Captions

With captions, the audio part of your video content turns into text that moves with the flow of the video. Both hearing and visually impaired individuals can benefit from captions in videos.

For hearing-impaired individuals, they can simply read the captions and understand what the person in the video has to say. For a visually impaired individual, their screen reader can read out loud the captions from the video, describing to them what’s happening in the video.

There are two types of captions:

• Closed Captions: With the help of closed captions, a video can be visually read on-screen and video players can detect text files to read the captions out loud.
• Open Captions: These captions are written descriptions of sounds and dialogues present in the video and are best for people with hearing difficulties or for individuals who have turned off their volume.

Transcripts

Including transcriptions in your video is optional, but it is a smart move. Transcripts work similarly to closed captions, providing details about the audio and visual aspects of the video. The key difference is that transcripts are not time-coded, so readers cannot pinpoint the exact moment a word or phrase is spoken during the video.

Audio Descriptions

Another component of a section 508 compliant video is an audio description. It holds all the information of the video content so people who are visually impaired can easily comprehend what is happening in the video.

When it comes to audio description, this often means transcribing a video. However, for videos with more intricate visual details, an audio description narrating those visuals is essential. On the other hand, if your video already has an audio track that thoroughly explains everything happening, then an additional audio description is not necessary.

Accessible Video Players

Section 508 compliance for videos also includes another key component – a video player that supports accessible content. Not all video players are Section 508-compliant. Take YouTube, for example.

While incredibly popular, standard YouTube videos do not automatically meet Section 508 requirements. The auto-generated captions on YouTube do not fully align with WCAG standards. So, if your website relies on embedded YouTube videos, review and edit them for accurate WCAG-compliance.

Color Contrast

Making your videos Section 508 compliant also makes it essential for you to make proper use of color contrast. If the video background and the captions do not hold proper color contrast, people with color blindness or low vision may not be able to access it. For accessible color contrast, maintain a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1. For larger text, that is text size above 18 points or bold text over 14 points, the required contrast ratio drops slightly to at least 3:1.