UMass Boston

Multimedia Accessibility

Images, audio, and video are a good way to engage learners and diversify your course content. For all students to benefit equally from this content, you must take steps to ensure the accessibility of multimedia.

Accessible Video

Including closed captions (CC) helps ensure videos are accessible for all viewers. Students, staff or faculty who are deaf or hard of hearing may need videos to be captioned. There are many others who benefit from captioning. International (ESL) students, students new to the material and vocabulary, someone in a loud environment where the audio can’t be heard, or simply students who learn better by reading while watching videos, all benefit from the captioning that the deaf community needs. 

The best and easiest practice is to use video content from sources that offer auto-captioned videos. At UMass Boston, those sources could be YouTube, Echo360, Canvas Studio, VoiceThread, or Zoom. Although the video is auto captioned in these products, auto captioning is only 85% accurate and must be edited. Below are instructions for editing auto captions in UMass-supported video software.

You can edit captions for a Zoom recording by either uploading it to any of the above platforms and following the linked instructions, or by following these steps:

  • Enable Automatic Transcription: Before or during the meeting, ensure that automatic transcription (also known as live transcription or auto-captions) is enabled in your meeting settings. 
  • Access Zoom Web Portal: Sign in to the Zoom web portal. 
  • Locate Recording: Go to “Recordings” and select the specific recording you want to edit. 
  • Play Recording: Play the recording, and the auto-generated transcript will appear on the right side. 
  • Edit Captions: Hover over a caption you want to edit, and a pencil icon will appear. Click the pencil icon and make the necessary changes. 
  • Save Changes: Click the checkmark to save the updated caption.

Learn more about Zoom accessibility from Classroom Technology and AV Services.

Accessible Audio

When providing audio-only instruction, be concise and specific in your narration and be sure to make available a transcript, or a text version of the information provided. This could be as simple as providing the lecture notes that accompany a recorded lecture or utilizing transcript software. Not only do transcripts help our hearing-impaired students, they allow self-pacing, clarity and spelling accuracy for all students.

Accessible Images

Images can serve multiple purposes in instruction, but it’s important to understand that they are inherently inaccessible to learners who are visually impaired. Depending on what type of information is represented, different steps can be taken to ensure accessibility.

Alternative Text (Alt Text)

For simple images, the best practice is to describe them with alternative text (alt text) and captions. Alt text is easily available in most authoring tools (Canvas, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, etc.). For full instructions on how to add alt text, go to the NCDAE Cheat Sheets, find the program you are using and scroll down to “Alternative Text for Images.”

Basic Guidelines for Alt Text

  • Be accurate and equitable. The alt text should present the same content and serve the same function as the image itself.
  • Be succinct. Usually, no more than a few words are necessary. Sometimes a short sentence may be needed, but if a lengthy explanation is required, the image chosen might not be the best option for presenting your material.
  • For decorative images: If an image does not convey any significant information, there is no need to describe it. Simply label it as “decorative.”
  • Avoid irrelevant phrases. Generally a screen reader will already identify images as such, so there’s no need to begin alt text with “image of…” or “depicted here is a picture of…”

Long Descriptions

For images that convey complex information, it’s important to include a detailed long description either as a caption, or within the content of the lesson itself. Charts and graphs, while visually helpful, are weak methods of conveying information on their own. Screen readers cannot always translate the information presented. More generally, by providing descriptive elements to graphs and charts, all students will gain clarity and understanding. When writing a description for a complex image, consider what information is presented in the image that you want the student to learn and carefully explain the content. Often the easiest way is to use sources which offer already-captioned complex images.

Using YuJa Panorama for Image Accessibility

UMass Boston’s accessibility tool, YuJa Panorama, uses AI to automatically generate alt text for images in Canvas content and documents. YuJa Panorama will also identify these issues in a file’s accessibility report, and you can use the tool to fix any image accessibility issues, such as adding accurate alt text to the image.