Why do I need captions, transcripts, and videos that can be navigated using the keyboard?
The short answer is that these features make videos more accessible. Individuals with disabilities that affect their hearing may require captions and/or transcripts to access the audio content of the video. Individuals with mobility or dexterity impairments may use their keyboards, or assistive technology interfacing with their keyboards, to navigate web content.
As such, captions and transcripts provide a text alternative to audio, while being able to navigate through videos using a keyboard enables compatibility with a wider range of hardware.
Thinking back to Module 1, remember that one accessibility solution can benefit many individuals in different scenarios. Captions and transcripts are a great example of this effect. For example, a transcript provides a text alternative for someone who cannot hear the video, as well as a scannable document for someone looking for a specific quote, or a less strenuous form of content for someone with a weak Internet connection
How can I ensure that users can navigate through videos using their keyboard?
If you need to use another video hosting platform, please ensure that users can play and pause the video, change the volume, skip forward and rewind, and turn on captions and full screen using the keyboard. If this functionality is not available, consider a different video hosting platform or contact the platform to suggest additional functionality.
Hello and welcome to Module 5 of our accessibility training. This video will briefly overview the importance of captions, transcripts, and keyboard navigation for video content.
Let’s take a moment to consider how these features make videos more accessible. Like with many aspects of accessibility-focused design, one design solution can increase access for many users. Consider how each of these features can universally increase usability and access:
Captions provide real-time text alternatives to the audio of a video. This is necessary for users who have difficulty hearing the video, or who experience challenges when processing the information in an auditory format.
Transcripts are far more compatible with a wider range of hardware than most video formats, meaning that they can enable access to video content for a wide variety of assistive technology as well as older technology, and technology that does not have video-playing capabilities. Transcripts are also scannable, as well as provide a text alternative for someone who cannot access the audio-visual content of the video.
Individuals with mobility or dexterity impairments might use their keyboards, or assistive technology interfacing with their keyboards, to navigate web content. Therefore, choosing to host your videos on a platform which allows keyboard navigation enables access for these users.
We will discuss caption and transcript best practices later on in this module and focus, for now, on how to ensure that your videos can be navigated via keyboard. This functionality is primarily determined by the video hosting platform to which you upload your video.
As such, we recommend that you host your videos on YouTube. Besides most users already being familiar with this platform, it also interfaces well with our Carleton templates. Most importantly, though, YouTube recognizes many keyboard inputs that help users navigate videos.
If you need to use another video hosting platform, ensure that it has the following functionality accessible through the keyboard:
Users can play or pause the video with their keyboards
Users can skip forward or backwards using their keyboard
Volume can be adjusted via the keyboard
Users can toggle on captions with the keyboard
And users may enter or exit full screen mode using their keyboard
If this functionality is not available, please consider using a different video hosting platform.
These features, as well as captions and transcripts are necessary elements for creating accessible videos. In the next modules, we’ll go over best practices for creating quality captions and transcripts.