9.4 Video uses autogenerated German captions (H)

FIGURE 9.10: Video subtitle settings highlighted on the postgraduate page

FIGURE 9.11: English captions highlighted on the video on the postgraduate page

9.4.1 WCAG 1.2.2 (A) - Desktop

The ‘Architecture MArch at LJMU’ video on the postgraduate course page uses German auto-generated captions. In order to change this default setting, the user has to navigate to the ‘auto-translate’ setting to change the captions to English.

Despite this, the English captions do not match up to what the speaker is saying in the video. For example, the captions in the video read “to make the red devils” which should actually read “This has helped me feel relaxed to do my postgraduate study”

Captions are important for hearing impaired users who cannot hear the audio as well as users with cognitive and learning disabilities who need to hear and see the content to better understand it.

Furthermore, text transcripts have not been provided for video content. A text transcript helps people who have difficulty perceiving visual content. For blind users, assistive technology can read these aloud.

Users who have difficulty understanding the meaning of visual content can read this at their own pace and deaf users can read text.

9.4.2 Recommendation

If you intend to use video on your site, you must provide an alternative for time-based media that presents the equivalent information for the video content, including text transcript and audio description. Ensure subtitles in the right language are provided and that the captions that are displayed on screen match up with what is being announced in the video.

If you are using the automated caption tool on YouTube, make sure the text correlates to what is being said as the feature often struggles with regional accents.

More on adding subtitles and closed captions on YouTube Information on accessible captions

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