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Video Captions and Screen Readers (self.Blind)
submitted by jaydeflix
Hi,
I'm a sighted person who writes social copy for a major company and is trying to make sure everything we do is accessible.
Recently, we received a request to tweet out a video whose only audio component was music, but it contained actual information in text in the video itself.
My solution was that the video should have a voiceover that would present the text (or a similar text that wouldn't make it sound like it was reading exactly what was on the screen to you, for those who can read the text). Twitter doesn't allow for a second audio track, so an actual descriptive audio track is, as far as I know, not an option.
The solution offered by the video creator was to include an SRT file so that captions could be toggled on for a screen reader to read. Honestly,
I did find one video that had captions that could be toggled on twitter but neither NVDA or Windows Narrator could pick up on the captions in any video or application I tried.
My basic question is if this is expected behavior? Does twitter present videos with captions in such a way that a screen reader won't pick up on them?
The link I was using is this link behind $1 (hyperlinked since I'm sure a twitter url would not be ideal for most screen readers).
Thanks for any feedback.
I'm a sighted person who writes social copy for a major company and is trying to make sure everything we do is accessible.
Recently, we received a request to tweet out a video whose only audio component was music, but it contained actual information in text in the video itself.
My solution was that the video should have a voiceover that would present the text (or a similar text that wouldn't make it sound like it was reading exactly what was on the screen to you, for those who can read the text). Twitter doesn't allow for a second audio track, so an actual descriptive audio track is, as far as I know, not an option.
The solution offered by the video creator was to include an SRT file so that captions could be toggled on for a screen reader to read. Honestly,
I did find one video that had captions that could be toggled on twitter but neither NVDA or Windows Narrator could pick up on the captions in any video or application I tried.
My basic question is if this is expected behavior? Does twitter present videos with captions in such a way that a screen reader won't pick up on them?
The link I was using is this link behind $1 (hyperlinked since I'm sure a twitter url would not be ideal for most screen readers).
Thanks for any feedback.
jaydeflix [OP] 1 points 2y ago
So, out of curiosity, does anyone have an opinion if replying to the original tweet with a tweet that says 'Video Alt-Text' with the text from the video is a good solution?
Again, these are short videos and the text easily fits within the length of a tweet. I don't think it's a good user experience solution, but I'm also not using a screen reader.
Again, these are short videos and the text easily fits within the length of a tweet. I don't think it's a good user experience solution, but I'm also not using a screen reader.
Marconius 1 points 2y ago
hereaving VoiceOver read captions is ridiculously aggravating, especially when a video is playing and you are trying to listen through the video audio and the VoiceOver feedback to find the damned controls to turn it off, which most of the time doesn't work anyways. It is very unexpected to have captions read aloud. You should be providing a description transcript in a simple text or HTML file to go along with the video. That makes it easier to listen to the transcript at our own pace, lets deaf-blind users understand the content of the video and read it at their own pace with braille displays, and is part of WCAG 2.1 level AA.
Amonwilde 1 points 2y ago
They're not talking about transcripts, but about subtitles, like in foreign films and such.
Marconius 1 points 2y ago
I know that. Per WCAG, any pre-recorded video content that only contains music requires a transcript with the visual text written out so screen reader users and braille display users can read it at their own pace. These videos also require an audio description track, or an actual voice over with someone recorded reading out the text on the screen. Having captions/subtitles read out by a screen reader is not compliant, and rather than making captions get read by screen readers, resources would be better used to ensure the caption/transcript files are provided in a manner accessible to screen readers and braille displays along with a recorded audio description or voice over track if possible.
Turning the caption/transcript SRT files into super simple HTML pages and providing that link in the Tweet or near the video would be the best option. A Descriptive transcript would both write out a visual description of the video along with the captions, subtitles, and any text that appears visually in the video if it is not spoken aloud.
Turning the caption/transcript SRT files into super simple HTML pages and providing that link in the Tweet or near the video would be the best option. A Descriptive transcript would both write out a visual description of the video along with the captions, subtitles, and any text that appears visually in the video if it is not spoken aloud.
jaydeflix [OP] 1 points 2y ago
And, technically, it's only a video based on the format. It's a 10 second video with, effectively, the following text:
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I removed four words that were less generic.
The only reason I was going down the captions rathole is because the producer of the video said that that would be the best method to provide an audio description track.
Which, if the platform has a dialog box that says 'Do you have an audio description track?' and lets you link to the file, is probably a good solution.
Resilience is rapidly adapting, automating, and adjusting using real-time analytics and low code solutions. Get the guide.
I removed four words that were less generic.
The only reason I was going down the captions rathole is because the producer of the video said that that would be the best method to provide an audio description track.
Which, if the platform has a dialog box that says 'Do you have an audio description track?' and lets you link to the file, is probably a good solution.
CloudyBeep 1 points 2y ago
Ideally, you would include a link to a text transcript of the video when you tweet about it.
jaydeflix [OP] 2 points 2y ago
The video itself, all 10 seconds of it, is attached to the tweet itself. In the past, we replied to the tweet with a 'Video alt-text: blah blah blah' which, personally, I don't think is ideal. If the only audio on the video is music, then just make it a gif and put alt-text on it. Otherwise, just find someone who has a good speaking voice and write a short script. And I know it's not that simple, I've been involved with voiceover work before, but it's also not that complicated for what amounted to well under 250 characters of words.
Edited to fix a typo because I haven't had enough coffee yet.
Edited to fix a typo because I haven't had enough coffee yet.
Amonwilde 1 points 2y ago
In theory there are applications that will send included subtitles (not in the video but in an included file) to a screen reader. In practice, reading subtitles in this way typically does not work. I've spent many hours trying to get subtitle features to work in applications such as VLC with little success. You can read about what I've tried here:
https://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ipados/reading-subtitles-aloud
https://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ipados/reading-subtitles-aloud
jaydeflix [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Thanks. It felt like I was barking up a weird tree. I managed to get one of the readers to read captions off of Hulu's web player but oddly only when I paused. That threw me.
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