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Media Accessibility Information, Guidelines and Research

DCMP Implements New Player-Based Captions and Description

Screen shot of DCMP video player page.

To ensure that all media in DCMP's video library is always accessible, captions have been "burned in" or "open," meaning the captions are physically part of the video. Likewise, audio description has been added to each video's main soundtrack. Beginning in April, 2020, captions and description began transitioning to "player-based," meaning that these accessibility features are comprised of separate tracks that can be toggled on and off by the viewer. To continue DCMP's commitment to ensuring each viewing of every video is accessible, at least one accessibility feature will always remain on. All new content will have player-based accessibility upon release, and existing content will gradually switch to player-based as we quality check each one to ensure proper functionality.

Player Based Controls

Close up of player controls. Icons are: 1X for playback rate; CC for captions; headphones for Audio Track; gear for Settings; rectangle within a rectangle for Picture in Picture; sqaure with broken line for Full Screen.

Player-based control icons will display in the lower-right corner of the player window and can be used to customize the following accessibility features:

  • Playback Rate
  • Captions
  • Audio Track (for second languages and for audio description)

Audio Track

Two close ups of player controls. One, Captions selected with pop up menu showing choices of Captions Settings, Captions off, es for spanish, en for English. Two, Audio Track selected with pop up menu showing choices of en (English) descriptive, en (English) main, es (Spanish) descriptive, es (Spanish) main.

Captions and audio language are now independent. Users can use combinations of caption languages and audio to best suit their students. For example, if a video is available in both English and Spanish, a viewer could set the audio to Spanish with English captioning.

Caption Settings

  • Select the "Captions" Icon
  • es = Spanish
  • en = English

Description Settings

  • Select the "Audio Track" icon
  • en (descriptive) = English description on
  • en (main) = English description off
  • es (descriptive) = Spanish description on
  • es (main) = Spanish description off

Captions

Full player window shows a video playing about planets. Mouse pointer is on captions setting. Menu choices are Caption settings, Captions off, and en (English).

Player-based accessibility offers customization for captions. Personal preferences can be set for caption size, color, font, and background. Click the "Captions" icon and choose "Caption Settings" to make changes to the captions. Here are some ways this feature can be useful:

  • Increase caption size for students with low vision.
  • Change font and background color for high contrast preferences.
  • Add outlines or shadows to a font for improved readability.
  • Change captions to a more aesthetic or readable font.

Here's an example where each option was customized.

Caption Settings pop up shows options for Text, Background, Window, Font Size, Text Edge Style, and Font Family. Example shows yellow captions in all caps italic font over a blue background.

Playback Rate

Full player window shows mouse pointer on 1X which is the icon for playback rate. Pop up menu shows choices: .5X, .75X, 1X, 1.25X, 1.5X, 1.75X and 2X

Video speed can be adjusted by clicking the Playback Rate icon. Captions, description, and interactive transcripts automatically adjust accordingly. The pitch of the audio remains the same, regardless of the speed. Here are some ways this feature can be useful:

  • Increase speed to more quickly preview and evaluate videos.
  • Decrease speed for students who require more time to read captions or process audio.
  • Increase speed for older blind students who are used to hearing rapid speech from a screen reader.

Legacy Controls

You can still choose your accessibility settings by clicking the "Browsing Preferences" button on your dashboard, the "Language/Accessibility" button under the video player, or by changing the "Now Playing As" option below the video player.

Screen capture of pop window. Text: lanuage / accessibility settings. Choices for audio and captions.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@dcmp.org



Tags: help

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