for including captions and audio descriptions—at any time: Captions and audio description are not a requirement for using the player. It simply offers a relatively low-effort means for including them and making them fully accessible.
Survey of Survey Tools
In May, the WAC held a workshop at the Digital Union that covered the accessibility of survey tools commonly used on campus. We have given this workshop a number of times since and have been adding to the information (latest update in November 2008). We hope you will find our survey of survey tools useful in choosing an accessible system for implementing surveys within your own department.
WAC Web Site Analysis.
The OSU Web Accessibility Center (WAC) analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. The WAC offers this as a free service to OSU faculty and staff in order to further its mission to expand opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative uses of computer technology. The WAC's goal is to ensure that all distance education and online courses and materials at OSU are fully accessible to persons with disabilities.
To have your web site analyzed, please complete the online form: Request a WAC Site Review. The WAC will perform a complete web site analysis and report accessibility and/or browser compatibility errors found.
The WAC bases its analysis of accessibility on the OSU Minimum Web Accessibility Standards, Section 508, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative's (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0).
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