Testing videos

What to check when testing video accessibility.

Checking captions

Check the captions by listening to the video while reading the captions, making sure that the words and all meaningful sounds are correctly captured as and when they occur in the video.

Checking the descriptive transcript

Check that the descriptive transcript accurately describes all meaningful sounds and spoken words, as well as all visually communicated information in the video. The idea is that someone could understand all the information in the video without having to watch it.

Checking the audio description

If the video requires an audio desription, check that it accurately describes and includes all meaningful visual information in the video, including body language, actions, scene changes and on-screen text. The idea is that someone who cannot see the video can understand exactly what’s happening just by listening to the audio.

Checking the sign language translation

Make sure that the NZSL translation has been approved by Deaf Aotearoa.

Checking that controls exist to pause or stop the video

If you need to set your video to play automatically, check that:

• the video player has controls to pause or stop the video
• the controls to pause or stop the video work for people operating it using a mouse, a keyboard, or touch.

Checking that a title attribute is provided for a video embedded in an <iframe>

Where there’s an <iframe> that is loading a video, inspect the code and search for “<iframe>”. Check that the <iframe>has a proper title attribute that serves as a short, descriptive name for the video.