YouTube is a popular way to share videos online. Providing captions on videos makes them accessible to a wider audience, including Deaf and hearing impaired users. Captions also help to increase the search ranking of a video so that it is more easily discovered through search engines.
In comments made to the BBC, YouTube said that, while it believed having automatic captioning for video content was better than have no captioning at all, there was still plenty of room for improvement.
In a recent blog post, YouTube Engineering Manager Richard Leider wrote that this was largely due to a maturing of HTML5—a core technology underpinning the web, and as at late 2014, an official Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.
Audio description is an additional audio track that provides a description of the visual elements of a video, TV broadcast or performance. Unlike closed captions, which are becoming widespread across the web, audio described videos are rarely available online.
Funded by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network grants scheme, the resource explains the current state of social media accessibility and guides users through getting started on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype and blogging.
Media Access Australia researcher Dr Scott Hollier conducted an eight-month qualitative study among people with a sensory and mobility impairment. Through this research, social media users with disabilities were able to share their tips and tricks so that others can gain access.
