Help understanding best practices for Audio/Video

jorchin-3930

Hello,

I am hoping someone can help me understand the best practices when dealing with a 508 compliant course that has a lot of VO narration and/or video.

1: Does anything need to be added to the controller for the media to let a disabled user understand what it is and how to use it? Will the screen reader tell them that there is audio/video and will the screen reader have an action to play the media or do I need to add a specific keystroke action?

2: In general, how do you avoid audio narration overlapping with the screen reader reading the content on screen?

3: I have a client who is interested in autoplaying the narration on individual pages and restricting the next button until the audio finishes. How do I make this 508 compliant? I understand that auto play is listed as NOT 508 compliant, but are there any workarounds?

4: Is there a best practice for adding transcripts? Should it be a link to download? A link to a pop out window?

Thanks so much in advance

comalley5856

Hi Jonathon,

I see that you've filled out the registration form to join the LAUG and participate in our monthly meetings. This is the correct first step. I'm going to respond to you via email.

Christine

carlfink

Hi, Jonathon. For ADA compliance, I tend to have either voice over or a subtitle panel, and let the user select their preference at the beginning. If the voice over just duplicates text that's already on your screen ... that's actually a bad idea and you should just not do that, in my opinion.

jorchin-3930

@CarlFink Thats an interesting option that I had not thought about. By subtitles do you mean the closed captioning with muted audio or are they custom subtitles? The voice over narration almost always expands upon text that is on screen. I am in agreement with you that its not a good idea to just repeat exactly what is on screen.

carlfink

@jorchin.3990, I wrote unclearly. I have a text alternative to the voice-over, which is just copied from the script that displays in a little panel, generally at the bottom of the screen. The user can select voice only, text only, or both from a menu in most of my courses. (Sometimes the customer wants something different.)