I was recently asked for some examples of well-captioned videos with good descriptive text equivalents. After some digging around, some of the best I could find came from the Canadian Government. For example, see the you and your pension plan videos.
The captions in these examples are well done. Note especially how the transcripts correctly include text accounts of important visual and auditory information delivered in the media file. The Government of Canada websites tend to make use of their own accessible video player, but the same functionality with regard to closed captions can easily be provided for YouTube or Vimeo hosted videos.
These examples are useful to point to as they also meet the requirements of the New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standard. In particular, the relevant requirements are:
- WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
- WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)
However, while WCAG 2.0 SC 1.2.3 allows for either audio description or an alternative for time-based media (descriptive text transcript) to be provided for prerecorded synchronised media, exception 3.3.1 to the Web Accessibility Standard requires that a descriptive text transcript (as opposed to audio description) be provided in all cases for prerecorded synchronised media. The provision of audio description is optional.
