The basics
Find out what the “WAD” means for video communicators within the public sector.
Video player
Read more about what the demands say about the video player you use to share your videos.
Subtitles
Find out more about captions and what you need to do for past and future public videos.
Help!
Reach out to to Qbrick for help – to get through this without too much hassle.
What is...
On September 23rd 2018 the Web Accessibility Directive came into force in all EU countries. The law enforces accessibility demands on all websites, extranets, intranets and apps.
Who is affected?
Governmental authorities, regions, municipalities and other entities that are classified as “public sectors”. In other words, entities that falls under the Public Procurement Act are required to live up to these requirements and the same goes for private entities partially or wholly funded by the government.
When did these requirements come into effect?
The following dates are presented in the Web Directive:
- New websites were affected as of September 23rd 2019.
- Existing websites (which were made public before September 23rd 2018), as well as time dependent media (video, etc.) were affected as of September 23rd 2020.
- Public apps were affected as of June 23rd 2021.
As an important component of the web, apps or social media, the Accessibility Directive will obviously affect how you must handle video. From a technical standpoint it mainly concerns the two components “video player” and “subtitling” of video.
Accessibility adapted video player (WCAG compliant)
To meet the Web Accessibility Directive, from a video perspective, the video player used needs to meet the requirements specified in WCAG 2.1 AA.
Since 2017 Qbrick, as the first video platform provider in the Nordic market, has provided video players that comply with the WCAG standard.
Click play on one of our videos on this page to try it out for yourself.
Another concrete example of what the law requires is that video clips on public websites, including videos posted on social media, should be supplemented by a texted alternative. Subtitles are the most common text option. Audio and video are in themselves a way of making information accessible to more people, but the best thing is if video, image, sound and text are combined. When doing so, the information can reach both those who for various reasons find it difficult to absorb written text, and those who are prevented from perceiving sound.
Automatic transcription and translation
As part of our video platform, Qbrick offers an automatic transcription tool for all video material. Through one click you start the transcription process and when the video clip is complete you’re provided with everything that is said in text format, time-coded and synchronized with the video content, which also enables searchability for e.g. specific words.
The text can then be revised/corrected in the tool and when you are satisfied you also can have it automatically translated into more than 100 different languages.
When you are finally satisfied with your subtitle(s), you save it and then the final subtitle is automatically applied to your video which is thus ready to be published. If you have chosen to translate the subtitle into more than one language, you through Qbrick’s video player give the viewer the opportunity to choose the language they want.
… It can be a major disadvantage to overlook available web/video.
It is not only people with disabilities who are helped by the accessibility directives. Texting of video is a good example where e.g. people with Swedish as a second language can benefit greatly from subtitles. Subtitles are also now almost a must when it comes to publishing videos in social media as they are often viewed without sound.
Search engine optimization is another aspect as an accessibility-adapted website is better from an SEO perspective.
Search engine optimization and accessibility often go hand in hand. An accessible designed site is usually better optimized for search engines. Properly labeled headings in the code is a good example as it allows both a visually impaired user as well as Google to understand what the page is about and how it is structured.
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