Hi.
If you’re reading this post you’re most likely a person falling into one of the two following categories:
#1 – Your work is related to a public organization or company and you know that it’s now only XX days before the web accessibility directive will become a mandatory regulation to live up to (September 23rd 2020) AND you’re starting to feel a touch of panic as you know that there is still so much to be done with your websites, apps and videos.
#2 – You work in the private sector and you’re interested in understanding 1) What is the Web Accessibility Directive?, 2) Does it affect your company?, or 3) Any reasons as to why you should look into this topic?
First of all, DON’T panic. We will help you. Let’s start by sorting out what Web Accessibility is.
What is Web Accessibility?
On a higher level it’s all about equal access to digital information. It means that websites, digital tools, and technologies should be designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. In practice it also means that people without disabilities will benefit from information being made more accessible. This could for example be anybody using a mobile phone, smart watches, or other devices with small screens or elderly people with changing abilities etc.
The new Web Accessibility legislation that has been enforced is actually already in practical effect as of September 23rd 2019. It requires new websites (launched after September 23rd 2018) to follow the Web Accessibility directive. The next BIG milestone is happening on September 23rd this year – as it’s then mandatory for all public websites to comply to the web accessibility directive.
So what does this mean from a video perspective?
Requirements for videos
As an absolute integral part of most websites, digital tools or apps, video is perhaps the most important communications and/or information channel used today. Because of this, video also needs to follow the requirements stipulated in the Web Accessibility directive.
In practice, this means that all video content published by any public organization must be subtitled and viewable via an accessibility compliant video player.
#1 Subtitled video
#2 The video player
Both topics are equally important and both topics will most likely also result in that you have to start working in a slightly new way. In addition to these more technical topics you also need to start the whole video production process from an accessibility standpoint. This includes things like ensuring that you have the right prerequisites such as using a microphone to ensure the best audio quality, adequate lighting, background scenery etc.
In the coming weeks we will dive more into each of these two topics and give you more insights and hands on tips about what you need to think about and what functionality your video solution needs to cater for.
If you can’t wait for this, which we don’t recommend you to do, we here at Qbrick are experts on how to handle this from a video perspective and we can help you out.
Let us know where to find you and let’s get in touch.