Videos are undoubtedly a powerful tool for your business that you can use in myriad ways. You can use videos to communicate internally with your team. You can also use them as advertisements to draw in and grow a customer base. You can use live videos to connect with people all over the world, no matter where they are geographically located. Or, you can use videos as training tools for more engaging and effective team onboarding and training.
All that's to say: you should be using video for your business. And if you're using videos, you will want to make sure they're accessible to all people. To make accessible videos, you should focus on producing media and videos that are able to be consumed by anyone, even those who cannot see, hear or use their hands to control the video playback.
Different methods for this include control via eye movements, head pointers, motion tracking, and more. Making accessible videos doesn't just increase the number of people who'll be able to consume them. As an employer, it also allows you to comply with disability laws and helps demonstrate that your company is a place that values inclusion and cares about all kinds of people.
What follows is:
- A guide to accessible videos.
- What accessible videos are.
- How accessible videos can work for your company the way they're meant to.
- Ways to produce accessible videos in a way that is considerate of every person who might encounter them.
Accessible Videos Comply With ADA Employer Requirements
In the United States, there are laws that protect disabled people in the workplace, particularly the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. An important part of this law is that all resources and opportunities at a place of work must be equally accessible and available to all employees, no matter whether they are disabled or not. This includes training opportunities (which would also encompass training videos).
One way you should make sure you use accessible videos is in your training process. Training videos must be as easily usable for people with any kind of disability as they are for people who have no disability. So, when you make accessible videos, you must create video content that can also be consumed by people who cannot see the videos or who cannot hear the videos. Also, you want to make sure there are multiple ways to control the videos for people who cannot simply play and stop the videos by clicking buttons with their hands. Refer to the ADA's laws regarding resources in the workplace to make sure that you're making your videos as accessible as they need to be.
What Are Accessible Videos? The Main Characteristics
There are some things to keep in mind when editing and creating a video to make sure it is accessible:
- Make sure that it does not include bright flashing lights because that video becomes dangerous for a person who has epilepsy.
- Ensure videos have bright colors with good contrast to help people with color blindness.
- Consider using large, readable text for anyone who has any kind of reading or learning disability, or who has eyesight issues.
- Ensure the dialogue and sound are as audible and crisp as possible for anyone who struggles to hear.
For examples of accessible videos, check out this list of accessible video features created by the Bureau of Internet Accessibility. This will help you make sure your videos have all the characteristics required to be considered accessible.
Accessible Additions to Videos
Accessible videos are for everyone, but sometimes, people need help accessing the videos in the first place. You can enhance video accessibility when you create your video, and sometimes, you may have to create additional material to make sure that the video is fully reachable for all types of users.
There is a process for making accessible videos that are genuinely, completely accessible.
- First, there should be a transcript of that video for people who can't watch a video but want to read the text, or for people who can't hear a video but want to know what people were saying in it.
- Second, you should also create an audio description of the important visual elements of the video. People who cannot see can listen to that description and take in the video visually like the people who were able to watch it with their eyes.
How Viostream Can Help You Make and Use Accessible Videos
Making accessible videos at your company is important. It helps you comply with laws regarding disabilities, draw in a wider audience and demonstrate your commitment to equal access. If you are ready to create accessible videos to use at work, consider using Viostream as part of the process. Viostream is a leading video platform meant for businesses and built with accessibility in mind. This means you can use the tool for a slew of accessible features, including:
- Adding closed captioning,
- Creating transcripts of the audio within your video,
- Creating audio descriptions of the visuals within your video,
- And more.
If you want to check out Viostream to see if you might be able to use it to create accessible videos for your business, consider signing up for our free trial today.
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