{"id":153,"date":"2016-10-12T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/chapter\/multimedia\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:37:35","slug":"multimedia","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/chapter\/multimedia\/","title":{"raw":"Multimedia","rendered":"Multimedia"},"content":{"raw":"In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible multimedia content, including videos, <span style=\"color: #000000;\">audio, and animations, slideshows.<\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">\r\n<\/span>\r\n<h2>Before You Begin<\/h2>\r\n<h3>What Type of Multimedia Are You Including?<\/h3>\r\nBefore you can determine what you need to do to make media materials accessible, you need to understand what is required for different types of multimedia. Consider the following questions:\r\n\r\n1. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>audio narration <\/strong>or<strong> instruction<\/strong>? If so, you should:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Provide a complete <a title=\"Transcript of all speech content and relevant non-speech content\" href=\"#transcripts\">transcript<\/a>\u00a0of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n2. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>audio that is synchronized with a video presentation? <\/strong>If so, you should:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Provide <a title=\"Captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content\" href=\"#captions\">captions <\/a>of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n3. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>contextual visuals<\/strong> (e.g., charts, graphs) that are not addressed in the spoken content? If so, you should:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Provide <a title=\"Audio Descriptions of relevant visual materials\" href=\"#AudioDesc\">audio descriptions<\/a> of relevant visual materials in the resource.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2>What Do You Need To Do?<\/h2>\r\n<h3><a id=\"transcripts\"><\/a>Transcripts<\/h3>\r\nConsider what your students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding what was being said. A text transcript provides students with the equivalent information of the audio content (W3C, 2008).\r\n\r\nAs you work on developing your text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong>Speaker\u2019s name<\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>All speech content:\u00a0<\/strong> If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201c[A &amp; B chatted while slides were loading].\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Relevant descriptions about the speech:<\/strong> Descriptions that convey emotions, mood, etc.\u00a0are usually provided in brackets.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t touch that! [shouted].\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio: <\/strong>These are usually provided in brackets.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201c[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].\u201d\u00a0Background noise that isn\u2019t relevant can be left out.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Headings and sub-headings:<\/strong> Where they will make the transcript more usable or easy to navigate,\u00a0 headings and sub-headings can be helpful aids, especially when the transcript is long. When including these, put them in brackets to show that they were not part of the original audio. For example: [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n<h4>Transcripts and third-party videos<\/h4>\r\nIf you are not producing your own video resource but are planning to include video materials from a third-party source (e.g., YouTube), be aware that not all third-party sources include transcripts. If you select a video resource that does not already have a transcript, you will need to produce one yourself.*\r\n\r\n*<strong>Copyright note<\/strong>: Producing your own transcript for a third-party video could infringe on copyright, depending on how the video has been licensed. Before you proceed with producing a transcript for media materials you did not create yourself, you should verify if it is under a Creative Commons license that allows for the creation of derivative works (so, avoid any with a No Derivatives clause) or contact the copyright holder of that material to obtain permission to do so.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>Video Transcript Example<a id=\"rettranscriptexample\"><\/a><\/h2>\r\nhttps:\/\/streaming.macewan.ca\/media\/What+are+OER\/1_8ad7uycv\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/j7k2rTBYj_w?si=Vp8pIWURDJNw0KWb\">What are OER?<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@algonquincollegelibrary5813\">Algonquin College Library<\/a> is licensed under <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY 4.0<\/a>. [Video transcript - see <a href=\"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/back-matter\/appendix-a-transcripts-and-long-description-examples\/#video_example\">Appendix A<\/a>]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n\r\nFor assistance on linking to transcripts from multimedia in an appendix in Pressbooks, email <a href=\"mailto:digitalscholarship@macewan.ca\">digitalscholarship@macewan.ca<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h3><a id=\"captions\"><\/a>Captions<\/h3>\r\nCaptions are the text that is synchronized with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what's happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.\r\n\r\nThe work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource\u00a0can be re-purposed to provide the captions. Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong>All speech content:\u00a0<\/strong> If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the captions. For example<em>:<\/em> \u201c[A &amp; B chatted while slides were loading].\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio:\u00a0<\/strong>These are usually provided in brackets. For example<em>:<\/em> \u201c[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor]\u201d; \u201c[background music by XXX plays].\u201d Background noise that isn\u2019t relevant can be left out.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<h3><a id=\"AudioDesc\"><\/a>Audio Descriptions<\/h3>\r\nConsider what your students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or a map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone (W3C, 2008).\r\n\r\nWhen describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines.\r\n\r\n1. When contextual visual content on the screen is not described in the audio itself, you will need to provide an audio description that is an objective description of the visual element.\r\n\r\n2.\u00a0 Whenever possible, avoid creating the need for audio descriptions in the first place by being proactive at the time of recording. If you pay\u00a0attention to contextual visuals during the recording of the media piece, you may find opportunities to convey the visual content within the spoken material itself; you will not need to provide audio descriptions of the visual content after the fact.\r\n<h4>Example:<\/h4>\r\nYou are recording a video or presentation that includes a chart that tracks coal production in British Columbia, and as part of the presentation you want to focus attention on specific data in the chart. The narrator or presenter might point to sections on the chart and say:\r\n<blockquote style=\"margin-right: 0px;\">\r\n<div>\"<em>As you can see, metallurgical coal projection increased by 3 million tonnes over these two years.<\/em>\"<\/div>\r\n<div><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nIn this case, audio descriptions would be necessary to provide the missing context to students with visual disabilities; these students cannot see the data on the chart that tells visual learners what the production figures are and for what dates. However, if the narrator or presenter instead says:\r\n<blockquote style=\"margin-right: 0px;\">\r\n<div>\"<em>This chart illustrates that metallurgical coal production in B.C. increased from 23 million tonnes in 1999 to 26 million tonnes in 2001,\"<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nthe visual content is conveyed through the audio and no audio description will be necessary.\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">For more information on captioning and additional resources for how to caption your multimedia content, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/WAI\/perspective-videos\/captions\/\">Web Accessibility Initiative's Video Captions webpage<\/a>.<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<h3>References<\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"hanging-indent\">W3C. (2008). <em>Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0<\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20\">http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20<\/a><\/p>","rendered":"<p>In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible multimedia content, including videos, <span style=\"color: #000000;\">audio, and animations, slideshows.<\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Before You Begin<\/h2>\n<h3>What Type of Multimedia Are You Including?<\/h3>\n<p>Before you can determine what you need to do to make media materials accessible, you need to understand what is required for different types of multimedia. Consider the following questions:<\/p>\n<p>1. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>audio narration <\/strong>or<strong> instruction<\/strong>? If so, you should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide a complete <a title=\"Transcript of all speech content and relevant non-speech content\" href=\"#transcripts\">transcript<\/a>\u00a0of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>audio that is synchronized with a video presentation? <\/strong>If so, you should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide <a title=\"Captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content\" href=\"#captions\">captions <\/a>of all speech content and relevant non-speech content in the resource.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. Does your multimedia resource include <strong>contextual visuals<\/strong> (e.g., charts, graphs) that are not addressed in the spoken content? If so, you should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide <a title=\"Audio Descriptions of relevant visual materials\" href=\"#AudioDesc\">audio descriptions<\/a> of relevant visual materials in the resource.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Do You Need To Do?<\/h2>\n<h3><a id=\"transcripts\"><\/a>Transcripts<\/h3>\n<p>Consider what your students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding what was being said. A text transcript provides students with the equivalent information of the audio content (W3C, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>As you work on developing your text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Speaker\u2019s name<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>All speech content:\u00a0<\/strong> If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201c[A &amp; B chatted while slides were loading].\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Relevant descriptions about the speech:<\/strong> Descriptions that convey emotions, mood, etc.\u00a0are usually provided in brackets.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t touch that! [shouted].\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio: <\/strong>These are usually provided in brackets.\u00a0For example:\u00a0\u201c[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].\u201d\u00a0Background noise that isn\u2019t relevant can be left out.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Headings and sub-headings:<\/strong> Where they will make the transcript more usable or easy to navigate,\u00a0 headings and sub-headings can be helpful aids, especially when the transcript is long. When including these, put them in brackets to show that they were not part of the original audio. For example: [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<h4>Transcripts and third-party videos<\/h4>\n<p>If you are not producing your own video resource but are planning to include video materials from a third-party source (e.g., YouTube), be aware that not all third-party sources include transcripts. If you select a video resource that does not already have a transcript, you will need to produce one yourself.*<\/p>\n<p>*<strong>Copyright note<\/strong>: Producing your own transcript for a third-party video could infringe on copyright, depending on how the video has been licensed. Before you proceed with producing a transcript for media materials you did not create yourself, you should verify if it is under a Creative Commons license that allows for the creation of derivative works (so, avoid any with a No Derivatives clause) or contact the copyright holder of that material to obtain permission to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Video Transcript Example<a id=\"rettranscriptexample\"><\/a><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"kaltura_player\" title=\"What are OER\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnapisec.kaltura.com\/p\/2141712\/sp\/214171200\/embedIframeJs\/uiconf_id\/35075851\/partner_id\/2141712?iframeembed=true&#38;playerId=kaltura_player&#38;entry_id=1_8ad7uycv&#38;flashvars[streamerType]=auto&#38;flashvars[localizationCode]=en&#38;flashvars[sideBarContainer.plugin]=true&#38;flashvars[sideBarContainer.position]=left&#38;flashvars[sideBarContainer.clickToClose]=true&#38;flashvars[chapters.plugin]=true&#38;flashvars[chapters.layout]=vertical&#38;flashvars[chapters.thumbnailRotator]=false&#38;flashvars[streamSelector.plugin]=true&#38;flashvars[EmbedPlayer.SpinnerTarget]=videoHolder&#38;flashvars[dualScreen.plugin]=true&#38;flashvars[hotspots.plugin]=1&#38;flashvars[Kaltura.addCrossoriginToIframe]=true&#38;wid=1_yp43dqf2\" width=\"608\" height=\"402\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" sandbox=\"allow-downloads allow-forms allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-pointer-lock allow-popups allow-modals allow-orientation-lock allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-presentation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/j7k2rTBYj_w?si=Vp8pIWURDJNw0KWb\">What are OER?<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@algonquincollegelibrary5813\">Algonquin College Library<\/a> is licensed under <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY 4.0<\/a>. [Video transcript &#8211; see <a href=\"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/back-matter\/appendix-a-transcripts-and-long-description-examples\/#video_example\">Appendix A<\/a>]<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<p>For assistance on linking to transcripts from multimedia in an appendix in Pressbooks, email <a href=\"mailto:digitalscholarship@macewan.ca\">digitalscholarship@macewan.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><a id=\"captions\"><\/a>Captions<\/h3>\n<p>Captions are the text that is synchronized with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what&#8217;s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>The work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource\u00a0can be re-purposed to provide the captions. Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>All speech content:\u00a0<\/strong> If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the captions. For example<em>:<\/em> \u201c[A &amp; B chatted while slides were loading].\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio:\u00a0<\/strong>These are usually provided in brackets. For example<em>:<\/em> \u201c[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor]\u201d; \u201c[background music by XXX plays].\u201d Background noise that isn\u2019t relevant can be left out.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><a id=\"AudioDesc\"><\/a>Audio Descriptions<\/h3>\n<p>Consider what your students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or a map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone (W3C, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>When describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>1. When contextual visual content on the screen is not described in the audio itself, you will need to provide an audio description that is an objective description of the visual element.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0 Whenever possible, avoid creating the need for audio descriptions in the first place by being proactive at the time of recording. If you pay\u00a0attention to contextual visuals during the recording of the media piece, you may find opportunities to convey the visual content within the spoken material itself; you will not need to provide audio descriptions of the visual content after the fact.<\/p>\n<h4>Example:<\/h4>\n<p>You are recording a video or presentation that includes a chart that tracks coal production in British Columbia, and as part of the presentation you want to focus attention on specific data in the chart. The narrator or presenter might point to sections on the chart and say:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"margin-right: 0px;\">\n<div>&#8220;<em>As you can see, metallurgical coal projection increased by 3 million tonnes over these two years.<\/em>&#8220;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In this case, audio descriptions would be necessary to provide the missing context to students with visual disabilities; these students cannot see the data on the chart that tells visual learners what the production figures are and for what dates. However, if the narrator or presenter instead says:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"margin-right: 0px;\">\n<div>&#8220;<em>This chart illustrates that metallurgical coal production in B.C. increased from 23 million tonnes in 1999 to 26 million tonnes in 2001,&#8221;<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>the visual content is conveyed through the audio and no audio description will be necessary.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">For more information on captioning and additional resources for how to caption your multimedia content, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/WAI\/perspective-videos\/captions\/\">Web Accessibility Initiative&#8217;s Video Captions webpage<\/a>.<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<p class=\"hanging-indent\">W3C. (2008). <em>Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0<\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20\">http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG20<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"Multi-media","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-153","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":137,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/153\/revisions\/204"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/137"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/153\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}