Two days ago, I had the chance to attend the rehearsal of the webinar Glenda Sims will present on September 16: ADA-Compliant Web Videos 101: How to produce and publish online videos accessible to people with disabilities
Glenda is a true accessibility champion. Her presentation does a great job at providing the reasons why accessible online videos are important and how easy it can be to provide closed captioning.
Lately, I’ve been browsing some of the YouTube channels listed on the YouTube EDU portal, and out of the 40 I’ve reviewed up until now, only 2 or 3 offer videos with closed captioning.
It looks like closed captioning isn’t very high on the priority list of higher ed institutions with a presence on YouTube.
And, then I found this video from Gallaudet University, Graduation Day 2009.
Please just take 2 minutes to watch it to find out how closed captioning can make a big difference in online videos:
So?
Did you understand a thing of what was said?
Probably not unless you’re fluent in sign language.
Now, watch it again but don’t forget to turn on closed captioning (CC) as shown on the screenshot below – on the bottom left right side of the YouTube browser.
Makes a huge difference, doesn’t it?
Well, the difference will be the same when people who are deaf, not very fluent in English or in a very noisy (or too quiet to turn the audio on) environment watch your own videos — with closed captioning that is.
Do YOU provide closed captioning? Why? Why not?