Improving Screencast Accessibility for People With Disabilities: Guidelines and Techniques

Abstract

Abstract:Screencast video tutorials are increasingly popular in libraries, but may present access problems for people with disabilities unless specific accessibility features are added during screencast creation. This article reviews existing standards for accessible webbased multimedia and gives guidelines and tips on how to create accessible screencasts based on these standards.

Reference Services for Distant Students With Disabilities

“…Joanne Oud's (2011) article in a recent issue of Internet Reference Services Quarterly provides readers with excellent information on how to do screencast tutorials in a more accessible and user-friendly way. Oud pointed out that there are two types of accessibility: technical accessibility, or the ability to access the content in more than one way to ensure users have options; and usability, making the screencast easy to use and understand.…”

Beyond the Letter of the Law: Accessibility, Universal Design, and Human-Centered Design in Video Tutorials

“…These instructions provide little context for users, other than the visual indicators. For those who cannot see, the obvious problem of directing their actions based on visual cues is apparent (Oud, 2011). However, even for sighted individuals, the challenge of trying to decipher an action for which they have no previous context can still be a large one.…”

“…However, having captions that the user is unable to turn off can prove to be complicated for individuals with cognitive disabilities. Oud (2011) notes that this adds significantly to the cognitive load, when paired with audio narration. Simply put, open captions create a situation similar to the distraction many people feel trying to really absorb a film while also reading its subtitles.…”

“…Furthermore, instructional design concepts dictate that, for the best retention possible, learning concepts should be divided into manageable pieces, a process known as "chunking" (Booth, 2011). Though one-to two-minute videos may seem extremely short, it is often best to focus on one learning objective per video (Oud, 2011). In this way, a series of videos demonstrating how to complete a series of tasks can be viewed one after the other, but users are free to skip steps if they are already familiar with specific parts of the process, or watch other steps multiple times if they find certain concept more difficult to grasp.…”

“…In the latter situation, not only is this redundant -as this text should already exist to be read in caption form if the user requires -but it will often lead the user to attempt to read and listen at the same time, accomplishing neither, and again, taking up too much cognitive load (Oud, 2011). If text is to be displayed on the screen, it should be the crux of whatever concept is being addressed.…”