UUA.org Policy on Transcripts and Captions for Video

Goal

To make the Unitarian Universalist Association's (UUA's) website, UUA.org, comply with accessibility standards for hearing-impaired people.

Background

Web accessibility is more than helping hearing and sight impaired folks get our web content. Universal access is at the core of Unitarian Universalist (UU) values and social justice commitments. However, having an accessible web presence has other benefits. People with disabilities number in the millions in the U.S. Folks without “disabilities”, including older people, people with literacy and language barrier issues, people with low bandwidth connections and older technologies, also number in the millions and suffer access barriers with websites that aren’t accessible. An accessible site can increase search rankings and web traffic to our pages.

UUA.org meets most accessibility standards, except for our audio and video files. To make videos posted on UUA.org accessible, they need transcripts (the full text of what’s said, including names of the speakers, posted on the same web page or on a separate page linked from the page where the video appears) and captions (text of what’s said, appearing in the video player itself as the video is played). Audio files posted on UUA.org need transcripts.

However, transcripts and captions require time and money to create. Captions cost about $2.50/minute depending on video quality and number of speakers. We can get captions more cheaply by using YouTube, but they require significant cleanup on our part. Captions take three to five business days to create, proofread, and post on the website.

Policy

Audio and video files should have transcripts, and video files should have captions, if they meet these criteria:

• The material is current (e.g. less than one month old).
• The material is expected to have enduring value (e.g. Ware lectures from General Assembly (GA)).
• The audience is expected to be large (e.g. at least hundreds of likely viewers).
• The words are of primary importance (e.g. a video is not primarily visual or instrumental music).

Furthermore, we strongly recommend transcripts and captions when a video or audio file is part of a process that is integral to the mission of the UUA, and there is no other text-only alternative.

For example, these are cases where transcripts and captions would be desirable:

• material in support of participation in the business of the Association (for example, a video about how delegates can participate in voting at GA)
• material required for credentialing (for example, an audio file that is part of interim minister training)
• material required for full participation in UUA programs (for example, a video that’s part of a Tapestry of Faith curriculum)

Approved by the Leadership Council, April 6, 2011