Newsletter Subscription

*

*

*

* required



Email Marketing by VerticalResponse

Streaming Video

Types of Internet video

You can view Internet video on a computer in a web browser or a software program. There are also a growing number of products which can stream video through an Internet-enabled set top box. You can also access accessible video through a computer. A high speed broadband Internet connection is needed to view most types of Internet video.

You can access internet video through two main ways:

  1. pre-recorded video clips such as those found on YouTube; and
  2. live streaming video channels, provided by software applications such as Livestation.

There are also different format types for Internet video, depending on which software application has been used to produce the video.  Popular Internet video formats include Microsoft Windows Media which is bundled with all versions of Window, Adobe Flash, RealNetworks RealVideo and Apple QuickTime.

Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 all provide support for Windows Media, and Mac OS 10.4 and later includes support for QuickTime. To view the other formats, use the links above to download the relevant software for Windows or Mac OS.

Watching accessible video through a computer

Although a large proportion of video on television, DVD and cinema have access features such as captioning and audio description, these features are rarely provided on the downloadable and streamed versions. There are some exceptions, occurring in the UK and USA, although in general these are not available to people living outside of those countries (due to copyright reasons).  

Accessible video available to Australians

There are an increasing number of sources of accessible video on the Internet include those in the list below:

  • YouTube: many videos on YouTube are captioned and have the added bonus feature of being able to translate the captions into a number of different languages in real-time;
  • iTunes: a small but increasing number of captioned videos are available on iTunes and can be viewed either on a computer with the iTunes software or on recent models of the iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iPhone;
  • Harkle: a search engine dedicated to looking for captioned video material on the web. Just type in the name of the video and it will find it for you;
  • Peep: a WGBH science education resource and has a click-on captioning features;
  • Accessible clip gallery: shows examples of captioning and audio description'
  • American Experience sample from PBS;
  • King Tutankhamen documentary; and
  • Audio described video: provides downloads with audio description. Initiatives such as Narrative Television Network in the USA provide some online audio described resources.

Other accessible Internet video resources include:

  • Peep and the Big Wide World: A cartoon series designed to introduce preschoolers to scientific concepts;
  • 10 O'Clock News: Excerpts with captions from the 10 O'Clock News program, viewed through a QuickTime player;
  • TutankhamonExhibition: This website has a short video of the Tutankhamon exhibition currently touring the world; and
  • Pobol Y Cwm: Clips from the BBC's Welsh-language soap opera can be viewed with English captions.

Australian produced content

Although the main television stations offer a range of downloadable and streaming versions of their programs, none are available with captions or audio description, even where the original program was broadcast with captions (which is in almost all cases). This is despite most television programs being broadcast on television with captioning and some, such as Sea Patrol, Kath and Kim and Thank God You're Here, released on DVD with captioning and audio description.

The different State and Territory governments have access policies and some of these are being updated/or include downloadable media. MAA maintains a list of government policies for accessing audio-visual material.

UK content

In the same way that the UK leads the access world in captioning and audio description access to mainstream media content. It has the most advanced provider in terms of transferring that access to downloadable and streaming versions in the BBC. However, with other channels, there is no access on download content, reflecting the position of other countries, where download access is mixed.

The most developed download/streaming player is the BBC iPlayer. This provides caption access to most of its programs and the goal of the BBC is to provide the same level of access as its broadcast content.  The content is the last 7 days of BBC television and radio programs. It is understood that current caption provision levels are approaching 80% of content. Audio description is supposed to be starting in March 2009. Unfortunately the video content on iPlayer is only available in the UK.

Project Kangaroo was an international version of downloadable BBC, ITV and Channel 5 content that was blocked by the UK Competition Commission. The Commission felt that Kangaroo would have too much control over the pricing charged for content and the advertising rates to be set.

USA content

The major US television stations provide closed captions on their streamed and download video.  These too are restricted to people living within the USA. For example, NBC’s Video Rewind shows captions on full-length episodes of its hit TV shows and the captions appear on the right hand side of the viewing screen, rather than the customary position under the viewing screen.

Access in education

The American Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) also provides free captioned and audio described education video material in downloadable form.  For more information about DCMP, see MAA’s Education Section.

Developers wishing to create accessible video

There are comprehensive resources on how to create accessible video across a variety of formats contained on this website. This information can be found in the Creating Accessible Content.