Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) help your business adhere to digital accessibility standards and regulations. The Blue Billywig Video Player is WCAG compliant. Read more about WCAG and the Blue Billywig Online Video Platform here.

Create video content that complies with the WCAG guidelines by adding the following features:

1.0 Audio description

The standard set-up of the platform allows simply adding separate audio files containing different languages (German, Dutch, English, Chinese, etc). In order to add an audio description as a way of providing audiovisual assistance: please contact our support team. After the set-up, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to media clips
2. Open the relevant media clip
3. Browse to the tab “Languages”
4. Upload your audio description as an audio track.
5. When uploading is complete, select the audio description in the dropdown menu and click “Save”

Viewers will be able to select the audio description in the control bar.

2.0 Subtitles or closed captions

Subtitles and closed captions both accompany video as text. Technically, subtitles provide the viewer with the audio in text (often other languages), whereas closed captions are intended for users who cannot hear the audio at all. As such closed captions also include descriptions of all the sounds in the video, such as a loud bang or when someone speaks in a whisper.
Subtitles and closed captions can both be added in the same way. As with audio: the platform already allows adding subtitles with a textual translation of the audio in different languages. In case of audiovisual assistance: please contact our support team to set up the option to add closed captions, then follow these steps:

1. Navigate to media clips
2. Open the relevant media clip
3. Browse to the tab “Languages”
4. Upload your subtitles as an .srt file
5. When uploading is complete, select the accompanying language and click “Save”

Viewers will be able to select the subtitles or closed captions in the control bar.

3.0 Text alternative

The WCAG requires non-text content on your website to be accessible to screen readers (e.g. Microsoft Narrator, VoiceOver or ChromeVox). Text alternatives are read out loud by screen readers to assist people with visual impairments. Follow these steps to select the source of the text alternative for your media clips or projects.

1. Navigate to Playouts
2. Open the relevant playout
3. Browse to the tab “Behaviour”
4. Scroll down to “WCAG text alternative source” under “Miscellaneous”
5. Select a source for a text alternative from the dropdown menu. The default options are “Title” and “Description”. Learn more about adding custom fields
6. Navigate to Media Clips or Projects
7. Open the relevant item that requires a text alternative
8. Fill or edit the metadata field that is selected as a text alternative to ensure it is suitable for users using a screen reader.

Viewers using a screen reader will now be able to hear the selected metadata of the embedded content when the HTML element of the player is highlighted.

4.0 Interactive Transcript

Interactive transcripts use .srt files to provide a written rendering of spoken phrases and a textual description of sounds.

Instead of displaying each phrase in the player (as with subtitles), interactive transcripts display the entire text in a separate element on the webpage. As sounds/phrases occur in the video, the accompanying text is highlighted in the transcript.

Users are also able to select specific phrases in the interactive transcript to immediately access that part of the video.

A live example can be found here.

To add interactive transcripts to your video content, please contact our support team.

5.0 Adaptable Playback rate

Allow viewers to adjust the playback rate so that they can control the pace of the video or audio.

1. Navigate to Playouts
2. Open the relevant playout
3. Browse to the tab “Control bar”
4. Scroll down to “Buttons” and tick the box next to “Playback quality selector”.

6.0 Keyboard controllable player

Allow viewers to control all functionalities within the player by using a keyboard. This feature is set to default. To disable this feature follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Playouts
2. Open the relevant playout
3. Browse to the tab “Behaviour”
4. Scroll down to “keyboard” and tick the box next to “Disable keyboard controls”.