ACCESS - Accessible Technology Initiative

Image: Photos of the SF State campus and students using a headset, a braille keyboard and a blind cane

Using Multimedia

Many websites nowadays are using multimedia elements to provide information. Multimedia often makes a website more interesting, fun and attractive to the user. However, multimedia elements might be a barrier for some users with disabilities.

Video

Problems

  • The user is unable to hear the audio
  • The user is unable to see the content of the video
  • The user is unable to operate the video player controls

Solutions

 

How To Embed Video in Your Website?

If you are embedding a player in your Website and want to work for different browser platforms, you need to create a simple html workaround in order to make your website’s XHTML conform.

Learn how to create a standard conforming solution for embedding video in your website.

Audio

Problem

The user is unable to hear the audio.

Solutions

  • For audio that contains spoken words, provide a audio transcript. Learn how to create transcripts
  • For audio that contains only other sounds, such as music or sound effects, provide a descriptive phrase:
    Either you have an image where you can attach the alt text.
    Example: <A HREF=“access.wav”> <IMG SRC=“audio.gif” ALT=“Sound file: SF State for accessibility. ”>Listen to a message from the president. </A>
    Or you put the description in the text close to the audio file.
  • For a very short audio file, you can also use the image solution or descriptive text close to the audio file. More information on the image solution for audio files
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