There are many advantages to working with audio description and sign language interpretation for your videos. To meet the accessibility requirements for video according to WCAG level AA, it is necessary to provide both subtitles and audio descriptions for your videos. With Video Manager, you can easily attach several separate text, audio and video tracks to your film to make it more accessible to your viewers. This can be used, for example, to provide audio description or sign language interpretation of a film.
Audio description
In Video Manager, you can add audio descriptions in two ways:
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A subtitle track
The text can be used by a screen reader program on the viewer's computer that reads the descriptive text out loud.
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An audio track
The track describes what is seen in the video (e.g., “a cat sneaks past”). Technically, it can be a separate audio track or a video track.
To add an audio description track, click on Add track and select Audio description. You can then choose whether to create a text track or upload an audio or video file.
Audio description with subtitle track
If you choose to create an audio description using a text track, the viewer can use a speech synthesiser built into their browser to read the text. You create your text in the same way you would add subtitles and then publish your text track.
Once the text is published, the audio description symbol appears in the video player. The viewer can now choose to switch on the audio description.
Under the subtitle settings, the viewer can now choose to use a speech synthesiser to read out the text. The viewer can then choose, among other things, the voice, the speed of the reading and whether the video should be paused when the audio description is read.
Good to know regarding Audio description with subtitle track
For the speech synthesis for audio description to work, the viewer must have support for it in their browser. The choice of voices and languages available depends on the browser used.
Audio description with audio or video tracks
If you want to upload an audio or video file to use as audio description, select Add track and then Audio description. Then click on Select file and upload a file from Mediaflow or from your computer.
When you publish your track, the audio description symbol will be visible to the viewer.
Sign language interpretation
To add a video file for sign language interpretation, select Add track and then Sign language interpretation.
Then select the file you want to upload. The file must be in Mediaflow; you cannot upload a file from your computer.
Then, specify how you want to embed the video file. If you choose Video with embedded sign language interpretation, the video file with the sign language interpretation will become the main file and fill the entire video player. If you choose Standalone sign language interpretation instead, the sign language interpretation will appear in a small box that the viewer can move around. Then, specify the language of the file and click Add.
When you publish your video track, the sign language interpretation symbol will appear in the video player, and the viewer can choose to switch it on.