Accessible Videos

Videos in Canvas Should Be Accessible

When you provide audio or visual content in your courses, make sure it's accessible. But... there are some parameters to be aware of.

  • For spoken-word audio, this means providing a text transcript that exactly matches the posted audio content.
  • For video, this means providing accurate captioning.
  • Is your video "disposable," meaning one-time use only? (example: a recorded lecture from this term, explaining course directions just for this term, providing customized feedback for students this term, etc.) These videos actually don't require captioning since they won't be used again.

Accurate Captions Defined

What is accurate captioning? At a minimum, accurate captioning includes:

  • capitalization
  • punctuation
  • 2 lines of captioning per screen maximum
  • identical written and spoken information
  • time-synced written and spoken information

The Described and Captioned Media Program sponsored by the National Association of the Deaf and the U.S. Department of Education has provided a Captioning Tip Sheet Links to an external site. with an in-depth look at captioning suggestions.

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